R Kelly
Biog
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 Kelly's music is its
explicit carnality. He was able to make songs like "Sex Me," "Bump n' Grind,"
"Your Body's Callin'," and "Feeling' on Yo Booty" into hits because his
production was seductive enough to sell such blatant come-ons. As his crossover
success broadened, Kelly also developed a flair for pop balladry that helped
cement his status as one of the biggest-selling male artists of the '90s.
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 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 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. 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, 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.
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
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. 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 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 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,
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, 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," 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
Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. When the scandal broke, other reports
surfaced that 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
Kelly, and whether the girl really was underage, Kelly's past history seemed to
lend credence to the charge. Some radio stations dropped him from their play
lists, and anti-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 unfavourable reviews suggested that the record's overall quality might
also have been to blame.
Following the initial sex-tape scandal, Kelly was dogged by numerous civil
suits, including one from a girl who alleged that during her relationship with
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 Kelly appeared as bootlegs, and a onetime 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 Kelly with 21
counts of child pornography-related offenses all related to the original tape.
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 heavier bootlegging.
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.
Double Up
followed (in 2007), but not before a remix collection titled
Remix City,
Vol. 1.
Hits:
‘I’m a Flirt’: Video: Watch here
‘Burn it Up’’ Video: Watch here
Bookings for Europe, Asia and Africa only (BIG TOURS ONLY)