Sophia Michaels
On Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning, R. Kelly’s accusers and former staff members, as well as media critics, attorneys, and other key figures, dissect the many sex abuse allegations against him. R. Kelly is awaiting trial, which will begin in Apr. 2020, but he has denied all of the accusations against him.
On Night 1 of the three-night, five-episode docuseries, R. Kelly’s younger brother Carey Kelly and a former artist manager dropped bombshell claims about the infamous 2002 tape that allegedly showed R. Kelly in a sexual situation with an underage girl.
A former Jive Records artist manager said he saw the tape
Jimmy Maynes, a former artist manager at Jive Records, revealed on Surviving R. Kelly Part II that he had seen the alleged tape in question. What he saw, he said, had always haunted him.
“During the time of the explosive tape, I remember them playing 15 or 20 seconds,” Maynes said. “At that point, my bosses said, ‘We’ve seen enough.’ There are just some things I think you can’t unsee.”
Maynes claims he was told to head up to Chicago, where Kelly was from, and “buy up all the tapes” he could find. The former creative said he felt uneasy about the orders, but he was told his job and others’ jobs could be in jeopardy if he didn’t, claiming a higher-up told him, “Rob keeps the lights on around here.”
“I felt like I was black on the block,” he said of the illicit “project. “Like, what you got?”
R. Kelly allegedly claimed his brother was to blame
Maynes claimed on Surviving R. Kelly Part II that the artist had an interesting excuse for the infamous tape.
“I confronted Rob about it one day,” Maynes explained. He said Kelly told him, ‘Jimmy, you know, it wasn’t me. It was my brother.’”
“He said it was his twin brother,” Maynes continued, adding that he felt “manipulated” because Kelly was so convincing that it even made him doubt the truth of what he’d seen.
R. Kelly’s brother Bruce said the powers that be were more than willing to push that narrative. “The guy in the video looks like his younger brother as well,” he claimed they would hint.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56pVpqS0Bgs?start=1&feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]
Carey’s name hit the headlines and he reportedly refused a major offer
Kelly’s rumor about his younger brother hit the headlines, and the media ran with the story. At the time and now, Carey vehemently denies any involvement with or knowledge of the tape.
“I hadn’t been around Robert since 1996,” said Carey on the docuseries. “I hadn’t been on tour with him…I hadn’t seen Robert in years. And then my name end up getting brought up in the situation.”
R. Kelly’s brother added that he felt especially betrayed because his famous sibling never denied the false claims about him. “He never came forth and said, you know, what y’all hearing, it’s not true,” Carey said. Later, he admitted, “I know my mama turning over in her grave, because this is not how she meant it to be for us.”
In an especially shocking moment, Carey claimed his brother even asked him to take the fall, attempted to bribe him, and requested he claim it was him in the tape.
But Carey never considered him, saying he wasn’t about to “perjure [himself] in a court of law…for some stuff that didn’t have anything to do with me.”
“He was saying, ‘Man I’ll buy you a car, I’ll buy you a record deal, I’ll give you $50,000,’” claimed Carey. “I said, ‘Let me tell you something man. You ain’t got enough money for me to say that’s me because it ain’t worth me selling my soul.”
Written by: CheatSheet
