There have been several documentaries about the heinous crimes R. Kelly has committed throughout his decades-long music career. But those have (rightly) been from the perspective of his victims, not his family. That changes now.
Over the weekend, a trailer for the documentary, “R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey,” was released, and it teases some shocking revelations from his ex-wife, Andrea Kelly, and the three children they had together, Joanne, Jaah, and Robert Jr.
While his entire family is involved, the focus of the film is mostly on 26-year-old Joanne, who goes by Buku Abi.
In the trailer, she says, “For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person that he would do something to me. I really feel like that one millisecond completely just changed my whole life. Nobody wants to be the child of the father that is out here hurting women and children.”
Andrea also teases a secret that is sure to have viewers shocked, saying, “What he did to me, he did to me, but you didn’t have to do it to my kids.”
Watch the entire trailer below:
In the past, Abi has been open about her father’s crime-ridden past. In the “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary, she referred to the singer as a “monster” and called him a “terrible” dad.”
In a September 2019 interview with the Associated Press, she described the difficulty of being an up-an-coming artist who is the daughter of a disgraced singer like R. Kelly, calling it “a double-edged sword.”
“I definitely run across challenges — people wanting to work with me to spite him or people not wanting to work with me just because of who he is. I’ve definitely come across turmoil ... being judged for really no reason at all, just based off associations,’’ she said. “ I’ve been pushing through it. Me making the art, it saved my life so there’s nothing really that would be able to stop me.”
As an artist Abi is still trying to grow her fanbase. In 2020, she released her first full-length project with, “Cheers to You, Shadow.” In May, she released her first single in nearly two years with the track, “One Son”.
During an August 2022 interview with Ryan Cameron, shared how she began writing music at 13 years old and that despite her talent, it’s been difficult for her to attain mainstream fame, saying, “I’ve been this close to a record deal, and when they found out who I was, it got swiped away.”
It’ll be interesting to see if this documentary changes how the music industry perceives her.