Soulless

The essential account of R. Kellyâs actions and their consequences, a reckoning two decades in the making
 
In November 2000, Chicago journalist and music critic Jim DeRogatis received an anonymous fax that alleged R. Kelly had a problem with âyoung girls.â Weeks later, DeRogatis broke the shocking story, publishing allegations that the R&B superstar and local hero had groomed girls, sexually abused them, and paid them off. DeRogatis thought his work would have an impact. Instead, Kellyâs career flourished.
No one seemed to care: not the music industry, not the culture at large, not the parents of numerous other young girls. But for more than eighteen years, DeRogatis stayed on the story. He was the one who was given the disturbing videotape that led to Kellyâs 2008 child pornography trial, the one whose window was shot out, and the one whom women trusted to tell their storiesâof a meeting with the superstar at a classroom, a mall, a concert, or a McDonaldâs that forever warped the course of their lives.
Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly is DeRogatisâs masterpiece, a work of tenacious journalism and powerful cultural criticism. It tells the story of Kellyâs career, DeRogatisâs investigations, and the world in which the two crossed paths, and brings the story up to the moment when things finally seem to have changed. Decades in the making, this is an outrageous, darkly riveting account of the life and actions of R. Kelly, and their horrible impact on dozens of girls, by the only person to tell it.