R. Kelly Fans Paid $100 to See Him Perform at a Bar for 28 Seconds

R. Kelly, currently facing charges of criminal sex abuse, managed to book a show while awaiting his next court date, but he did not really bother to perform during it.

Indeed, according to the Associated Press, Kelly gave a 28-second performance at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning at the Dirty South Lounge in Springfield, Illinois, in front of a crowd of about 100. As it happens, those 100 people paid $50 to $100 for those 28 seconds, and though I am sure it is just thrilling to see R. Kelly sing exactly one line from a song, some of the fans were a little bummed. Per a local ABC affiliate:

R. Kelly got on the microphone and thanked supporters and sang a line from his song for 28 seconds.

The bar closed at 3.a.m.

Outside of the bar, at least two fans expressed their disappointment of the performance.

Some fans claimed it wasn’t worth $100 and would not pay again.

(There was, in fairness, a 30-minute meet & greet.)

Still, we shouldn’t be too mean about Kelly’s half-minute ripoff, because Kelly specifically asked us not to be. In an Instagram video posted shortly before his “performance,” he requested that the media “take it easy on him,” since he needed to make these appearances for money. (Sony dropped him in January, following Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary in which a number of women alleged he had sexually assaulted them).

Kelly has allegedly been sexually abusing young women and teens for years, and has suffered no real consequences until just recently. But, yeah, we’ll take it easy on him.