R. Kelly has been convicted of a wide sundry of crimes against Black girls and women — but the disgraced R&B singer somehow thinks that JAY-Z, of all people, once wanted him dead.
Ronnie Bo, Kelly’s former cellmate, spoke to Hip Hop News Uncensored about the allegation on Friday (June 9). According to Bo, Kelly had no hard proof about the allegation, but he insisted to his cellmate that his former collaborator put a price on his head.
The pair famously joined forces in the early-mid ’00s for two albums — 2002’s The Best of Both Worlds and the 2004 follow-up Unfinished Business — and an ill-fated co-headlining tour.
Just weeks into the trek, things fell apart at New York City’s Madison Square Garden when R. Kelly left the stage over claims that men were pointing guns at him. On his way back to the stage, he was pepper-sprayed by Jigga’s close friend Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith
The “Ignition” singer was later dropped from the tour and filed a $75 million lawsuit against his tour mate for breach of contract, effectively ending their already-strained relationship.
“He felt like JAY-Z was kind of secure because, at the time, R. Kelly was technically bigger than him,” Bo said. “He felt like [during] one of the shows when they was in Madison Square Garden [in 2004] prior to that event, he said days before the event that he was getting death threats that he felt was coming from JAY-Z.”
He continued: “Like JAY-Z was trying to basically, I don’t know if this is going to sound outrageous, but he felt like JAY-Z was trying to get him killed for whatever reason.”
While Hov is happily enjoying his wife Beyoncé and daughter Blue Ivy dancing their hearts out onstage, R. Kelly’s legal woes have crossed over into the financial sector — and his record labels are about to be out a whole lot of money.
Court documents obtained by HipHopDX revealed that prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, filed a writ of continuing garnishment earlier this month, which is what’s filed by creditors (in this case, the government, acting on behalf of R. Kelly’s victims) against debtors (R. Kelly’s record labels) to collect money owed in a judgment.
“The outstanding balance on the aforesaid judgment is $504,289.73, including interest, as of June 1, 2023. Interest is continuing to accrue,” read the documents filed against Sony Music Entertainment.
The courts filed the writ of continuing garnishment against the disgraced R&B singer’s label because it is “in possession of property” belonging to the disgraced singer that can be used to pay down the debt, if not eliminate it altogether.
Back in March, Illinois Supreme Court ruled Heather Williams, one of Kelly’s sexual abuse victims, was entitled to access the disgraced singer’s label fund — which was reportedly valued at $1.5 million in 2020 — before Midwest Commercial Funding, a property manager that won its own separate $3.5 million ruling against Kelly over unpaid rent on a Chicago studio.
In 2020, Williams won a $4million judgement against Kelly after filing a civil lawsuit against him a year prior. She alleged that when she was 16, the “Ignition” hitmaker lured her to his studio on a promise she could be in a music video and then had sex with her multiple times as a minor.
It is not clear, however, whether R. Kelly’s royalty fund is still worth more than $1.5 million as of this writing.
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