WhenDave ChappelleimpersonatedR. Kellyin a sketch on his show back in 2003, the embattled R&B singer wasn’t too happy about the homage.
The parody in questionis a reference to child pornography charges brought against R. Kelly. The central piece of evidence in the trial was an alleged videotape mailed to theChicago Sun-Timesin 2002. Prosecutors claimed it showed Kelly engaging in sexual acts, including the alleged urination, with a girl as young as 14. Kelly and the girl denied it was them depicted in the video. Kelly was not charged with assault, but rather with child pornography. After a month-long trial, in 2008, the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was acquitted of all 14 charges.
Chappelle’s take on the incident included lines such as “Your body, your body is a port-o-potty,” and “The only thing to make my life complete is when I turn your face into a toilet seat.”
“His dude bust in my room,” Chappelle said. “I don’t know if it was [Kelly’s] goons [but] they sure did like him.”
The footage later shows the comic recalling what R. Kelly said to him about “Piss on You.”
“He said, ‘How are you gonna do the video of me peeing on [girls] like that?’ … and I said, ‘Howyougonna do the video?’ ” Chappelle quipped, referencing the alleged tape from 2002.
George Pimentel/WireImage; Prince Williams/WireImage
Earlier this week, one of the co-creators ofChappelle’s Show, comedian Neal Brennan, told a similar story when he was a guest on themorning radio showThe Breakfast Club.
“R. Kelly wanted to fight Dave,” Brennan said Tuesday. “He literally stepped — his goons stepped to Dave in Chicago — and Dave’s goons intervened, and the goons negotiated.”
“I don’t think people understand what comedy is supposed to do,” Brennan explained. “We will observe things, we will make fun of things. Did people want us to round up a posse and go arrest R. Kelly? Like, what were we supposed to do?”
He continued: “We also did a white supremacist sketch. I don’t think we normalized white supremacy. Our job is to poke fun at things, and even if it’s bleak, we still poke fun at it. We were trying to humiliate a guy who’s know for peeing. It’s, like, insane.”
Lifetime’sSurviving R. Kellyaired from Jan. 3 through Jan. 5 and featured wide-ranging interviews with Kelly’sfamily members, former friends and colleagues — but most notably,women who claimthat for decades the hit-making singer and producer used his power and influence to sexually andphysically abuse womenand young girls.
Lawyers for R. Kelly have previously declined PEOPLE’s request for comment.
However, inan interview with the Associated Press this past Friday, Chicago-based attorney Steve Greenberg, who represents the singer, called the series “disgusting” and claimed that producers told “disgruntled” women incriminating things to say about Kelly off camera in an effort to incriminate the Grammy winner.
“Some producer went running around and solicited all these people, did a Jerry Springer-esque show and there is all this uproar,” Greenberg said in the taped interview.
He also claimed thatneither he nor Kelly have actually watched the full program.
He concluded: “He never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone.”
Producers for the program responded to Greenberg’s claims in a statement to PEOPLE, saying: “We are enormously proud of the series. The powerful stories from the women in the documentary speak for themselves. Their honesty and candor has resonated with millions of viewers.”
Greenberg denied PEOPLE’s request for further comment.
To date, no charges have been brought in Kelly’s part-time residence of Chicago. But theNew York Timesreported last week thatinvestigators from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Officein Georgia contacted Gerald A. Griggs, the lawyer for Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage. The parents claim that the singer is holding their daughter, Joycelyn Savage, against her will. Timothy and Jonjelyn were interviewed in the docuseries.
“We hope that it will turn into a fruitful investigation and it will result in the return of Joycelyn Savage to her family or, at the very least, that she start opening continuous conversations and interactions with her family like she had before she met Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly,” Griggs told PEOPLE on Wednesday.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has declined PEOPLE’s request to comment, as did the Atlanta and John’s Creek police departments.
TMZalso reported that the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has opened an investigation into the allegations made in the docu-series, adding that investigators reached out toAsante McGee, who spoke to PEOPLE about her experience escaping from Kelly’s residence.
If you or someone you know think they are being abused, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY) now for anonymous, confidential help, available 24/7.
source: people.com
