R Kelly has tearfully denied the allegations of sexual abuse levied against him in an interview with CBS This Morning – his first since his arrest last month.
“I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me,” the rapper told CBS news reporter Gayle King, “I’m fighting for my life”.
R. Kelly’s looming court date with Chicago prosecution is just a couple of weeks away.
If convicted, he will face up to 70 years in prison for 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault.
The accusations come from four alleged victims, three of whom were underage.
Kelly is currently out on bail and pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The ongoing case follows from a 2002 trial which concerned a sex tape with an alleged minor, in which the rapper was charged with 21 counts of child pornography.
Kelly was found not guilty on all counts as the jury concluded that the girl in question’s age could not be proved.
Kelly told King that he believes the 2002 trial is being used to give credence to the most recent accusations: “They’re going back to the past and they’re trying to add all of this stuff now to that, to make all of the stuff that’s going on now feel real to people”.
King challenged Kelly, explaining that “the past is relevant with you with underage girls.”
Kelly hit back, citing the verdict of the 2002 trial: “Absolutely no it’s not … for one I beat my case. You can’t double jeopardy me like that. When you beat your case, you beat your case”.
The rapper then emotionally asked King: “How stupid would it be for R Kelly, with all I’ve been through to hold somebody? How stupid would I be to do that?”
Turning to the camera, his voice becoming louder, Kelly asked viewers to “use your common sense,
“Forget the blogs, forget how you feel about me. Hate me if you want to; love me if you want. But just use your common sense.”
“How stupid would it be for me with my crazy past and what I’ve been through [to say], ‘Oh right now, I just think I need to be a monster and hold girls against their will and chain them up in my basement?”
“Quit playing, quit playing,” he begged, tearing up, “this is not me.”
On Wednesday and Thursday, Kelly’s full interview will be aired in two parts on CBS This Morning.
