R. Kelly Net Worth (Money & Salary) 2024 (2024)

R. Kelly Net Worth (Money & Salary)
July 31, 2024
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What is R. Kelly’s net worth?

R. Kelly is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. R Kelly’s net worth is negative $2 million. Easily in the tens of millions, perhaps as high as $100 million, was R. Kelly’s net worth at his peak. That fortune is gone. Nearly $1.9 million to the IRS alone, in addition to other creditors, was what Kelly revealed to a judge in April 2020, when making a case for being released from prison. For a more detailed breakdown of R. Kelly’s current financial problems and peak success, please scroll down a few paragraphs.

Extremely popular and successful in the 1990s, R. Kelly was. A hit if he sang it. The “the King of R&B” and “the Pied Piper of R&B,” nicknames earned him from his solo debut in 1993 until around 2001. “Bump n’ Grind,” “I Believe I Can Fly,” “Gotham City,” “If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time,” “I’m a Flirt,” and “Trapped in the Closet” are some of his biggest hits. To date, nearly 40 million albums in the United States and another 54 million worldwide, have been sold by him. In the Top 10, nearly all of his albums have charted, and five have reached #1.

24 Grammy nominations for his own performances or work he has produced for other artists, R. Kelly received during his career, and three of the awards, he’s won.

Equally as famous for his controversial personal life as he is for his musical achievements, unfortunately, R. Kelly is known. Ultimately led to him being convicted of sex trafficking, child pornography, and racketeering, a number of charges did. Resulted in a 31-year prison sentence, just one of his convictions. As of 2023, R. Kelly is incarcerateded at the FCI Butner Medium I prison complex.

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Robert Sylvester Kelly was born on the south side of Chicago on January 8, 1967. To perform as a subway musician, he dropped out of high school. A $100,000 prize on the television talent show Big Break was what he won, earning a big break. In 1991, Kelly signed with Jive Records and released the album “Born into the 90s” with his group Public Announcement in 1993.

Success

R. Kelly released his solo debut “12 Play” in November 1993. Because of the single “Bump n’ Grind,” the album was eventually certified six times platinum.

A career producing records for other artists also began for Kelly at the same time.

Introduced to his niece, a 12-year-old girl showing enormous vocal talents, R. Kelly was, in 1992, by music producer Barry Hankerson. That niece was Aaliyah. Entire debut album of Aaliyah, which went double platinum and produced a number of hit singles, R. Kelly produced and wrote.

R. Kelly wrote hit songs for other artists as follows:

“You Are Not Alone” – Michael Jackson
“Fortunate” – Maxwell
“Bump, Bump, Bump” -B2K
“Stimulate Me” – Destiny’s Child
“Life” – K-Ci and JoJo
“Gigolo” – Nick Cannon
“Outrageous” – Britney Spears
“All of the Above” – Beanie Siegel

R. Kelly (MATT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images)

Personal Life

15 years old at the time, Kelly secretly married Aaliyah in 1994. Reportedly began having a sexual relationship when she was 13 or 14 years old, the two did. At the time, R. Kelly would have been around 26 years old. In 1995, the marriage was annulled.

Before divorcing in 2009, he went on to marry dancer Andrea Lee in 1996, and the couple had three children.

A Lost Fortune

Had R. Kelly never experienced any legal problems, his net worth could have easily topped $50-100 million. Over the years, tens of millions of dollars to allegedly settle dozens of lawsuits made by women who claimed they were abused by the singer, Kelly has reportedly paid. A large portion of his net worth after divorcing Andrea Lee, his wife from from 1996-2009, the most lucrative years of his career, reportedly, Kelly lost. In 2012, it was revealed that he owed $4.8 million in unpaid taxes to the IRS. The amounts owed by year were reported as:

$1,472,366.77 for 2005
$710,520.51 for 2006
$376,180.11 for 2007
$1,122,694.90 for 2008
$173,815.18 for 2009
$992,495.24 for 2010

For a grand total of $4,848,072.71

Financial and Legal Problems

In July 2018, a 19-minute song on Spotify, R. Kelly released where he addressed many of his allegations. Broke and needs to tour “just to pay rent,” Kelly claimed to be on this song. At one time, $20 million owed the IRS and being forced to borrow several million dollars from his label to pay bills, he also admits. Compounded by the fact that he can’t tour in many countries overseas because of his controversies and his U.S. tours is his financial struggles

Protests often result in blockages. His songs are no longer included in public playlists on Spotify and other streaming platforms, although users can still individually stream his music. In January 2019, Chicago building inspectors were authorized to inspect R. Kelly’s rented recording studio due to unpermitted renovations. The studio was listed for sale at $4 million and the landlord had filed a lawsuit over unpaid rent totaling $167,000.

On January 14, RCA/Sony announced a halt on R. Kelly’s future music releases, stemming from the termination of his contract after the “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary release in 2019. Subsequently, he was arrested in late February 2019, with bail set at $1 million.

By 2023, Federal prosecutors sought to use R. Kelly’s music royalties to compensate two of his victims. Kelly’s real estate ventures included a Chicago mansion and a 4-acre lakefront property in Olympia Fields, among others. Between non-payment issues and foreclosure proceedings, Kelly faced challenges with his properties.

Kelly’s assets, including mansions and condos, were primarily rented, and he faced eviction from Atlanta homes in 2018 due to unpaid rent. The data presented spans 2023 and 2024, with forecasts extending to 2028.