Beyonces dad watched Destinys Child like a hawk and escorted girls to toilet while working with R Kelly
Mathew Knowles admits that hearing about R Kellys reputation certainly played a part in stopping Destinys Child from collaborating with him.
Fresh investigations into R Kelly, 52, have been launched in Chicago and Atlanta into allegations of sexual and physical abuse, which were put forward in the Lifetime documentary Surviving R Kelly.
The Ignition singer is accused of holding five women in a sex cult, as well as having sexual contact with girls as young as 14. R Kelly has strongly denied these allegations.
While the attention on the allegations has ramped up since the airing of Surviving R Kelly, rumours have been rampant since the 90s, when the singer allegedly married Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 27.
And speaking to Metro.co.uk, Mathew said that while rumours about R Kelly came into play in his decision making, he first turned down a song from the R&B star for the bands first album because it wasnt good enough.
The 67-year-old, the father of Beyonce and Solange, told us: I was there, and my former wife Tina was there. The thing with R Kelly was, he liked to record late at night, around midnight. And what was different with his studio was that one room had a recording suite, and next door was a club, with 40 or 50 people dancing.
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R Kelly was managed by Sony, by someone I wont name, and at that time, they would almost force you to record with [their] artists.
And R Kelly wasnt cheap – it was $75,000, plus travel costs, so were talking $100,000 for a song.
I personally rejected the song, because I didnt think it was a good song. Not just because of [his] reputation – this was around 1998, we had just begun to hear some of those things.
However, when we asked Mathew if the rumours surrounding R Kelly played a role in his decisions from then on, he said certainly, it was both of those things.
The music manager said: The girls were 15, 16. When they went to the bathroom, Tina would go with them. They did not leave our eyes.
A source told Metro.co.uk: Record labels would ask R Kelly to write songs for emerging artists as a way to help them break into the industry and he made several requests for Destinys Child. Mathew and Tina rejected all of them because they didnt want him anywhere near the band which is why they are one of the few acts to debut in the 90s without an R Kelly song in its official discography.
R Kelly worked with Aaliyah on multiple songs including Age Aint Nothing But A Number, Back & Forth, and At Your Best, while he also featured on songs with Kelly Price, Sparkle, Nivea and Ciara.
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The singer, real name Robert S Kelly, did write one song in Destinys Childs back catalogue – Stimulate Me, which was on the soundtrack for the 1999 Eddie Murphy film Life. However, a source informed us that Kelly was not in the studio when Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson were recording with producer Jermaine Dupri, adding: Mathew didnt want it on any official Destinys Childs albums so it didnt appear.
More: Beyonce Knowles
Beyonce has never worked with R Kelly in her solo career either, with a source telling us she has always turned him down.
Back in 2008 he released a remix of her single If I Were a Boy. The plan was to have it become an official remix as they are both signed to the label but Beyonce didnt give it the all clear so it never happened.
Mathew told us that he would elaborate further on his experience with R Kelly in his book Destinys Child: The Untold Story, which is due out this summer.
Metro.co.uk has contacted R Kellys rep for comment.
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MORE: R Kelly under criminal investigation after docuseries unearths sex slaves
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