R. Kelly Says He’s Not Attracted to Underage Girls

R. Kelly is gearing up to release his 13th studio album, The Buffet, in December and the controversial singer sat down with New York Magazine for a feature piece titled "The R. Kelly Problem." In his 22-year career, Kelly has experienced the glory of chart-topping success and the pitfalls of ugly lawsuits and accusations that highlighted the singer's dark side as an alleged rapist and predator of underage girls.  Kelly has never been charged or gone to trial for statutory rape but there are numerous lawsuits against the singer on public record that involve underage girls. In 2001, Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of making child pornography but was acquitted. Despite the allegations, Kelly's career--especially in the 2000's--is easily one of the most successful in R&B history.

In the New York Magazine feature, writer David Marchese tags along with R. Kelly to the studio where he plays tracks from Buffet (Kelly claims to have written 462 songs for the album, "I have enough songs to put out six or seven albums a year if I wanted," he said) and to a show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center. When prompted about his sexual history, R. Kelly beats around the bush instead of giving Marchese straight answers. "I'm going to always have the gift along with the curse," he said. "I feel like I got a million people hating me, I've got maybe 8 million loving me. So I've got 9 million talking about me, and in a strange, magical way, it keeps me in the game."

Later, Marchese asked Kelly if he feels hounded by the press, to which he responded, "You never know who they gonna get next. I haven't heard anything negative about me in I don't know how damn long....If I take a Tylenol right now in your face, and you don't know what it is, you might start wondering, am I popping pills? Next I'll be hearing, 'I saw him popping pills, he on that shit, girl!.'"

Finally, Marchese asked R. Kelly point blank if he has sexual attraction to underage girls. "That's a rumor that comes from the Earth, like all rumors," the singer responded. "No. It's not true. I love women, period. If I wasn't a celebrity, people wouldn't be saying these things about me."

Marchese then asked R. Kelly about the rumors and allegations. "I understand the game," said Kelly. "Get as much dirt as you can on somebody, get it all together, and make it real juicy so we can sell some papers. I understand the job you guys have to do."