Hip Hop artist Cassidy teamed up with currently incarcerated R&B singer R. Kelly for the 2003 hit single “Hotel.” The song dropped after the infamous video of Kelly having sex with an underage girl began circulating.
RealLyfe Productions recently sat down with Cassidy for an interview. The conversation included the Split Personality album creator discussing the sexual abuse allegations against R. Kelly that came to light a year before “Hotel” dropped.
“I probably wasn’t aware of it that time. It probably came to my attention later,” said Cassidy about the R. Kelly sex tape. “And I wasn’t sure about it. At that time it was weird.”
He added, “I was a superfan of R. Kelly, and this was my first album, my first single. So to be working with somebody of that magnitude, your first go-round… For me to be trying to argue that about some tape that I don’t even know… I wasn’t doing no research and digging deep at that time ’cause I ain’t the law.”
Chicago prosecutors secured a child pornography indictment against Robert Kelly in June 2002. After the alleged victim chose not to testify, a jury found Kelly not guilty on all the child pornography counts in June 2008.
Two Different Juries Convicted R. Kelly Of Sex-Related Crimes
Thirteen years later, a federal jury in Brooklyn found R. Kelly guilty of racketeering, sexual exploitation, forced labor, and other offenses. United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly sentenced him to thirty years in prison.
In addition, a federal jury in Chicago convicted R. Kelly of child pornography and exploitation charges in 2022. That sex crime conviction led to the self-described Pied Piper of R&B receiving a twenty-year prison sentence.
“I don’t got no problem with n##### being mad at R. Kelly. If that’s how y’all feel, if y’all feel like we he did actually makes you mad at heart, cool,” stated Cassidy. “But be mad at heart at anybody that’s in that bag.”
The Philadelphia-bred rapper added, “There’s a bunch a n#####, not even famous n##### like R. Kelly, just in my neighborhood alone… These industry n##### [are] worse. These n##### are crazy… So now I can do no records then.”
Cassidy refused to chastise his former collaborator for decades of child abuse and sexual misconduct against underage girls and young women. The “I’m a Hustla” hitmaker also stated, “I ain’t here to point the finger at R. Kelly and these n#####. That ain’t my job. I just respect the n####’s music.”
