Her father’s reputation is ruining her career
Joann Kelly, Buku Abi, the daughter of R. Kelly is having trouble booking gigs. She has even stated that she lost a record deal because of her “monster father”, which she called in an article on CBS News.
According to Buku Abi on Friday, August 26, in a radio interview, she was asked if her music career was flourishing amid the controversy surrounding her father. She admits there are times when she gets opportunities because of her name and there have been a “good amount” of turndowns.
She has been trying to break into the music business for over 10 years. She stated that she feels that she has been getting breakthroughs because of her father or not breaking through because of her father. She says explicitly that “I’ve been this close to a record deal and when they found out who I was it got swiped away…the paperwork was drawn up and everything. Flew out to L.A., and everything. [Somebody] found out who I was, and that was it.”
Unless you have been under a rock you know that R. Kelly was recently convicted on several accounts of sex crimes in New York City and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is also dealing with Federal charges in another federal trial over child pornography and obstruction of justice based in Chicago. Then on to yet more cases in Illinois and Minnesota.
She dropped a new single in February of this year “Pls Don’t.” It’s the latest song she’s released since the release of her 2020 EP Cheers to You, Shadow.