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Kelly then married one of his backup singers in 1996, but the allegations of sex with underage girls continued. Two women filed and settled civil suits claiming that Kelly slept with them while they were minors. Both were represented by Susan Loggans, who says she has two more clients with aborning civil complaints against Kelly. "Typically he meets girls at parties," says Loggans. "Usually they're South Side girls, and he invites them to his recording studio." One of Loggans' clients wanted to be a rap artist. "Kelly told her, 'I'll listen to you; maybe I'll use you as a backup singer.' Then he gets involved in a sexual relationship with them." Gerry Margolis, Kelly's entertainment lawyer, responds, "Loggans is reciting contentions as if they are facts. All of that is in dispute."
A Chicago police spokesman says its investigation is proceeding, but police have failed to identify the girl on the tape or even verify that the tape is authentic, despite the fact that the man in it peers directly into the camera several times and the scene takes place in a wood-paneled room that strongly resembles one in Kelly's house where the singer has posed for various magazine covers.
Hip-hop artists know that a flirtation with the wrong side of the law isn't always a bad career move, but Kelly's situation is different. Mainstream audiences who know him for I Believe I Can Fly are likely to stop looking his way for wholesome fare. The hip-hop crowd--an audience familiar with his raunchy side on tracks like Feelin' On Yo Booty--may find the tease that once buoyed those songs has a very different tone now.
--With reporting by David Thigpen/Chicago