"When the government wants to paint him as a monster ... you remember we are talking about a human being," Jennifer Bonjean said.

She also warned jurors not to succumb to what she called "a mob justice climate" surrounding Kelly, alluding to the six-part documentary, "Surviving R. Kelly," and years of harsh social media accounts of him.

"It is true that Mr. Kelly is imperfect," she said. "On his journey from poverty to stardom, he stumbled along the way." But, she said, she was confident jurors would ultimately find him not guilty.

Kelly is charged in federal court in his hometown of Chicago with enticing of minors for sex, producing child pornography and rigging his 2008 pornography trial at which he was acquitted.

Earlier prosecutor Jason Julien said during his opening statements on Wednesday that much of the world knew Kelly by his hit song "I Believe I Can Fly."

Julien said that was "Kelly's public side. "This trial is about Kelly's hidden side," Julien said.

Julien alleged Kelly had "repeatedly" had sex with girls who were just 14, 15 and 16 years old, "multiple girls, hundreds of times."

The jury was empanelled on Tuesday night with prosecutors and defence attorneys arguing about whether the government was improperly attempting to keep some Black people off the jury. Kelly is Black.

About half the 12 jurors empanelled were identified as Black by the judge, prosecutor and defence attorneys.

One focus of the trial will be on whether Kelly threatened and paid off a girl with whom he allegedly videotaped himself having sex when he was about 30 and she was no older than 14. That's the allegation underpinning another of the charges against Kelly, conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Jurors in the 2008 child pornography trial acquitted Kelly, with some later explaining they felt they had no choice because the girl did not testify.

Kelly, 55, already has already been sentenced by a New York federal judge to a 30-year prison term for a 2021 conviction on charges that he used his fame to sexually abuse other young fans.

Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, will be around 80 before qualifying for early release based on his sentence imposed in New York, which he is appealing.

Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants at the Chicago trial. McDavid is accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial, while Brown is charged with receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, they also have denied wrongdoing.

Australian Associated Press