R. Kelly and his seemingly non-existent PR team decided to visit Huffington Post this afternoon to have Robert Kelly field some questions from the online world. If this sounds like a terrible idea, that's because it was, as it only lasted around 15 minutes and featured R. Kelly talking in circles as fans interrogated him about that time he sexually assaulted teenage girls. The piece started with Kelly talking about influence, and how he makes music that connects with his fans from all generations. He then begins to talk about how people should want to support his music, and how he blames his recent decline in sales because now "people can get on computer" and download it.Eventually a tweet ("one tweet of many tweets," according to the host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani) where someone said that although they wouldn't let R. Kelly babysit their daughter, they still bump his music. Instead of engaging in a debate of art vs. artist, or using this opportunity to apologize profusely, R. Kelly deflected the question entirely, saying "fuck em" to any fans like that. "People find it difficult to not think about the lawsuits and the allegations," said Modarressy-Tehrani. "What do you say to those people who find it conflicting?" "I don't hear it from anyone else," said Kelly, further burrowing his head in the sand. "But I would say fuck that. I'm a man that believes what I see, and anywhere I go—and I've been around the world multiple times—and I get nothing but love. Unless all of those people are tricking me and acting."As the host tried to steer the conversation back into a dialogue and not a monologue, Kelly became defensive, demanding hard statistic of people who don't like him. "People are conflicted?" Kelly pondered dubiously. "Can you count them?" Eventually R. Kelly decided that this interview was in fact a deposition ("Do you know what a deposition is?" he asked the host).Hopefully R. Kelly can go back to Chicago, play some basketball, and have the McRib he feels he deserves.
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Slava Pastuk lives in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter.