For the next three nights, the world will be tuned into Lifetime Television to watch the ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ series that airs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 9-11 p.m. each night. The documentary is a powerful, disturbing chronicle of the long-running allegations that the music superstar has sexually and physically abused women and young girls.
The mastermind behind it all is executive producer Dream Hampton, who was born in Detroit in 1971. The writer, filmmaker, and activist has deep roots on the east side, being born in the neighborhood of Mack Avenue and Helen near Belle Isle Park. Her white mother divorced her father when was two and she was raised by her stepfather.
The family lived all over the east side of Detroit, at an apartment building near Eastlawn and Kercheval and when the neighborhood became too rough to live in, they moved to a brick home on Newport. Hampton Graduated from Bates Academy and Cass Tech High School in Detroit.
She left for New York City after high school to attend New York University and studied film at the Tisch School of Arts. During her time at Tisch, she created a film for a documentary class. The documentary starred her neighbor at the time, Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace.
In over 30 years in the hip hop industry, Hampton has worked with the likes of Tupac, Biggie Small, Jay-Z, and Nas and has worked at Vibe and The Source Magazine.
On Facebook, Hampton said she put her “whole heart and head” into the R. Kelly docuseries. Viewers will learn more about everything about R. Kelly, from his troubled childhood in Chicago, to his early success, to his secretive relationship with Aaliyah, the late singer-actress who attended high school in Detroit and was only 15 when she wed Kelly, then 27.
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