K. Michelle On Her Relationship With R. Kelly And The Importance Of Believing Women Who Stand Against Him
K. Michelle is currently doing a press tour for her latest album, Kimberly: The People I Used To Know. So, she decided to stop by The Real talk show and discuss everything, since she loves to be an open book for fans.
During her interview, the Tennessee native opened up about her relationship with mentor R. Kelly. When asked if the lyrics from her 2014 song "Build A Man" were true about the "I Believe I Can Fly" singer, she confirmed that R. Kelly was indeed controlling throughout their romantic relationship.
K. Michelle On The Allegations Against R. Kelly
She also noted that despite experiencing suppressing behavior from R. Kelly, she has conflicted feelings about the allegations against him.
"I see it from two different perspectives – I see it as, you know, this is my mentor, he taught me everything I know about recording, about how to write, the importance of just doing music," the Love and Hip Hop Atlanta alum shared.
"And you want to have loyalty for that, but at the same time, I was the girl who was saying something happened to me, and the world told me that it didn’t happen."
K. Michelle is referring to the time she revealed that she was abused by an ex-boyfriend/music executive on Love And Hip Hop Atlanta. The ex-partner she spoke about was Memphitz, who happened to be the husband of Toya Wright at the time. Many celebrities who were friends of Toya and Memphitz claimed K. Michelle was lying because she was mad the two were (at the time) happily married. Interestingly enough, K. Michelle never revealed the person's identity. Memphitz acknowledged K. Michelle's allegations in several interviews, exposing himself as the alleged abusive boyfriend.
The on-going he-said, she-said conflict that started in 2012 came to a head when Memphitz admitted to beating the vocalist during his defamation case against her. Toya later divorced him and blamed K. Michelle for their marriage not lasting.
Why You Should Listen To Women
"When I’m looking on the blogs, and I see girls telling their stories, and women all up under these comments like, ‘That didn’t happen. Oh she lyin.’ She-” It breaks my heart because I was once that girl, like somebody know the truth, nobody gonna take up for me? So it’s left me in a very, you know, funny place, people have asked, this is really the first place I’m speaking about it. I got out of the situation," she said about leaving R. Kelly, unscathed.
"So all I can say is to make sure you watch when you tell somebody a specific event didn’t happen to them. Because they could be really going through something. So I’m not here to say if those girls did, did he do that, whatever, all I know is that, you know, everything isn’t always what it seems, especially in the music business," she told the hosts.
As we previously reported, "Kitti Jones and Jerhonda Pace stepped forward to share that R. Kelly has an alleged sex cult where he grooms young women to be his “girlfriends” (sex slaves).In news reports, they revealed that they had to perform sexual acts on him or other women who were in the house.
The women also claimed he doesn’t allow his “girlfriends” to have contact with their family, friends, or other members in his camp, especially if they are males. The women both shared that the musician created a dress code for his women and if his strict rules were broken, the women would be beaten by Kelly or left to starve in one of the rooms of his mansions or music studio."
Watch The Real's entire interview with K. Michelle:
