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Did R Kelly release album ‘I Admit It’ from prison? Internet says 'bootleg or not, still disgusting'

R Kelly is serving a 30-year prison sentence after being found guilty of numerous sexual-misconduct-related charges in New York last year

R Kelly recently released the year's biggest surprise album. From the same album, a song called 'I Admit It' addresses the numerous accusations made against the disgraced artist over the years. The song is an "unofficial release," meaning “a bootleg,” Sony Music representatives said in a statement to Variety on Friday, December 9. Despite the copyright line on the album reading "Legacy Recordings," which is Sony Music's catalog division, representatives for Sony Music, which owns the rights to much of the singer's catalog, made it clear that the album is an unofficial release and did not come from them.

On Friday, December 9 afternoon, the album was taken off from Apple Music and Spotify, "This content has been removed from the platform at the request of the distributor," a Spotify representative said to Variety.

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Kelly is serving a 30-year prison sentence after being found guilty of numerous sexual-misconduct-related charges in New York last year; he is also awaiting trial on related charges in Illinois and other jurisdictions. Kelly's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, tells Variety that the singer's camp is not behind the release either and that he "is having intellectual property stolen from him."

The title of the album is taken from a 19-minute song that Kelly published in July 2018 but in which, despite the title, he essentially refutes the long-standing allegations of sexual misconduct made against him. The album is a combination of previously released and unreleased songs largely coming from the latter years of Kelly's music career, however several of the unreleased tracks have been floating about on the internet for as long as 15 years. Despite the increasing number of charges against him in 2018 and 2019, he kept releasing songs, sometimes via RCA and other times via SoundCloud and other platforms.

According to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, Real Talk Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based record label with a long discography that includes albums by Bone Thugz N Harmony and early 2000s rappers like Chingy, Freeway, and Young Buck, released the album. However, it is unclear how or whether the company obtained the rights to the Kelly recordings or the rights to the name Legacy Recordings. 

Although this is just conjecture, it is plausible that some or all of the recordings may have violated Kelly's contract with his former label, Sony Music's RCA, which severed company with the singer in 2019. Kelly may have then sold or licensed those rights to Real Talk. The album was distributed by the Universal Music Group company Ingrooves. Variety is informed by a source that Ingrooves and Real Talk have ended their partnership.

People were quick to respond on social media, with one writing, "Bootleg recording or not it is his voice. Still disgusting." Another said, "What? Are they gonna decide to free him, too, or something?" A third chimed in, "If it is on streamings it’s not a bootleg." A fourth said, "He wouldn't have gone to prison if he was a democrat."

In the song 'I Admit It', Kelly raps that he "f***** a couple of fans" and criticizes his victims' accounts of being starved and imprisoned. “They’re brainwashed, really? Kidnapped, really? Can’t eat, really? Real talk, that s*** sound silly.” According to Kelly's victims, he used his influence and notoriety to intimidate and manipulate them before bringing them into a harem-like situation. Some said that Kelly and his colleagues pushed them to stay awake for days on end and prohibited them from using their phones, per reports by MNS. 

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.