R Kelly is an American singer, songwriter and record producer; a three time Grammy Award winning artist, R Kelly has sold more than thirty million albums. Robert Sylvester Kelly was born on January 8, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois. The son of a single mother, Kelly was raised in the Ida B. Wells Homes public housing project on the south side of Chicago. R Kelly was a street performer under the Chicago L until 1989, when he got his big break via appearing on the television talent show Big Break hosted by Natalie Cole; R Kelly won the show’s one hundred thousand dollar grand prize. Kelly’s first solo album, 12 Play, contained his first hit Bump N’ Grind, which was number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart for twelve weeks. R Kelly is considered by many to be one of the most successful R&B artists for the last thirty years but his life has often been marred by controversy. In 1997, R Kelly was accused of having an unlawful marriage to an under aged R&B singer known by the mononym Aailiyah.

In 2002, R Kelly was indicted on twenty one counts of child pornography; the charges were dropped due to lack of probable cause for the search warrants. Lifetime has recently released a six-part documentary series, Surviving R Kelly, which details the accusations of sexual abuse and misconduct against Kelly. Shortly after the release of the docu-series, which was seen by nearly two million people, R Kelly’s record label dropped him.