The Daily Swarm

The long arm of Prince strikes again.

One of the little man’s biggest fans ever, a Norwegian label owner and TV-star by the name of Christer Falck, head of C+C Records, thought he’d celebrate TAFKATAFKAP‘s 50th birthday by asking some 50 Norwegian artists to pick one song from Prince’s huge catalog and record their own version. The plan was to release a 5-CD box of these covers and spread them to the world in 5000 copies as a gesture of love (no-one got paid).

The 81-track, 5-CD set was released earlier this month to rave reviews in many of Norway’s numerous daily newspapers (VG, Dagbladet, Aftenposten , Dagsavsien, Morgenbladet ) and immediately entered the country’s album charts at #8 (a first for a tribute album).

Of course Christer thought he’d give the Purple One himself a copy, and got in touch to present his plan. Well, as word reached Prince via his management, he responded with a “over my dead 50-year old body”. Dagbladet, the country’s second largest daily, now reports that Prince’s lawyers have sued C+C Records and asked for all copies of the tribute to be destroyed.

The album is still listed on the label’s website and snippets of many of the tracks can be heard on this MySpace page.

Return to Forever:

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman declared yesterday, June 4th, 2008, to be Return to Forever Day in the state of Utah. At a ceremony yesterday, Governor Huntsman presented the group with a declaration lauding the group as “one of the most important and forward-looking bands in jazz history” whose music has “changed the artistic landscape of the world and many lives, including this Governor’s.” The band, who were extremely honored, performed at Salt Lake City’s Kingsbury Hall that same night.

Deseret News:

“Your governor declared today ‘Return to Forever’ day in Utah,” he said. “You are the hippest governor in the nation. Can you imagine the governor of Britney Spears’ state declaring it ‘Britney Spears Day’?”

With that, the band dedicated “Song to the Pharaoh Kings” to Huntsman.

Yesterday, the Daily Swarm speculated about who delivered the videotape at the center of the R. Kelly child pornography trial to the Sun Times’ Jim DeRogatis. Today, a newly released interview transcript from 2002 seems to confirm that R. Kelly’s former manager and uncle of Aaliyah, Barry Hankerson, is the person who brought the singer down.

The Sun Times just published the entire transcript of Jim DeRogotis’ 2002 interview with Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards, the aunt of the girl who allegedly appears on the videotape at the center of the R. Kelly child pornography trial. This transcript is the “interview notes” that Judge Vincent Gaughan today insisted the newspaper turn over to the court while excusing DeRogatis from testifying. Much of what she said then was repeated in her own testimony before the jury, but some additional details are now public for the first time ever, including DeRogatis’ own thoughts about who exactly delivered the videotape to his mailbox.

Although the source is identified only by the initials “B.H.,” its clear the reference is to Barry Hankerson, R. Kelly’s former manager and the uncle of deceased pop star Aaliyah (who was briefly and controversially betrothed to Kelly when she was just 15 years old).

From Jim DeRogatis’ newly published 2002 interview with Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards:

Q. What do you think happened with Aaliyah???

A. Speculating? It happened. I have an ex-friend who was on the road with him when he was R. Kelly and Public Announcement. He saw what was going on. He quit the group because of that.

Q. I just want to know… [B.H.] is partly motivated by he’s tired of seeing young girls get hurt…

A. I’m sure. A lot of people would agree.

Q. But is it partly that [B.H.] wants revenge for the whole Aaliyah thing? ??

A. I don’t know. I’m sure he would tell ya. He’d have no problem telling you.

Q. He never has. I’m sure that tape came by [B.H.]. Not directly. He’s wondering about the police investigation.

In a 2004 interview with the Guardian, DeRogatis described the chain of events:

After drawing comparison between R Kelly and Marvin Gaye in a review, DeRogatis received an anonymous fax, clearly from someone associated with the singer, intimating that Gaye’s libidinous antics were nothing compared to the goings-on at camp Kelly. DeRogatis made inquiries and wrote a report in December 2000, airing a number of rumours about Kelly. The paper received no lawsuit from Kelly’s label or lawyer.

DeRogatis approached Stephanie Edwards when writing his initial piece, having received a tip-off about Kelly and her niece, but she declined, thinking the allegations nonsense. Eleven months later, Edwards called DeRogatis back. She had seen the video. ‘She was hysterical and in tears. She didn’t know what to do. She’d called the police and the division of children’s services and broke down, saying to me “It’s all true.”

A couple of weeks later, DeRogatis got a call to go to his mailbox. ‘And there was the videotape, unmarked, no note, no anything. I sat with Stephanie and showed her the tape and said “Is this what you saw?” and she broke down and said “Yes it is” and then as soon as we knew what we had, we turned it over to the police. This was evidence of a felony.’ Kelly was indicted.

The newly released interview transcript seems to confirm that R. Kelly’s former manager Barry Hankerson is the person responsible for having the videotape delivered to the Chicago Sun Times which, in turn, led directly to the criminal child pornography charges for which Kelly now stands trial.

UPDATE: As we noted yesterday, Kelly himself sure seemed to think Hankerson was responsible for the tape going public, as he said in an interview with Chicago’s NBC News the day after the story of the tape broke:

“I have an ex-manager, you know, that I let go awhile ago. And ever since these people have been trying to come at me and trying to blackmail me. The reason these things are happening, I really do believe, is because of the fact that I didn’t fall back as far as blackmail is concerned. I didn’t give them any money,” Kelly said.

UPDATE: R. Kelly bombshell: Former manager and Aaliyah’s uncle Barry Hankerson was the source…Jim DeRogatis in 2002: ‘I’m sure that tape came by B.H.’

UPDATE: Jim DeRogatis will not have to testify in R. Kelly trial…

Barring a last minute appellate court ruling in his favor, Chicago Sun Times reporter and music critic Jim DeRogatis will be compelled to testify by R.Kelly’s defense team in the singer’s child pornography trial tomorrow morning. In 2002 he was anonymously given a videotape that, police say, shows R. Kelly and a girl who was 13 or 14 at the time having sex. Judge Vincent Gaughan has said that the defense has a right to hear how the tape came into DeRogatis’s possession and what he did with it. He’s also said that he may answer questions by pleading the Fifth Amendment (and thus avoiding self-incriminating himself for possessing the child porn that Kelly’s defense maintains is not real anyway), but it is highly unlikely DeRogatis will choose that option.

While the defense and judge insist that DeRogatis will not be questioned about his sources, the Sun Times’ attorney, Damon Dunn, maintains the issue at hand is the First Amendment protection of reporter’s privilege. While the tape did appear anonymously, DeRogatis, along with his Sun Times colleague Abdon Pallasch, have been reporting on Kelly’s sexual escapades with underage girls since at least 2000, and have likely interviewed dozens, if not hundreds, of sources. Like Judy Miller with Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame case, could the questioning in front of the R. Kelly trial jury force DeRogatis to choose between breaking his promise of confidentiality to a source (or sources) or going to jail for contempt of court? Or, as in Miller’s case when she was finally released from jail after 85 days and took the stand in Libby’s trial, has DeRogatis been released from his confidentiality pledge by any one of his as-yet-unnamed sources?

So, the $64,000 question hanging over the proceedings remains: who put the allegedly incriminating videotape in DeRo’s mailbox, and why? Does DeRo know, and will he talk? Here are some possibilities:

1. The girl’s family, friends, or coaches

Bill Wyman notes over at Hitsville that 11 people have already identified Kelly and the girl on the videotape, including friends, relatives (among them her aunt, the singer Sparkle), and basketball coaches, many of whom admitted to having seen the tape long before it appeared in DeRogatis’ mailbox and was for sale on every street corner in America. Its certainly possible that any one of these people were so outraged by what they saw that they wanted to see Kelly face public humiliation.

2. The Nation of Islam

A long-standing theory whispered on the streets of Chicago is that the Nation of Islam was responsible for bringing the videotape to the Sun Times. There is no evidence to prove or dispel this rumor, but it is interesting to note the lack of outrage in the African American community over Kelly’s prosecution, as is often the case when a black celebrity is brought to trial. Could it be that this is how they chose to deal with pecuilar and foul case of black-on-black crime? Could it be that a mounting sense of frustration over the lack of movement by the Chicago Police Department inspired this bedrock community organization on the city’s South Side to take the case public?

3. Barry Hankerson, R. Kelly’s former manager

The day after the Sun Times first reported the existence of the videotape at the center of the trial, R. Kelly told Chicago’s NBC News that he believed he was the target of a blackmail attempt by a former manager:

“It’s very difficult for me because I’m innocent,” Kelly said. “It upsets me really bad because you know what I’m saying, first of all, I’m not aware of anything like that and for people, unknown people, to make those statements against me is ridiculous.”

Kelly believes vindictiveness is behind today’s story as well as his refusal to pay off a blackmailer.

“I have an ex-manager, you know, that I let go awhile ago. And ever since these people have been trying to come at me and trying to blackmail me. The reason these things are happening, I really do believe, is because of the fact that I didn’t fall back as far as blackmail is concerned. I didn’t give them any money,” Kelly said.

Kelly was certainly referring to his long-time manager, Barry Hankerson, who, in addition to steering the singer’s career for nearly a decade before quitting abruptly at the height of Kelly’s artistic output and earnings potential, will forever be remembered as the uncle of a certain young singer whose ghost haunts these sordid proceedings. The pint-sized elephant in the room at the R. Kelly trial remains the dearly departed Aaliyah, the martyred saint of R & B, whose first hit was the Kelly-penned and produced “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number,” and who, it was long-ago revealed (though this fact remains unmentioned in front of the jury), got hitched to R. Kelly at the tender age of 15. At the time, Kelly was 27; having sex with Aaliyah was a felony for which he was never prosecuted. Her family had the marriage annulled and covered up so each could continue with their respective spectacular career trajectories.

Could Hankerson be responsible for the videotape’s arrival in DeRogatis’ mailbox, either as part of some sort of blackmail scheme as alleged by Kelly back in 2002, revenge over the theft of his niece’s virginity, spite for the lost millions from a business arrangement gone sour, or pure disgust over Kelly’s serial pedophilia?

Hankerson is on the witness list (his name came up in the jury selection process), but he was not called by the prosecution and there is no indication he will take the stand. Aside from Aaliyah herself coming back from the dead to testify, its hard to imagine a worse nightmare witness for Kelly’s defense. But his absence in the proceedings is an extremely curious omission, and it remains a distinct possibility that his role in the case has been an active one but a well-kept secret.

Developing tomorrow…

EARLIER:

R. Kelly Trial Exclusive: Who put a bullet through Jim DeRogatis’ front door?

R. Kelly trial: Judge rules Jim DeRogatis must testify…

R. Kelly defense wants Jim DeRogatis to testify