Things aren’t looking so rosy for troubled hip-hop star R. Kelly.

The 41-year-old rapper is currently in the midst of a trial for child molestation charges, after he was filmed having sex with a 17-year-old record-label intern named Tracy Sampson.

Now a music reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim DeRogatis, is being asked to take the stand.

Back in 2002, DeRogatis famously wrote an article about a sex tape featuring the couple he’d anonymously received, a tape he later handed over to the police.

Now R. Kelly’s defense lawyers want to question the journalist to see if he’s tampered evidence, citing DeRogatis’ “extreme bias” against the famous musician.

“Mr. Kelly has a constitutional right to show that this person has a bias, a bias so strong that it helped a reporter violate the law,” said Kelly’s attorney, Marc Martin.

Martin also claims that DeRogatis made a copy of the tape and showed it to another witness – which would render him guilty of possession of child pornography, if Kelly is found to be guilty (Mind you, Martin is also arguing that the tape doesn’t contain child pornography in the first place).

Lawyers from both sides have agreed they won’t ask DeRogatis to reveal who gave him the tape, but nonetheless he’ll take the stand. The trial continues this week.