American television personality and rapper Benzino has discussed R Kelly after the musician was sentenced to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking in 2022.
The sentencing came after the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York formally charged and indicted Kelly in 2021. The original trial was held throughout the summer and fall of that year, with eleven witnesses accusing Kelly of either sexual and/or physical abuse. After two days of deliberation, the court returned a guilty verdict for all nine counts.
Officially, Kelly was charged with one count of racketeering and eight violations against the Mann Act. The racketeering count is in reference to an incident where Kelly bribed a state employee to create a fake identification card so that he could marry a 15-year-old after believing she had become pregnant. All the other counts are related to child sex abuse.
Since the sentencing, Kelly has remained behind bars and it looks unlikely he will leave the prison system before he’s 80.
Now, during an appearance on the We In Miami podcast, Benzino spoke about Kelly’s sentencing, which he believes to be unfair. He remarked: “Everybody deserves a second chance. The legal age is 16 years old, so does that make it right if a n*gga does it, yes or no?”
After being pulled up on his remarks, Benzino argued: “Alright, but it’s legal in America, so why the fuck is R. Kelly doing all this time? Because you know why? Because they’re 14 and 13 — two years younger — but you don’t think that the people who cleared it for 16 years old didn’t know that they’re fucking with 13s and 14s, too.”
He continued: “Like even to make [an] age that young to be the law, you already know they’re going under that. I’m not condoning n*ggas fucking with little girls — it’s sick, alright, it’s sick, it’s sick — but I don’t think R. Kelly should rot in jail for 30 years either.”
Watch Benzino on the We In Miami podcast below.
