R. Kelly Net Worth | TheRichest (2024)

Robert Sylvester Kelly, best known as R. Kelly, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is also an actor, scriptwriter, audiovisual director, and producer. While at his peak the value of his fortune may have been as high as $200 million, R. Kelly currently has a negative net worth of at least nearly $1.9 million, which is the amount he owes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States.

R. Kelly hassold over 75 million records worldwide, making him the most successful R&B male artist of the 1990s and one of the world's best-selling musicians. He is the 56th best-selling music artist in the United States with 32 million album sales, which implies earnings of around $30 million, and was considered the top R&B/Hip Hop artist from 1985-2010 by Billboard. In addition, R. Kelly directed several of his music videos and played the lead role in the series Trapped in the Closet, which he also wrote, directed, and produced.

Hisfinancial problems are started in the 1990s. R. Kelly has beenaccused of numerous cases of sexual abuse, often with underage girls. Over the years, he has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle dozens of lawsuits made by women who claimed were abused by him. R. Kelly currently faces a total of 22 federal counts, and because of that hehas beenincarcerated since July 2019.

R. Kelly reportedly lost a large portion of his net worth after divorcing Andrea Lee, his wife from 1996 to 2009, who filed a suit seeking $160,000 for unpaid child support (the couple has three children: Joann, Jaya, Robert Jr). In 2013, he lost his Chicago home after hadn't paid the mortgage since 2010. R. Kelly then was evicted from two Atlanta houses because he didn’t pay more than $30,000 in back rent and fees in 2018.

R. Kelly was born on January 8, 1967, in the south side of Chicago. He dropped out of high school to perform as a subway musician. Eventually, R. Kelly won a $100,000 prize on the television talent show,Big Break. His singing style has been described as church-trained, though his lyrics are highly explicit. Along with his band, Public Announcement, he published the album Born into the 90s in 1993. Shortly after that year, R. Kelly released his solo debut LP 12 Play, which has sold 6 million copies in the US as of August 2001 and established him as an R&B star. It was the first of 14 studio albums. At the same time, he started to produce records for others, including the debut album of the teenage pop singer Aaliyah and"I Believe I Can Fly" (1996), recorded for the Michael Jordan movie Space Jam.

In 1995, R. Kelly published a self-titled album that became his first to top the pop charts and has sold 5 million copies in the US as of June 1999. The double-disc R. followed in 1998, and it is his best-selling record with 8 million copies sold in the US until August 2003. He returned in 2000 with TP-2.com, which has sold 4 million copies in the US as of April 2002. In 2003, R. Kelly released Chocolate Factory, and it sold 2 million copies in the US in a few months. The next year, he published Happy People/U Saved Me, which sold 3 million copies in the US right after publication. R. Kelly then released TP.3 Reloaded (2005) and Double Up (2007), and the albums sold 1 million copies each in the US soon after appeared. After that, he published six more albums without much success.However, the North American tour to promote The Buffet had revenue of $9.6 million.

In 1994, at age 27, he married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah, who had lied on the wedding certificate about her age. The marriage was annulled in 1995. The following year, Tiffany Hawkins sued R. Kelly after a three-year relationship with him. She began being intimate with R. Kelly in 1991 when she was 15 and he 24. Hawkins requested $10 million for damages but accepted $250,000 when the case was settled in 1998.

In 2001, Tracy Sampson sued R. Kelly when she was 17 years old, and the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In April 2002, he was sued by Patrice Jones, who claimed he had impregnated her when she was underage and forced her to have an abortion. A month after that, Montina Woods also sued R. Kelly alleging that he filmed thembeing intimate without her knowledge. R. Kelly settled both cases out of court paying an unrevealed sum. In June 2002, he was indicted on 21 counts ofpossession of illegal underage media. It took six years for the case to come to trial, and R. Kelly was absolved of all charges. He then was charged with a further 12 counts of possessing illegal media of people underageand arrested, but later released.

In 2018, the #MuteRKelly campaign tried to achieved record label Sony’s RCA finished his contractual relationship with him. In that year, he was sued by a former partner who claimed he had intentionally infected her with an STI. The next year was broadcasted a documentary called Surviving R. R. Kelly that featured testimonies from his accusers and parents attempting to rescue daughters they hadn't seen for years. After the documentary was aired, R. Kelly was dropped by RCA and his planned shows canceled. He then was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and later with an additional 11 charges of sexual assault and abuse against a minor.

In July 2019, R. Kelly received two federal indictments. The allegations were aboutthe recruitment and transportation of underage girls over state lines forintimate purposes, including the production of illegal media of underaged kids. This led to his incarceration. No trial date is set.

Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, CBS News, RIAA, Billboard, BBC, NPR.org, Britannica, RIAA (2), All Music, RIAA (3), Pollstar.

This article was updated on April 7, 2021 by Andrés Taurian

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