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| - A claim that a music video released from prison by the US singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly called R. Kelly has gone viral on social media.
The 3 minutes, 37 seconds-video shows multiple scenes from prison yards, and a courtroom with a man purported to be R. Kelly being the centre of attraction in the scenes.
The music video, purported to be the song released by R. Kelly while still in prison, is titled: My Soul Cries Out.
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An X user, @MarianVictor18, posted the video on January 12, 2025 with a caption that reads:
R Kelly – Official Music Video 2025 (in prison) My soul Cries Out… Pls how many years is he serving???can’t he get a presidential pardon? this voice shouldn’t end in prison.. we know he had done some wrong but please let them have mercy on him .feel like crying watching this.
The post has garnered over 2.1 million views, with more than 22,000 likes, over 10 bookmarks, plus over 9,000 reposts and more than 1,800 comments as of January 14, 2025.
The post has gone viral on X as seen here and here. It has also gone viral on YouTube as seen here, here and here, among other social media platforms.
Robert Sylvester Kelly popularly known as R. Kelly is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. In August 2021, he went on trial in a US federal court in Brooklyn, facing charges involving racketeering and sex trafficking. The following month, he was convicted on all count-charges. In June 2022, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison but the charges were dropped in January 2023 for him to be sentenced in February of same year for 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.
CLAIM
R. Kelly releases a new single titled My Soul Cries Out in prison.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE, as the music video is AI-generated.
Our fact-checker observed that the video has multiple contents of what looked like an AI-generated visuals.
At the start of the music video, the scene showed a man purported to be R.Kelly wearing an orange-colored jumpsuit (an attire synonymous with US prisoners) with a large text inscription of R.KELY written on his back.
Our fact-checker observed that the movement of his hands on the keyboard does not synchronised with the music sound being played.
Other scenes from the video such as the movement of the body parts like walking, talking, and hand gesticulations also had staccato movement. The images also looked AI-generated.
At 1:31 minutes in the video, the inscription on the back of the uniform changed from R.KELY to KELLY. Also the facial features of the man in the visual was inconsistent all through the video as seen in the comparison below.
Further checks by The FactCheckHub show that name of US prison inmates are not always printed at the back of their uniform rather a paper ID with their name and inmate number on it are issued to each inmate.
When our fact-checker ran the audio through Shazam, an application software that identifies music based on a short sample played using the microphone on the device, it could not identify the song . This likely shows that the song was not released on any official record label and music streaming platforms
A keyword search on the title of the song: My Soul Cries Out revealed some search results pertaining to R. Kelly but when listened to, the rhythms and tunes were entirely different.
However, our fact-checker found a video on YouTube very identical with the one seen on X and uploaded by a subscriber, MagXie_Dom. In the description box, the YouTube user, MagXie_Dom, said that the song was written and created by him/her using AI tools.
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“R. Kelly’s powerful track, “My Soul Cries Out,” is a heartfelt plea for redemption and peace. Written and created by MagXie_Dom using AI tools,” it read.
A look at the channel shows that the YouTube user creates musical audio-visuals with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and in the past week has produced more AI musicals attributed to R. Kelly.
THE VERDICT
The claim that R. Kelly released a new song from prison titled: “My soul cries out” is FALSE; the video and song were AI-generated.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
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