R. Kelly convicted of racketeering and sex-trafficking offenses

Why it matters

September 27, 2021. A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted R. Kelly of one count of racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act. The case had been brought after decades of credible allegations against Kelly involving the sexual abuse of underage girls, his 1994 marriage to Aaliyah (then 15), the 2000s Chicago child-pornography trial that had ended in acquittal, and most directly Lifetime's 2019 docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, executive-produced by dream hampton. The Surviving R. Kelly docuseries is the part that mattered. The grassroots Mute R. Kelly movement organized by Kenyette Tisha Barnes and Oronike Odeleye had been building public pressure since 2017. The 2019 docuseries pushed the cultural conversation past the point at which the music industry's accommodation of Kelly's pattern of behavior was sustainable. He was indicted in federal court in 2019 and again in 2020. The 2021 verdict closed three decades of public allegations with a federal conviction. He was sentenced to 30 years in June 2022 and is also serving a separate 20-year Chicago child-pornography sentence. The case is the most significant decades-long #MeToo prosecution in the music industry. You should remember what it took. You should know who did the work.