R. Kelly Speaks on Child Porn, America Cringes

Seniors ready to veg after scoping out fresh meat yesterday tuned in to BET to see R. Kelly break the silence on his child porn trial for the first time since receiving a “not guilty” verdict and realized  it was really one of those times he should have considered shutting it. Plagued by a slew of child porn and statutory rape charges, as well as a media blitz regarding his brief marriage to a fifteen-year-old girl, R. Kelly has essentially functioned in damage control mode since 1991. Last night he failed miserably in these endeavors to minimize his association with sexual perversion, the pinnacle of the “Oh no he di’n’t!” coming when Kelly responded to the question of whether he liked teenage girls by saying, “How old are we talking?”

MTV reports:

When asked if he liked teenage girls, Kelly asked in response, "How old are we talking?" Touré responded, "Girls who are teenagers." Kelly then asked, "Nineteen? I have some 19-year-old fans. I don't like anybody illegal, if that's what you're talking about." (The subject of his annulled marriage to a 15-year-old Aaliyah did not come up,)

Touré countered that some of the singer's former employees (including an assistant and a publicist) and his brother Carey Kelly had raised "issues of concern" in this area. "Issues of concern?" Kelly asked. "What do you mean? Let me put it to you this way, man. People who don't work for me says that. The people who do work for me don't says that. The people who don't work for me were fired. ... Do not listen to the people who was fired. Don't even listen to the people who was hired. Listen to the facts."

But what about his own brother, who could hardly be considered just another disgruntled employee? "Doesn't matter," Kelly said. "I fired him too." Why? "I can't get into that," Kelly said. "But I fired him 1,000 times and I rehired him."

Kelly also claimed that he had been blackmailed, a claim he had made previously when a sex tape purporting to depict him and an underage girl was first made public, only now he said the blackmail attempts happened before, during and after the trial.

R. Kelly belongs with Josh Howard in PR rehab. Just keep him away from the end of the ward where Miley Cyrus in undergoing counseling for the Vanity Fair cover.