A new album from disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly has been pulled from Apple Music and Spotify just hours after being released on the platforms.
The album drop came as a shock to many as Kelly is currently behind bars.
A rep with Sony Music told Variety that the album was released unofficially and that it’s basically a bootleg on the streamers, even though the copyright line on the album cites “Legacy Recordings.”
Sony owns the rights to much of Kelly’s catalog.
A rep for the label confirmed to the site that the release is not legitimate but didn’t elaborate further. Reps for Spotify and Apple Music have not issued any comments about the album.
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told Variety that the singer’s camp is not behind the release and that he “is having intellectual property stolen from him.”
The album featured 13 songs, which address the years of allegations against him. It includes titles like “I Found Love,” “Good Ole Days,” “Freaky Sensation,” and “I Know You Got a Man (I Don’t Care).”
In the title track “I Admit It (I Did It)” he confesses to many things he’s done in the past. He even appears to directly address the many accusations levied against him by countless women.
“They’re brainwashed, really? Kidnapped, really? Can’t eat, really? Real talk, that s*** sound silly,” the lyrics read.
Kelly put the 19-minute song on Soundcloud back in 2018, reported TMZ. However, this was the first time the track was released on the two major streaming services.
Currently, R. Kelly is serving a 30-year prison sentence at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. In June a New York jury convicted him on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
In September, he was found guilty of three counts of child pornography in Chicago’s federal court. He was acquitted on a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice stemming from a 2008 child pornography trial and a fourth pornography count.
In November, he filed two motions requesting a new trial or reversal of his child pornography and sex abuse convictions.
