Source: E. JASON WAMBSGANS / Getty
The R. Kelly story continues to get peculiar. His legal team says a big chunk of his master recordings were stolen.
As per Complex the Chicago, Illinois native has apparently take another huge loss in his career. TMZ reports that back in February a man named Keith Calbert, who is assumed to be one of the caretakers of the Kelly estate, filed a police report claiming hundreds of the disgraced crooner’s master recordings were stolen. According to the documentation the music was taken from a storage facility and is estimated to have a value of hundreds of millions of dollars. The man also says the originals in question were moved to California back in 2021 by two road managers. When asked to return them to Illinois they demanded $160,000 in cash.
Last week an album titled “I Admit It” was uploaded to digital streaming platforms only to be taken down shortly after. The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer’s lawyer has now confirmed that this short lived project came from those masters that were taken unlawfully. “It’s stolen music,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean told The Hollywood Reporter last week. “A police report was filed some time ago because his masters were stolen, but there’s not much of an appetite to investigate these things. People have had access to his intellectual property rights that they are attempting to profit off of, but unfortunately that does not include Mr. Kelly.”
When asked about how Kelly felt about the upload she made it clear he was not happy. “He kind of is like, ‘Yeah, this has been going on. I’m not surprised,’” Bonjean said of Kelly’s response to the unofficial release. “But, of course, it’s upsetting. It’s very upsetting to see your body of work out there in that way.”
Photo: E. JASON WAMBSGANS
