R. Kelly (Photo Credit: Splash News)
On Dec. 9, an album under R. Kelly’s name titled I Admit It was released on streaming services. Hours after the album was released, Sony Music said that the album appeared to be a bootleg version. The album was then pulled from Spotify and Apple Music.
R. Kelly’s team has recently contacted the police claiming that the R&B singer’s master recordings were stolen, and they think it has something to do with the release of the new album.
According to a police report obtained by “TMZ,” Kelly’s master recordings have been missing since February 2022. Police say a man named Keith Calbert called to report a theft, and that he oversees Kelly’s property that was being stored in a warehouse. Calbert also told police many of Kelly’s recordings were missing, some that were worth millions of dollars.
Police say that Calbert told them two roadies removed the masters from the warehouse nine months prior, and took them to California. Calbert says he advised one of the roadies to return the recordings, to which he responded that he needed to pay $160,000 to get them back.
Calbert showed the police 10 empty shelves that used to be full with 300 to 500 recordings. It’s unknown why Kelly’s team took so long to make a report, but they now believe the people that took the recordings uploaded the I Admit It album on Spotify and Apple Music.
