In the early hours of Friday, December 9th, a brand new R. Kelly album seemed to be uploaded on streaming services, leading to several debates on social media. The singer is currently serving 30 years in prison stemming from a federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Kelly, 55 has appealed the charges and is trying to get the conviction overturned. Turns out the project was an unauthorized R. Kelly album, which was not uploaded by him, his team or his former label, Sony Recordings.
The lead single, “I Admit (I Did It)” was originally released back in 2019 as a 19 minute song on Soundcloud. The song is still available on YouTube, uploaded by other accounts. On the R. Kelly unauthorized released album which appeared on streaming services, the song was split into 3 and labeled, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
The R. Kelly unauthorized album I Admit featured 13 tracks, including some previously unreleased songs, namely, “Planet,” “Where’s Love When You Need It,” “Freaky Sensation,” and “Air.”
The album was pulled from streaming services early afternoon. Initially, four new songs were still available as singles on streaming services, but by 3pm EST the entire unauthorized R. Kelly album and all the new songs were completely removed from Apple, Spotify and Tidal. R. Kelly’s lawyer told The Hollywood Reporter the project was an unofficial release. “It’s an unauthorized release of music. It’s stolen music,” said attorney Jennifer Bonjean.
Sony Recordings and RCA dropped R. Kelly from the label just weeks after the Lifetime Documentary Surviving R. Kelly premiered back in January 2019. The label still owns most of his music however and his classic albums remain on streaming services.
Neither Sony nor, Legacy Recordings – the Sony label that handles the archives of Sony-owned labels, including Columbia, Epic and RCA Records, have taken responsibility for the release of this R. Kelly album.
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