New R. Kelly Album, ‘I Admit,’ Is a Bootleg — Not an Official Release, Sony Rep Confirms

A new, official-appearing R. Kelly collection provocatively titled “I Admit” appeared on streaming services — including Spotify and Apple Music — on Friday, although reps for Sony Music, which owns the rights to much of the singer’s catalog, stressed to Variety that the album is an unofficial release (i.e. a bootleg), even though the copyright line on the album reads “Legacy Recordings,” which is Sony Music’s catalog division.

Sony’s rep confirmed that the release is not legitimate but did not immediately have further details; reps for Spotify and Apple Music did not immediately have comment.

R. Kelly is serving a 30-year prison sentence after being found guilty of multiple sexual-misconduct-related charges in New York last year; he is awaiting trial in Illinois and other jurisdictions.

The album’s title comes from a 19-minute song he released in 2019 in which, contrary to the title, he essentially denies the longstanding sexual-misconduct allegations against him. It is a collection of previously released and unreleased material primarily dating from the latter years of Kelly’s recording career, 2018 and 2019, although several of the unreleased tracks have been floating around on the internet for as long as 15 years. He continued to release music as the allegations against him mounted in 2018 and 2019, sometimes through his label at the time, RCA, and some on SoundCloud and other services.

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