If he sure can fly now, the surest thing is that R. Kelly can only fly within the New York prison walls. And he has 30 years to himself inside the prison.
R. Kelly, the United States R&B singer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, got the term on Wednesday, for using his celebrity status to sexually abuse children and women.
Kelly, 55, was convicted last September in New York, of racketeering and sex trafficking crimes.
He had battled for years, those allegations and the judge on Wednesday, said he had an “indifference to human suffering”
Lawyers for the singer say he will appeal.
Ahead of his sentencing, a handful of women took the stand to confront Kelly.
A woman identified only as Angela called the singer a Pied Piper who “grew in wickedness” with every new victim, while others who were not named testified he had broken their spirits.
“I literally wished I would die because of how you made me feel,” said one.
Dressed in prison khakis and dark glasses, Kelly declined to make a statement of his own, and did not react as the verdict was handed down.
US District Judge Ann Donnelly said the celebrity had used sex as a weapon, forcing his victims to do unspeakable things and saddling them with incurable diseases.
“You taught them that love is enslavement and violence,” she said.
The court heard how Kelly – known for hit songs like I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition – used his influence to lure women and children into sexual abuse over two decades.