page_title: I Admit (R. Kelly song)
section_title: Background and release
hierarchical_section_title: I Admit (R. Kelly song) / Background and release
context_page_description: "I Admit" is a 19-minute song by American singer R. Kelly. Released on SoundCloud on July 23, 2018, the song addresses the singer's sex scandals and allegations. "I Admit" was written by Kelly and Raphael Ramos Oliveira, and produced by Kelly and Noc. The release of "I Admit" followed a 2017 BuzzFeed News investigative report that alleged that Kelly operated a "sex cult", and a 2018 boycott of Kelly backed by Time's Up. In "I Admit", Kelly makes a number of confessions, including that he is dyslexic, that he has been sexually unfaithful, and that he was raped. Kelly does not make any criminal admissions, but instead denies allegations of domestic violence and pedophilia. The lyrics rebuke Jim DeRogatis for his BuzzFeed News report, and disavow the report's allegations that Kelly is in charge of a "sex cult".
  Critics reviewed "I Admit" unfavorably. Some reviewers contrasted the title with the lack of criminal admissions in the lyrics, and described the song as an act of trolling. The song was compared to Kelly's rap opera Trapped in the Closet and O. J. Simpson's book If I Did It.
context_section_description: "I Admit" is Kelly's first release since his 2016 holiday album, 12 Nights of Christmas.
  In July 2017, Jim DeRogatis contributed an article to BuzzFeed News detailing legal investigations from three families regarding their daughters' alleged kidnappings after they established relationships with Kelly. The article characterized Kelly's operations as a "cult", and included interviews with three of Kelly's former associates. However, both Kelly and the daughters refuted the claims.
  In April 2018, the Women of Color branch of the Time's Up movement announced their support for the Mute R. Kelly social media campaign, which advocated for music venues to cancel Kelly's concert dates and for Sony Music to terminate Kelly's recording contract. The organization published a demand on The Root for RCA Records, Ticketmaster, Spotify, Apple Music, and the Greensboro Coliseum Complex to end their business relationships with Kelly. Spotify removed Kelly's music from their playlists after introducing a "hate content and hateful conduct" policy in May 2018, but rescinded the policy in June 2018 after people in the music industry, including Kendrick Lamar's representative, accused the company of censorship.
  "I Admit" was released on the SoundCloud account of Julius Darrington, CEO of the AudioDream record label, on July 23, 2018. RCA Records, Kelly's primary label, did not confirm whether they were associated with the song. Kelly promoted the release with a post, "Today is the day you've been waiting for", across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
  After the January 2019 broadcast of Surviving R. Kelly, Kelly appeared in a CBS This Morning interview on March 8, 2019, in which Gayle King asked him whether "I Admit" was his "way of confessing". Kelly responded, "That question makes no sense, no offense, but what I'm saying is this: 'I Admit' was me expressing my feelings about the things I was going through. If you're listening to it, you can hear exactly what I'm admitting."
caption: Time's Up advocated for a boycott of Kelly's music in 2018.