R Kelly Net Worth Estimate:
R Kelly net worth is currently estimated as being at about approximately negative $2 million dollars USD. At his height, R Kelly’s highly successful career in the hip hop and R&B music industry had his net worth estimated in potentially the $100 million range, but legal woes and unpaid back taxes have led to this extreme fall to a significantly less than zero net worth.
Who is R Kelly?
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R Kelly is the stage name of Robert Sylvester Kelly, a highly influential hip hop and R&B singer, song writer, and producer whose meteoric rise to fame has since been shattered by having been convicted and imprisoned for being a sex offender after over two decades of accusations of his having sexually abused underage people.
R Kelly’s most famous songs are “I Believe I Can Fly”, “I’m a Flirt”, “Bump N’ Grind”, “Gotham City”, “Your Body’s Callin’”, “The World’s Greatest”, “If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time”, and perhaps most significantly the groundbreaking serialised so called “hip hopera” called “Trapped in the Closet”.
“I Believe I Can Fly” alone nabbed R Kelly 3 Grammys. He also got a Grammy for writing the hit Michael Jackson single “You Are Not Alone”. R Kelly sold more than seventy five million albums globally.
R Kelly is the bestselling male R&B singer/songwriter of the 90s decade, and one of the bestselling musical artists in the world overall in history.
At the same time, however, R Kelly was facing numerous allegations of preying on young girls, the most notorious case being a thirteen year old. In 2008, he was on trial for twenty one counts of child porn, but got off at the time.
Things changed. In 2019, however, thanks to a Lifetime documentary series called Surviving R Kelly, which led to him losing his record contract with RC. Not long after, he was convicted of ten counts of sexual abuse and then another eleven of sexual assault in Chicago, and then had federal charges brought against him in New York.
R Kelly was ultimately found guilty of things such as sexual assault of a minor, racketeering, bribery, as well as human trafficking. He is currently in federal custody and has another federal trial schedule for late 2022.
R Kelly’s Career
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In 1989, R Kelly, Shawn Brooks, Vincent Walker, and Marc McWilliams formed a group called MGM, which stood for either Mentally Gifted Men or Musically Gifted Men. They made one single, called “Why You Wanna Play Me” before breaking up.
They had gotten on the national stage that year due to appearing on the Natalie Cole hosted television talent show Big Break, performing a song called “All My Love” that R Kelly eventually reworked into his solo song “She’s Got That Vibe”.
They won the episode, getting a grand prize worth one hundred thousand dollars.
Off the back of MGM, R Kelly signed a contract with Jive Records in 1992, releasing his first album in 1992. At the time, he fronted a group called R Kelly and Public Announcement. Their album was called Born Into the 90’s. Its hit singles were “Slow Dance (Hey Mr DJ)”, “Dedicated”, “Honey Love”, and “She’s Got That Vibe”.
By the end of the year, R Kelly and Public Announcement were touring, but they split up in early 1993. By the end of the year, R Kelly’s first genuinely solo album dropped.
It was called 12 Play and featured his very first #1 hit, which was called “Bump N’ Grind”, and broke records by staying in that slot on Billboard Magazine’s Hot R&B Singles for twelve weeks.
Other singles from the album included “Sex Me” and “Your Body’s Callin’”, and both sold extremely well, being certified Gold. The album itself was as well, and went platinum 6x.
In 1995, R Kelly got two Grammy noms for writing, composing, and production Michael Jackson’s song “You Are Not Alone”. Naturally, this was a huge early break for R Kelly net worth.
Later that year, his second album dropped, simply called R Kelly. It got high praise from critics for being more introspective and focusing on his vulnerability rather than the more overtly sexual vibes of his previous.
The eponymous album got to Billboard Magazine’s 200 chart’s top spot, making it his first album to achieve that. Its biggest singles were “Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)”, “I Can’t Sleep Baby (If I)”, and “You Remind Me of Something”. It went platinum four times. He toured fifty cities, along with Solo, Xscape, and LL Cool J.
Then, R Kelly put out his arguably most famous song, “I Believe I Can Fly”, which was a single for the hit film Space Jam’s soundtrack. It got to second place on the Hot 100. In 1998, R Kelly won 3 Grammys for it alone. This hugely boosted R Kelly net worth.
Speaking of Space Jam, a basketball film, in 1997, R Kelly actually signed up to play pro basketball as a member of the Atlantic City Seagulls, making him the first professional music artist to also play professional basketball.
In 1998, R Kelly wrote the music as well as produced Sparkle’s first album. It went platinum, at least in part due to R Kelly dueting on the song “Be Careful”.
Later that year, R Kelly dropped his fourth full length release, a double album called R that was noted for being extremely ambitious in its scope as well as the various genres it tackled from blues to rap to pop, and more.
In 1999, R Kelly both wrote as well as produced the entire soundtrack for the film Life, starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, which was released through the label that R Kelly ran, Rockland. It featured songs by Destiny’s Child, Mýa, Maxwell, and K-Ci & JoJo.
In 2000, R Kelly won an American Music Award for Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist, and garnered multiple Grammy nominations. By the end of the year, his 5th album, TP-2.com came out.
In 2001, R Kelly won a MOBO (or Music of Black Origin) Award for Outstanding Achievement. Meanwhile, Billboard called TP-2.com the ninety fourth best album of the decade, out of two hundred. That same year, his song “The World’s Greatest” for the film Ali starring Will Smith also dropped.
In 2002, R Kelly and Jay Z collaborated on an album called The Best of Both Worlds, which was considered a disappointment critically and financially. Early that year, R Kelly played the 2002 Winter Olympics’ closing ceremonies just as a huge scandal came out: a sex tape that seemed to depict R Kelly having sex with a girl who was underage.
In 2003, R Kelly had his sixth album out. Originally called Loveland, it was leaked online in 2002, which caused R Kelly to restructure it entirely and release it as Chocolate Factory. It sold very well,
debuting in first place on the 200. Its singles were “Ignition”, “Snake” and “Step in the Name of Love”. This of course helped R Kelly net worth.
In September of that year, R Kelly put out a greatest hits compilation called The R that also had 3 new songs, “Thoia Thoing” being the most famous.
In 2004, R Kelly put out a new double album called Happy People/U Saved Me, which started off in second place on the 200. Jay Z and R Kelly then put out their 2nd collaboration, Unfinished Business. It debuted in first place, but overall failed to sell well and again got poor reviews.
On the joint tour, there was a great deal of tension between R Kelly and Jay Z which erupted in R Kelly allegedly beating up the lighting director for focusing the spotlights on Jay Z more than him. Eventually, R Kelly left, and Jay Z completed the tour without him.
In 2005, R Kelly got some of his clout back by singing with Ashanti on Ja Rule’s “Wonderful”, which got to fifth place in the United States, first in the United Kingdom, and eventually went platinum. By July of that year, R Kelly put out TP.3 Reloaded, which also went to #1, his fifth in a row.
This album featured the initial 5 chapters of Trapped in the Closet, R Kelly’s famous “hip hopera”, later chapters of which would appear in later albums.
In 2006, R Kelly made an appearance on “I’m a Flirt” by Bow Wow. In 2007, he dropped his 8th album, Double Up, his 6th and final #1 on Billboard’s 200. The singles included “Same Girl” and “Rise Up”.
In 2008, R Kelly was acquitted for a case that alleged he’d produced child pornography, and although he meant to release an album, 12 Play: Fourth Quarter that summer, they delayed the album. By the middle of the year, the whole thing leaked online, so it was never officially released.
In mid 2009, R Kelly dropped a mixtape called The “Demo” Tape. Later that year, he performed at Johannesburg, South Africa’s Arise African Fashion Awards. Then he dropped a song called “Number One”. Then, in December, he released an album called Untitled. Singles include “Be My #2”, “Supaman High”, and “Echo”.
In 2010, R Kelly dropped his 10th album, which was called Love Letter, and had fifteen songs including his own version of “You Are Not Alone”. The song “When a Woman Loves” got a Grammy nom.
In 2012, R Kelly dropped an autobiography called Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, with a ghost writer, David Ritz, helping him on it.
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R Kelly Early Life
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R Kelly was born as Robert Sylvester Kelly in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital on the eighth of January in the year 1967. R Kelly has an older half-sister, an older half-brother, and a younger half-brother.
Joanne Kelly, R Kelly’s mom, was a teacher and Baptist who came from Arkansas. R Kelly’s dad’s identity is unknown. When he was growing up, R Kelly, his mom, and his half-siblings all lived in a housing project called the Ida B Wells Home, which was located in the Bronzeville area of Chicago.
When R Kelly was 5, Joanne married a man named Lucious. When he was 8, R Kelly started to sing in his church’s choir. That same year, R Kelly had a girlfriend called Lulu who tragically drowned in a creek. She inspired a great deal of his early music, according to him.
Between the ages of eight and fourteen, both R Kelly and his younger half-brother Carey were being sexually abused by their sister Theresa. Around the age of ten, an older male family friend also sexually abused R Kelly.
R Kelly spoke in his autobiography about how boys trying to steal his bicycle shot him when he was eleven years old, but according to someone who knew him at the time, he had actually been attempting to commit suicide at the time and had actually shot himself.
In 1980, R Kelly began going to Kenwood Academy, where Lena McLin, his music teacher, who was an inspiration to him and saw his talent and potential, got him to sign Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky” at a student talent show the school was throwing. R Kelly did so well, he won the night’s main prize.
As a result, R Kelly quit basketball and instead focused on music. He had a great deal of trouble in school, however, due to severe dyslexia that left him unable to read. After one year, R Kelly dropped out and started busking on the subway.
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R Kelly’s Personal Life and Family
Joanne Kelly, R Kelly’s mom, died in the year 1993 after a battle with cancer.
R Kelly has 3 kids with Andrea Kelly, who he married in the year 1996. In 2005, Andrea had a restraining order filed against him. Their divorce was finalized in 2009, ending an eleven year marriage.
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R Kelly’s Social Media Influence
Due to his sex offense convictions, legal woes, and imprisonment, R Kelly currently does not have any social media whatsoever. Therefore, unlike many other celebrities, this is not an avenue that can contribute to R Kelly net worth, which as mentioned before, is currently less than zero.
R Kelly does not currently have an official public verified Facebook account which presumably is the result of his legal woes, sex offense convictions, and imprisonment.
Due to this, it seems unlikely that this situation will change at any time in the near future, but if it does, we will be sure to update this page with that information. Our goal is to keep our readers informed of all of the latest information about R Kelly net worth, career, and life.
R Kelly does not currently have an official public verified Twitter account which presumably is the result of his legal woes, sex offense convictions, and imprisonment.
Due to this, it seems unlikely that this situation will change at any time in the near future, but if it does, we will be sure to update this page with that information. Our goal is to keep our readers informed of all of the latest information about R Kelly net worth, career, and life.
R Kelly does not currently have an official public verified Instagram account which presumably is the result of his legal woes, sex offense convictions, and imprisonment.
Due to this, it seems unlikely that this situation will change at any time in the near future, but if it does, we will be sure to update this page with that information. Our goal is to keep our readers informed of all of the latest information about R Kelly net worth, career, and life.
R Kelly does not currently have an official public verified LinkedIn account which presumably is the result of his legal woes, sex offense convictions, and imprisonment.
Due to this, it seems unlikely that this situation will change at any time in the near future, but if it does, we will be sure to update this page with that information. Our goal is to keep our readers informed of all of the latest information about R Kelly net worth, career, and life.
TikTok
R Kelly does not currently have an official public verified TikTok account which presumably is the result of his legal woes, sex offense convictions, and imprisonment.
Due to this, it seems unlikely that this situation will change at any time in the near future, but if it does, we will be sure to update this page with that information. Our goal is to keep our readers informed of all of the latest information about R Kelly net worth, career, and life.
R Kelly: Height, Weight
R Kelly’s height is not a matter currently available in the public record, however it is estimated to be 6 feet, 1 inch, which 185 in cm or 1.85 in m. R Kelly’s weight is not a matter available in the public record, however it is currently estimated as being 200 pounds or 91 kilos.
R Kelly’s hair color is black. R Kelly’s eye color is dark brown.
R Kelly Net Worth & Bio Summary
| Name | R Kelly |
| Real Name | Robert Sylvester Kelly |
| Age | 55 |
| Place of Birth | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Occupation | Rapper |
| Net Worth Estimate | -$2 Million |