(AllHipHop News) This alleged R. Kelly “cult” story keeps adding layers.
According to TMZ, Joycelyn Savage is claiming her father, Timothy Savage, set up her initial meeting with Kelly.
The site reports:
We’re told the eventual plan — hatched by Dad, R. Kelly and others — was for Joycelyn to stay at Kelly’s house to develop as a singer under his tutelage. We’re told Timothy was the one who dropped her off at a friend’s house to be driven to Kelly’s.
Sources told TMZ Timothy knew Joycelyn would be staying with Kelly for an extended period, but the parents did not expect it to be for years.
The Buzzfeed article that broke the story does note that Joycelyn’s mother and father were open to their daughter working with Kelly to advance her music career.
“When we got to go backstage with R. Kelly, we stayed there over two hours,” said Joycelyn’s mother about meeting the legendary singer at a concert. “One-on-one with just me and my daughter and him. We went back to talk about the music. He listened to her CD. He was going to help her with her CD, and I was really impressed with him at first, because I have always been an R. Kelly fan.”
Joycelyn apparently enrolled for summer classes at Georgia Gwinnett College in June 2016, a year after meeting Kelly.
Buzzfeed also spoke with Joycelyn’s former college roommate.
The publication reports:
By the middle of the 2016 fall semester, [Joycelyn’s] appearance started to change: She began losing weight, and she cropped her long hair short, permed what was left, and dyed it blonde, said her parents and the former roommate. [The roomate] recalled her friend telling her that’s how Kelly liked her hair to look.
[Joycelyn] eventually began skipping all of her classes, and she did not show up to take her finals in mid-December. Her parents confirmed the school considers her a student who is “no longer in good standing.”