15 Facts You Need To Know About R. Kelly's Secret Cult

Celebrities make the national news all the time, but it's very rare that a celebrity is at the center of a story about cults and assault. It's even rarer that a celebrity is surrounded by claims like these and still has a career, but that's what R. Kelly seems to be doing. For him, there really isn't such a thing as bad publicity. He's been plagued by rumors of misconduct for his entire career, but he still has fourteen shows coming up with a huge demand for tickets, despite the fact that more and more people are coming forward with stories about him possibly running a cult in his private home.

Ohh, R. Kelly. We loved you for the "Ignition Remix", "Bump n' Grind", "Same Girl", and of course, "I Believe I Can Fly". But now, there seems to be a lot we don't know about the R&B singer that is making us rethink our undivided love. In fact, what we're learning about the harrowing experiences of the girls sharing their stories is really disturbing. The 50-year-old American star has always been associated with some sketchy things involving younger women, but this is beyond the pale. Here are 15 things you need to know about R. Kelly's potential secret cult and the psyche of the man behind it.

15 R. Kelly Has Maintained A Big Presence In The Music Industry

If you're wondering who R. Kelly is, you might literally be living under a rock. R. Kelly is one of the biggest R&B acts in the world. Among his hits are "Ignition: Remix, " "Bump and Grind,"  the Trapped In The Closet saga, and "I Believe I Can Fly," two songs that just about everyone knows. He's won several Grammys and even held a Guinness World Record. He's also the first singer to also have played professional basketball. More notably, he's helped shape the careers of other singers, most notoriously the late Aaliyah, who he married illegally on August 31st, 1994. The marriage only ended because it was annulled at the behest of Aaliyah's family. Weirdly, both Kelly and Aaliyah totally denied that a romantic relationship even occurred, let alone an illegal marriage. His personal life is as tumultuous as his successful music career.

14 The Story Broke A Couple Of Weeks Ago

The story of R. Kelly possibly running a cult broke with a report made by Buzzfeed. Jim DeRogatis talked to three sets of parents about their missing daughters who are part of Kelly's entourage. They're not missing, but they are in a position where they can't contact their families or leave freely. According to one mom known as J., she didn't really think Kelly would hurt her daughter. As long as she was there to protect her, her daughter would be safe… right? “In the back of our minds, we were thinking [my daughter] could be around him if I was with her,” J. said. “It didn't really hit home. Even with the Aaliyah situation, now that I think about it, 'Age Ain't Nothing But a Number'… but you don't think about that. You grew up with the song, and you like the song.”

13 R. Kelly Is Using Bill Cosby's Lawyer

R. Kelly is fighting the accusations made against him, but before he chose his lawyer, he should have thought about the implications of that specific lawyer. Near the end of July, publications like XXL and Complex were reporting that Kelly has hired Monique Pressley, the lawyer who's represented Bill Cosby through his whole sordid history of sexual assault cases. Back in December 2015, she led a countersuit against seven of the 60+ women accusing him of assaulting them. She also talked about that case to the Huffington Post, telling Marc Lamont Hill that the women who were going after Cosby now should have reported their assault immediately. “Report, go to the hospital… do all of the things that assault counseling centers tell women to do immediately,” she said. Now that she's helping R. Kelly shake off these cult allegations, it appears she has her work cut out for her.

12 Three Members Of The Cult Came Forward

Three members of R. Kelly's inner circle/cult came forward to Buzzfeed, who sat them down to hear their stories. Their names are Cheryl Mack, Kitti Jones, and Asante McGee, and they were deeply involved with Kelly. Mack was his personal assistant for over a year, while Jones and McGee admitted to living with him and having a sexual relationship with him over five years before they left. According to the three, Kelly has women living in his Duluth, Georgia, “guest house” and his Chicago recording studio. Among them are a "den mother" who "trains" the girls to sexually please Kelly, two twenty-somethings who have been involved with Kelly for seven years, a 19-year-old model who has been photographed with Kelly publicly, which is a rarity for the girls, and an 18-year-old singer who is considered Kelly's “favorite - his number-one girl.”

11 J. And Tim, Parents Of One Girl, Talked To Buzzfeed

The beginning of the Buzzfeed piece tells the story of parents J. and Tim. Back in 2015, their then 19-year-old daughter was about to make her big break thanks to R. Kelly. “When we got to go backstage with R. Kelly, we stayed there for over two hours,” said J. “One-on-one with just me and my daughter and him. We went back to talk about the music. He listened to her CD. He was going to help her with her CD, and I was really impressed with him at first because I have always been an R. Kelly fan.” Now, they're desperate to get their daughter home. J, the mother, quit her job to basically become an amateur detective, sharing her findings with police departments in two states and the FBI. Unfortunately, her best efforts haven't gotten their daughter home, and the last time she saw her was on December 1st, 2016. “It was as if she was brainwashed. [She] looked like a prisoner - it was horrible,” she said. “I hugged her and hugged her. But she just kept saying she's in love and [Kelly] is the one who cares for her."

10 "A Master At Mind Control"

The R. Kelly that we see is not the R. Kelly that these women are allegedly getting. While we see a guy who sings and sells a lot of records, the women in his cult are being sold a dream and not getting it. According to Mack's sit down with Buzzfeed, the girls are under the impression that they're going to live the dream.The women in Kelly's entourage initially think “This is R. Kelly, I'm going to live a lavish lifestyle,” said Mack, who worked as Kelly's personal assistant for a year and a half starting in 2013. However, that's not the case. What actually happens is a lot more terrifying and controlling.“No. You have to ask for food. You have to ask to go use the bathroom.… [Kelly] is a master at mind control… He is a puppet master.” It's also been reported that he films his sexual activities with the girls and he shows those videos to his friends.

9 He Took Away Their Phones

As for Jones and McGee, two women who were a part of all this before they got out, they had sexual relationships with him for years before they left. However, proving that beyond the shadow of a doubt is going to be an uphill battle because R. Kelly essentially took their phone freedom away. According to them, Kelly controlled their use of their phones and social media while they were living with him. They weren't allowed to take pictures of or with Kelly, and they weren't allowed to take photos of the rooms where they were living. If the girls are living with him, he allegedly takes their phones away outright so they can't contact anyone he doesn't want them to. He actually gives them new phones that the girls are only allowed to use to contact him or people he permits them to contact.

8 The Girls Have To Dress In Jogging Suits

According to Mack, R. Kelly has a uniform for his girls: whenever they're with him, they have to dress in jogging suits. The reason why, according to Mack, is a bit ridiculous. “He doesn't want their figures to be exposed; he doesn't want them to look appealing.” She denoted that when other men are in the same room, Kelly “would make the girls turn around and face the wall in their jogging suits because he doesn't want them to be looked at by anyone else.” There are a ton of little details like this that are disturbing, but additionally, they're a bit surprising. It's hard to think of a major recording artist being so insecure that he has to go out of his way to make "his girls" seem less attractive, but that's allegedly what's happening here.

7 They Have To Call Him "Daddy"

In one of the weirdest and most disturbing of his rules, R. Kelly allegedly makes the women in his entourage call him "Daddy". He also calls the girls his babies, and they have to ask his permission to do anything. If they want to leave his Chicago recording studio or the guest house he has in Atlanta, they have to ask him every time. This is definitely one of the weirder details of the case, but it's not super surprising when you take his relationship with then 15-year-old Aaliyah into account. She was his protegee, and he wrote all the songs on her debut album, including the controversial "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number," which was also the title of the album. Considering the rest of the details of this alleged cult, this detail seems to fit in there well. R. Kelly's cult seems to cast him as this father figure that the girls have to look up to, and he uses his charisma and success to control them. “R. Kelly is the sweetest person you will ever want to meet,” McGee said. “But Robert is the devil.”

6 Rule-Breaking Results In Violence

R. Kelly allegedly has a ton of rules for his girls, and if they break any, they're punished physically and verbally. According to Jones, she was held against a tree and slapped outside of a Subway sandwich shop back in 2013 because she'd been friendly with the male cashier who'd made her sandwich. According to McGee, she was never hit and never saw him hit anyone, but used the word cult to describe the situation and said that Kelly manipulated her emotionally and sexually. She also described a disturbing situation where the aspiring Florida singer in his group (Kelly's "favorite") was punished for breaking a rule. “He left [the Florida woman] on the [tour] bus for, like, three days and she was not allowed to come out,” McGee said. “He said she didn't do her homework - that's why she was punished - which was very confusing because she had just graduated [high school] over the summer.”

5 The Law Really Can't Do Much

Unfortunately, the law can't do much in this case. It's why J., the first mother featured in the Buzzfeed piece, is running into so many roadblocks getting her daughter out of the situation with Kelly. One daughter of the three sets of parents who contributed to the piece sat down with TMZ to tell her own story, which directly contradicts what the parents said. “I just mainly want to say that I am in a happy place with my life,” Joycelyn Savage said in a video chat with the celebrity gossip site. “I'm not being brainwashed or anything like that. It just came to a point where it definitely has gotten out of hand. I just want everybody to know-my parents and everybody in the world-that I am totally fine. I'm happy where I'm at, and everything is okay with me.” Basically, the girls aren't missing and they want to be with Kelly, so even if heaven and earth are moved to get the girls out of there, there's nothing they can do if the girls want to stay there. The law lets everyone participate in whatever sexual relationships they want as long as they're consensual.

4 R. Kelly Has Been Sued For Physical Misconduct Before

This is not R. Kelly's first foray into the court of public opinion about his sexual proclivities. He has maintained his innocent when it comes to underage sex throughout his long career, and from what we know, no underage women are involved in the cult scenario. The age of consent is 17 in Illinois and 16 in Georgia, so that's not the issue here. However, he was tried and acquitted back in 2008 on 14 charges for taking illegal visuals of children in a case that took nearly seven years. The case centered around a videotape of Kelly getting intimate with a fourteen-year-old girl and excluded basically everything else. He's also settled numerous civil lawsuits out of court with girls who signed nondisclosure agreements when they accepted the terms. At this point, there are a ton of sources lending credence to the idea that R. Kelly is using his influence to manipulate young women out of professional relationships and into sexual ones.

3 R. Kelly's Reputation Hasn't Stopped Others From Working With Him

Despite the many controversies surrounding Kelly, many people are still lining up to work with him. Lady Gaga recorded the duet “Do What U Want” with Kelly back in 2013, Lil Wayne, Ty Dolla Sign, and Juicy J made cameos on Kelly's 2015 album The Buffet, and he performed on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last December. He recently starred in a digital campaign for Alexander Wang, too. He's also been in countless collaborations throughout his career. His concert sales seemed to be going well, but the beginning of August had him canceling four of his ten upcoming tour dates because of "low ticket sales."  On top of that, fans got mad about his half-empty concert in Virginia that had him play for just 45 minutes then leave. The tour's definitely still going, but it's not going nearly as well now that this story has broken.

2 He Uses Musical Success To Control The Girls

Kelly is known for grooming younger women in situations like this. Back in 1996, Kelly was sued by a woman named Tiffany “Tia” Hawkins, who was a regular high school student and an aspiring singer. According to Hawkins, she met Kelly when he went to visit her choir class. According to the lawsuit in which she sued him for $10 million, Hawkins and Kelly began having sex in 1991, when he was 24 and she was just fifteen. The relationship ended three years later when she turned 18. She was totally distraught and tried killing herself. “I desperately want my daughter back but I'm not [sure] what will [be] the repercussions if she doesn't come willingly,” Theresa, another mom who talked to Buzzfeed, said. “These girls think this man loves them. Matters of the heart are a touchy subject.” Angelo, Theresa's husband, got a call from their daughter inviting him to a concert after Kelly was asked to comment on the Buzzfeed story, and informed him that he'd paid for her breast enhancement surgery. “I am beyond furious,” Angelo said. “I said to her, 'How could you do this? What the hell were you thinking? What if you died on the operating table?' I don't even know what we can do anymore. I just know we got to get her home."

1 He Denies He's Leading A Cult

R. Kelly has been silent on this issue, which is probably the smart thing considering what he's accused of. The only thing he's said is that he denies that this is even a thing. Buzzfeed and other publications haven't been able to reach him. According to his lawyer, Linda Mensch, who responded to the situation via email, Kelly is being persecuted by people continuing to bring up his past. “We can only wonder why folks would persist in defaming a great artist who loves his fans, works 24/7 and takes care of all of the people in his life,” Mensch wrote. “He works hard to become the best person and artist he can be. It is interesting that stories and tales debunked many years ago turn up when his goal is to stop the violence; put down the guns; and embrace peace and love. I suppose that is the price of fame. Like all of us, Mr. Kelly deserves a personal life. Please respect that.” The cult situation is still being investigated and talked about, so Mensch and Kelly shouldn't expect the heat to die down anytime soon.