 Urban R&B
producer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter
R. Kelly and his supporting band
Public
Announcement began recording in 1992 at the tail end of
the new jack swing era, yet he was able to keep much of its
sound alive while remaining commercially successful. While
he created a smooth, professional mixture of hip-hop beats,
soul-man crooning, and funk, the most distinctive element of
R. Kelly's music is its explicit carnality. He was able to
make songs like "Sex Me," "Bump n' Grind," "Your Body's
Callin'," and "Feelin' on Yo Booty" into hits because his
production was seductive enough to sell such blatant
come-ons. As his crossover success broadened,
R. Kelly also developed a flair for pop balladry that
helped cement his status as one of the biggest-selling male
artists of the '90s.
R. Kelly and
Public Announcement released their debut album, Born
Into the 90's, at the beginning of 1992. It was an instant
R&B smash, while earning a fair amount of pop airplay;
"Honey Love" and "Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)" were number one
R&B hits, while "Dedicated" was his biggest pop hit at
number 31. 12 Play, released in the fall of 1993,
established
R. Kelly as an R&B superstar, eventually selling over five
million copies. The first single, "Sex Me, Pts. I & II,"
went gold, and the second, "Bump n' Grind," hit number one
on both the pop and R&B charts in 1994; it stayed on top of
the R&B charts for an astonishing 12 weeks, while logging
four weeks at number one the pop charts. The follow-up,
"Your Body's Callin'," was another gold single, peaking at
number 13 pop. Also in 1994, he produced Age Ain't Nothing
But a Number, the hit debut album for then 15-year-old
Detroit R&B singer
Aaliyah. Late in the year, it was revealed that
R. Kelly and
Aaliyah had wed in August and gotten an annulment
shortly thereafter. The news sparked a small storm of
controversy in the media, yet it didn't hurt the careers of
either singer.
R. Kelly next wrote and co-produced "You Are Not Alone,"
the second single from
Michael Jackson's HIStory album, which was released in
the summer of 1995. Later that year,
R. Kelly released a self-titled album which became his
first to top the pop charts. R. Kelly sold four million
copies and produced three platinum singles -- "You Remind Me
of Something," "Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)," and "I Can't
Sleep Baby (If I)" -- all of which hit number one R&B and
reached the pop Top Ten.
R. Kelly truly consolidated his crossover success with the
1996 single "I Believe I Can Fly," which he recorded for the
Michael Jordan movie Space Jam. Transcending
R. Kelly's prior sexed-up image, the song reached number
two on the pop charts and won Grammy Awards for Best Male
R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best Song Written
Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television.
R. Kelly remained in the public eye in 1997 with another
Top Ten soundtrack tune, Batman & Robin's "Gotham City." The
ambitious two-disc R. followed in 1998, and even though it
downplayed the explicit lover-man routine that had made him
a star, it became
R. Kelly's biggest-selling album yet, going platinum seven
times over. Its first single, a duet with
Celine Dion titled "I'm Your Angel," became
R. Kelly's second number one pop hit with a six-week run on
top. Even though subsequent singles "When a Woman's Fed Up"
and "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" were more
successful on the R&B charts,
R. Kelly was well on his way to landing more Top 40 hits in
the '90s than any other male solo artist, and notched
another with his guest appearance on
Puff Daddy's R&B chart-topper "Satisfy You." Moving his
blockbuster success into a new decade,
R. Kelly returned in 2000 with TP-2.com, which spent three
weeks at number one on the album charts and scaled back the
ambition of R. to return to familiar lyrical themes. He
scored two more R&B number ones with "I Wish" and "Fiesta"
(the latter featuring guest
Jay-Z), and had further hits with "Feelin' on Yo Booty"
and "The World's Greatest," the latter from the soundtrack
of the
Will Smith film Ali.
In the wake of "Fiesta,"
R. Kelly and
Jay-Z teamed up to record an entire album together. The
Best of Both Worlds was heavily hyped and even more heavily
bootlegged, but problems of a much more serious nature arose
in February 2002, when the Chicago Sun-Times reported that
it had been given a videotape showing
R. Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. When the
scandal broke, other reports surfaced that
R. Kelly had settled a civil suit in 1998 involving a
sexual relationship with a then-underage girl, and that he
was in the process of settling another suit brought by an
Epic Records intern making similar allegations. Copies of
the tape in question were sold as bootlegs and on the
Internet, and while there was some question as to whether
the man was really
R. Kelly, and whether the girl really was underage,
R. Kelly's past history seemed to lend credence to the
charge. Some radio stations dropped him from their play
lists, and anti-R. Kelly
protests were staged in Chicago. Meanwhile, The Best of Both
Worlds entered the charts at number two, but sold
disappointingly; some blamed the scandal, others the
extensive pre-release bootlegging, although the generally
unfavorable reviews suggested that the record's overall
quality might also have been to blame.
Following the initial sex-tape scandal,
R. Kelly was dogged by numerous civil suits, including one
from a girl who alleged that during her relationship with
R. Kelly (which occurred while she was underage), she had
become pregnant and gotten an abortion at the singer's
urging. A variety of other sex videos purporting to feature
R. Kelly appeared as bootlegs, and a onetime
R. Kelly protégée, a singer called
Sparkle, stepped forward to identify the girl on the
original tape as her then-14-year-old niece. In June,
Chicago police officially charged
R. Kelly with 21 counts of child pornography-related
offenses, all related to the original tape.
R. Kelly pleaded not guilty and released a new song,
"Heaven, I Need a Hug," which got extensive airplay for a
brief period.
Meanwhile, work on his next album, Loveland, stalled amid
more heavy bootlegging.
R. Kelly eventually scrapped some of the most pirated
tracks, recorded some new songs, and reassembled the album
as Chocolate Factory (which was slated to include a bonus
disc with some of the deleted material). Released in advance
of the album, lead single "Ignition" shot to number one on
the R&B charts in late 2002. Chocolate Factory itself was
released in early 2003, and followed in 2004 by Happy
People/U Saved Me. Surprisingly, despite reports of a feud
with
Jay-Z, later in 2004 another album was released from The
Best of Both Worlds sessions. Weeks before his child
pornography trial the following year, TP.3 Reloaded was
released, featuring the first five chapters of his soapy
"Trapped in the Closet" saga. The Remix City, Vol. 1
compilation was released a few months later. ~ Stephen
Thomas Erlewine & Steve Huey, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
R. Kelly for your next corporate or private event.
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