The Lonely, and Often Risky, Pursuit of R. Kelly: ‘Where Was Everybody Else?’

Why is this such a surprise to people? The majority of rap, that I've had the misfortune to hear, is very misogynistic and degrading towards women. Even the female rappers seem to buy into the sexual objectification of women. Weren't you people listening to the words???

My mother used to say"Nothing matters now but the Almighty dollar." I used to laugh at what I thought was a narrow point of view. Now I could cry about how naive I was.

Look at the situation with have with Bryan Singer now. And he was just hired to direct a multi million $ film. The allegations against Singer have been around for over a decade and he seems to continue his criminal behavior with impunity. Boycott Red Sonya. Thank you Jim DeRogatis - you are a hero! I hope Mr. Kelly's victims are able to heal and move on with their lives.

Perhaps the saddest, most important and unasked question here is: How many other true stories like this are there out there and why haven't they been told?

I am in awe of Mr. DeRogatis's doggedness and courage. Would that more of us had those qualities, especially when they are expended for others. But I'm a little puzzled ~ "Power to save?" Did he never notice the Height, depth an breadth of rock & roll's misogyny, white or black? I figured that out as a preteen in the 70s and turned to other forms of music to express emotion. I thank him, however, for showing a genuine humanity and masculinity that many in that world can't recognize over their screaming and exploitative personae.

"... we truly know that if most of Mr Kelly's victims were white, this story would have ended years ago with Mr. Kelly in jail." Weren't many of Michael Jackson's alleged victims white? And even today, with a new film out documenting the abuse, so many are saying, "Oh no, that can't be true."

Chicago’s infamous Blue Wall of Silence seems to have acquired a comparable Black Wall. If the victims had been well-off and white, Kelly would have been exposed years ago, is a complaint repeated many times in the documentary. But all of Michael Jackson’s victims were white, and his popularity remains undiminished. The children and young people abused by Catholic clergy in Boston were most of them black? I doubt it. Were they predominantly girls or young women. No. What about Larry Nassar's victims, were they living in economically disadvantaged communities? The victims of abuse don't have a race or a gender, nor do they come from a particular socio/economic group. Neither do their abusers. A social worker acquaintance told me years ago that the children who are most likely to be abused are the ones who are unprotected, i.e., their parents or guardians are naive or overly trusting or are themselves complicit. Though it may make us feel good about ourselves, mischaracterizing the silence around abuse as primarily a consequence of race, or gender, or economics does nothing to make either it or the abuse less common. It's our collective responsibility to protect children and young people, and retreating behind walls of denial to shout insults at each other won't help us do that.

Why did he, the music critic, take the 5th? I'll read it again, I skimmed a lot of it, but I did see any further discussion of that index card.

Yep. Women are low in the food chain, that's why they're not believed; black women are even lower. Thank you for the incredible work you do, Mr. DeRogatis. I'm reading your book when it's published and getting my book group to read it, too.

When Lance Armstrong and cyclists were doping, Irish journalist Paul Kimmage was leading the fight to oust the secrets. Kimmage was attacked relentlessly, accused as antagonizing professionals without cause, and even encountering a lawsuit from the cycling race organization (UCI) itself. It’s hazardous to mess with reputations that have institutionalized power. Truth prevails - but it bludgeons truth-tellers along the way.

It all comes down to the money. Record labels, agents, bookers, music venues, his hangers-on—they were all in it for the money and looked the other way. Even when R. Kelly went to trial for raping a 14-year old girl, he either paid off or threatened the relatives of the girl, so they refused to identify her on the tape R. Kelly himself made of the rape. He was then acquitted despite damning evidence. Once he realized he could essentially buy his way out of anything, why would he ever change his behavior? Frankly, Michael Jackson was a similar case. It seems that everybody around him—all the people being paid by or because of him—knew he was a pedophile. Parents even dropped their boys off at Neverland for “sleepovers”. But, again, it was the money that shielded him and they all looked the other way.

Abuse of black girls and young women won’t be addressed until society (all sectors) places a higher value on them than on the men abusing them. Unfortunately, that has yet to happen. Just two weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article criticizing federal prosecutions of child sex trafficking because they disproportionately affect black men. They didn’t suggest that innocent men were going to prison, but questioned why the priority wasn’t on crimes (forced labor or sex trafficking of adults) which black men are less likely to commit. The victims of child sex trafficking, the majority of whom are black, where ignored; since they still appear to be less important than the men victimizing them.

I am disturbed... not by the allegations against R Kelley, who’s form of behavior I do not imagine is rare in the music industry, but by the power of outlets like BuzzFeed and the team behind Kardashians to dictate the national narrative. Each of these for profit outlets benefit in this ‘expose.’ You realize that it isn’t R Kelley’s celebrity which enables those to be a big story, not the abuse of women, which is endemic in our society and all of humanity. Each of this reporter, BuzzFeed, Dream Hampton and the Kardashian producers are looking to further their careers and you generate profit on the back of R Kelley. He who is without sin may cast the first stone. Another black man singled out as a monster... there’s nothing new to that story.

This is not about black girls being devalued, it's about how fan culture makes human monsters of sports, movie and music 'stars'....and a huge structure of protection forms around them because they become multi million dollar providers. As long as we as people worship rather than appreciate others, we are the ones at fault. Many great teachers, doctors, police persons, gardeners, cooks, sewer maintenance people, etc. deserve our appreciation, respect and admiration moreso than these out of touch monsters we create that think they are gods. We need to get the stars and dollar signs out of our eyes and see what is really there.

What kind of man sexually preys on young girls and demands to be surrounded by what he deems to be a harem? A man who seriously doubts the veracity of his own masculinity and has a desperate need to prove it to himself over and over and over again. How totally pathetic.

“after decades of accusations of misconduct, including sex with underage girls” NYtimes, there is no such thing as an adult male having “sex” with an underage girl. That is called rape.

"If rock 'n' roll can save your life, is there a flip side?" Mr. DeRogatis asks; "Can it be destroyed by music?" Of course, the music that is doing the destroying here is surely not what's coming out of your speakers; "the music" in his question is the 'music industry'—which is an extremely powerful private institution that is truly global in scope. So, the more accurate question is: "If this extremely powerful private institution can save my life (i.e., provide me a livelihood), can this same extremely powerful private institution destroy my life?" And this question should be asked whenever a person goes into an extremely powerful private institution hoping to secure a comfortable livelihood—if not hoping to reap a substantial portion of its great wealth and power. But these private institutions also use their extreme power to shape how they're seen both by and though the mass media. And they do this shaping to maximize their wealth and power. (It's marketing, and it's nothing new.) Living and working within this reality, we can then use reason alone to tell us why Mr. DeRogatis found it necessary to shout, "Where was everybody else?"—where "everybody else" means journalists from The New York Times and other major media outlets. These journalists were doing then what they've always done: they were covering these powerful private institutions exactly as they must, or their livelihoods would have been destroyed, too. Or have we already forgotten "Spotlight"?

Jim, Keep up the great work! I've listened to Sound Opinions for close to 15 years and continue to be impressed by your passion and dedication. I'm so happy you brought this story to light and are getting the recognition you deserve.

Mr. DeRogatis, I've been listening to you since the days Sound Opinions aired on XRT, but I didn't know about that red cape you had hidden in your closet. Thank you for being the kind of super hero we need--a persistent journalist in search of truth and justice.

The documentary on R Kelly was not just illuminating, it was fascinating and sad. The way it forced me to be introspective and to question my own biases and past support for Kelly was the most surprising revelation. Kudos to the filmmakers. After watching, I muted everything from him. I'll never play his music again.

— Black women have had a steady drumbeat around R. Kelly, even when it wasn’t a huge story,” Ms. Solomon said. “But part of the reason why nobody has listened is about how black girls are devalued and the labor of black women journalists is devalued as well.” — No. It’s women who are devalued. All females, including girls, are devalued. This isn’t about race, but misogyny. Violence against females.

The majority of R.Kelly’s victims were young Black girls. Thus, the mainstream media and the public at large did not care about them. Sad. If the majority of even 1/10th of R.Kelly’s victims had been young White teenage or pre teenage girls, he would have been prosecuted and in placed under the jail.

We are free because of freedom of the press. Journalists often in obscurity just to get the truth. What is wrong with this country that we scorn real news and elevate fake reality stars? Jim Rogatis is an American hero and a clear example of why the Fourth Estate matters.

R. Kelly is rich and famous and male, his victims are nobodys and female and black. Why is anyone surprised.

“No one believes black girls” is a plaintive mantra and of course carries some legitimacy. But this story is about the power of money in our judicial system. The jury of public opinion in the R. Kelly case was as out to lunch as the juries for Robert Blake, Michael Jackson, and OJ Simpson. If you are rich in America you can get away with murder, sexual molestation, wifebeating, gay or straight rape, and a host of other offenses the average man or woman could not escape. Ultimately, however, it’s not about those voices that go unheard, but about those of us in the majority who just don’t want to listen to them. How many voices of what are now older white women (and “privileged”?) who were abused by our president have we ignored?

He was right about Hootie and the Blowfish also. To bad they censured him on that one too.

Good work Jim!

Makes one miss the beauty of that anonymous physical fax to The Chicago Sun-Times in 2000 sitting there and encouraging DeRogatis to begin his worthy 20-decade pursuit.

I wouldn’t know “R. Kelly” if I tripped over him at an awards show, or on a street corner. Somehow, I do not feel deprived by my lack of knowledge.

R. Kelly's sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of women has many lessons for us all. In this era of #metoo, we can only hope that with 28 million viewers watching, cultural change is going to come.

Not sure if its covered here, but as someone who’s followed Mr. DeRogatis for a little while now, he was encouraged to drop the story by his editors and the rest of the music reporting industry once Mr. Kelly had the charges against him dropped, despite the mysterious aspects of the trial which had the stink of witness tampering about them, which Mr. DeRogatis himself reported on. Thank you, sir, for not giving up on bringing this to light

Jim DeRogatis and the brave women who confided in him are the driving force behind R. Kelly finally starting to pay for his actions. I stopped listening to him many years ago because I was disturbed by his marriage to 14 year old Aaliyah and completely done with him after the sex tape. I have had arguments with some of his fans over the years because I could never understand how Black people could continue to support and defend him when he was preying on young Black girls. As a community we let his victims down by not ending this monster's career years ago. I remember an interview Mr. DeRogatis gave where he said that they only reason R. Kelly is still walking the street is because his victims were Black girls and there is no one considered less valuable in America than Black girls and women. That is the sad reality; if any of his victims were White he would have paid the full price for his crimes years ago. I hope this teaches us that we have to be better about holding people like this accountable no matter how much they make us dance and cheer.

While the exposure of any sexual predators and the bravery of whistleblowers like DeRogatis are admirable, I am wondering where the exposés are concerning rock musicians who were well known to have had sexual relationships with underage girls. Elvis met his wife when she was 14. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin had a relationship with a 13 year old girl. David Bowie deflowered a 14-year-old. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith obtained guardianship of a 16 year old so he could "live" with her. Ted Nugent literally has a 1981 song called 'Jailbait' where he says: "Well I don't care if you're just thirteen / You look too good to be true." For all my life, American culture has written this off as "just rockstars being rockstars". I think it's high time for an investigation into what really went on during those times.

Mr. DeRogatis has impressed me with his dedication to a story no one wanted to see in print. My sincere thanks, which I is nothing in comparison to the relief he brought to many young black women. If not a Pulitzer, a MacArthur Fellowship is in order.

A person like R. Kelly made such beautiful music could be so violent in his crimes is hard to believe.

The Pulitzer committee should seriously consider awarding Jim DeRogatis an award for investigative journalism retroactively.

DeRogatis told The Village Voice in 2013: "The saddest fact I've learned is: Nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody." "[If among Kelly’s victims there had been] one white girl in Winnetka ... the story would have been different." "I'm not saying I'm super reporter. I'm saying this was a huge story. Where was everybody else?" DeRogatis then took one more shot at Pitchfork Media and the (supposedly) feminist magazine called “Jezebel”—neither of which had any qualms against promoting Kelly. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2013/12/read_the_stomac.php

One needn't read the scads of scathing comments on this matter. Where is the indictment? Cosby the sacred cow is paying the price, who is this jerk to not?

Right On Jim!

This story need to be told, including a link to the video.

I remember reading the original articles when they came out. They described a multi-millionaire who, strangely, chose to frequent the "Rock And Roll McDonald's" in Chicago and who seemed seek out the most shy or awkward girls. It was damning in its specificity and I never understood why it seemed to be ignored by nearly everyone.

Fantastic work by both Jim and Dream.

pulitzers have been awarded for far less

Jim DeRogatis is a journalist's journalist and is deserving of the highest professional recognition. Unfortunately his 20-year struggle to get traction with his coverage of the reprehensible Kelly is another indictment of the East Coast media establishment. If his byline appeared in NYC or DC, Kelly would have received widespread exposure years ago. Instead, the same kind of myopia that gave us the failed 2016 election coverage caused Jim's efforts to be ignored. Unfortunately, like hopes for an MTA project to be completed on-time and on-budget, this reality is unlikely to change.

We all knew. As the Times noted, Kelly’s behavior was parodied on Chappelle’s Show and Boondocks, years ago. I watched that Chappelle skit, repeatedly, and laughed, repeatedly. Yet it didn’t prompt any change in me - I continued to put his music on at parties, relying on the lack of a criminal conviction as proof of innocence, or at least an excuse to wave aside the repeated allegations. A big thank you to these tireless advocates for truth and justice. This is a time to reconsider what else in my life I excuse and why.

Mr. DeRogatis is an exceptional journalist. Been reading his stuff for right on tow decades. Used to read him on The L in the Sun Times back when I lived in ChiTown and commuting to my first job. Command Performance!

Great work Jim! One person can indeed make a huge difference in this world.

When I started watching the Lifetime series I thought, "I'll sample this, but I don't think there's going to be enough to interest me for six hours." Boy was I wrong. It was riveting from beginning to end. So glad that Mr. DeRogatis has finally seen his dogged pursuit of R. Kelly get the attention it deserved years ago.