Azriel Clary Addresses 2019 Interview Defending R Kelly

We really don’t need any more evidence that the Pied Predator—who we should have thrown away two and a half decades ago when he married a 15-year-old Aaliyah at the age of 27—is a despicable and manipulative monster whose recent conviction will hopefully leave him trapped in a prison cell for many more chapters than he was trapped in the closet for. 

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Unfortunately, the Pee Hive is real and R Kelly is still supported by his bunch of rabid Boondocks extras who get off on stretching themselves into hotep pretzels to justify their beliefs that, for decades, dozens of Black women and girls have all been telling the same lie about a perfectly innocent man.

And, while no amount of “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number” or “Seems Like You’re Ready” pedo-energy will convince them that Kelly has been telling them who he is all along, any inconsistencies in the stories of even one of his many victims are enough to convince them that it’s all a gigantic and implausibly elaborate conspiracy to, for no discernable reason whatsoever, bring down the King of R&B (Rape & Bribery).

Maybe that’s why Azriel Clary, one of Kelly’s victims who testified against him in court, felt the need to clarify a 2019 interview with CBS News, during which she and another one of his “girlfriends” at the time, Joycelyn Savage, defended their abuser by saying he wasn’t abusive at all.

In a recent interview with CBS Mornings host Gayle King, Clary revealed that when she gave her interview two years ago when she was 21 years old, Kelly, who was reportedly within earshot at the time, had coached her on what she should say, telling her to “be angry” and as convincing as possible (a thing you would never have to tell a person to do if all they had to do was tell the truth).

“For five years, since I was 17, I didn’t have any relationships with any other women except for the women that he had been intimate with. And so when I did that interview with you, I instantly regretted immediately how I reacted,” Clary said.

“I don’t know, something about just watching you be very casual and calm and collected and it just reminded me of me. I was, like, ‘Wait a minute. I used to be that poised. I used to be that calm. You know, what happened to that girl? Where did she go?'”

Clary was referring to King’s interview with Kelly that had taken place the same year, during which King was as cool as an ice pack while Kelly was as frantic as…a clearly guilty person trying his absolute best to convince the world he’s innocent.

“It kind of made me kind of wake up in a sense, and realize, ‘Why am I acting like this? Why am I putting myself through all of this misery? Why am I exploiting myself for a man who has me in this position in the first place, you know?’ And I really had to come to terms and, you know, realize that it wasn’t love,” she said. “Love doesn’t hurt, you know?”

Clary—who testified in court that Kelly began sexually abusing her when she was 17—told King she “was not honest in the interview” and said it was Kelly who pretty much wrote her entire script that day and even had her rehearsing it for days prior.

“Like, he came in and he told us to be angry and be upset and she’s gonna try to do this,” she said. “And so we were—we came in angry. I was scared because I was, like, ‘I don’t want the world to see me this way,’ you know? I don’t—I’m loving, I’m caring, I’m compassionate. And no one got to see that side of me.”

“Before that interview, you know, he had us practicing every single day,” she said. “Answering questions. And if he didn’t like our answers, he would tell us exactly what to say and how to say it.”

Again, Kelly supporters—who are the negro equivalent of Trump supporters, as far as we’re concerned—are going to believe what they want, but any compassionate person who understands how grooming, abuse and power dynamics work shouldn’t need any of Kelly’s survivors to explain themselves.

They’ve been through enough, and Kelly deserves all that’s coming to him and more.