CHICAGO _ Musician R. Kelly will vacate his Near West Side recording studio because a judge has ordered him "not to be creative between 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m.," according to a statement from his lawyer.
The studio is facing 67 building code violations and has attracted controversy and protests since the airing of the Lifetime documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly."
Because the building is not zoned as a living space, a judge barred the R&B artist from using it after 9 p.m. at night. The judge also ruled that Kelly has to get rid of the mattress on the second floor, a space that was already ruled off limits.
But in a statement released Wednesday, R. Kelly's lawyer, Steve Greenberg, said recording studios "around the world are allowed to operate on a 24-hour schedule." The statement compared the musician to writers, artists and inventors such as Elon Musk, Thomas Edison, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Leo Tolstoy.
"Thru [sic] the years, history has admired creativity," Greenberg said in the statement. "Beethoven worked and wrote during the night."
Greenberg decried the judge's order as "vindictive and baseless."
"There are three countries that presume an accused to be guilty and require him to prove his innocence _ North Korea, China, and Myanmar," he wrote in the statement.
The statement also referenced media attention at the studio, saying R. Kelly has been "harassed while just trying to do his job."
"R Kelly can never be creative and do his job under these circumstances which leaves him no choice but to leave his building," Greenberg said in the statement.
A moving van was parked in an alley adjacent to the building on Wednesday afternoon.
Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city's legal department, said addressing the building code violations will continue to be the property owner's responsibility after R. Kelly vacates the studio. The property is owned by Midwest Commercial Funding LLC.
Greenberg said he did not know whether R. Kelly had been released from the terms of his lease.
