The different sides of R. Kelly

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Thread started 12/20/12 3:05pm

HAPPYPERSON

The different sides of R. Kelly

This
CD cover image released by RCA Records shows the
latest release for R. Kelly, "Write Me Back." (Courtesy Photo | The Associated Press/RCA Records)

By Rashod Ollison
The
Virginian-Pilot
© December 6, 2012There's probably no other figure in modern
R&B as polarizing as R. Kelly, a functionally
illiterate superstar whose music repulses or inspires, often all on the same album.
Then there's his personal life, which
tends to have the same effect on people.
A
secret marriage to a 15-year-old Aaliyah, the
urban-pop ingenue he produced; allegations of sex
with underage women and an infamous sex tape followed by a messy trial - none
of it derailed the
career of Robert Sylvester Kelly. His albums still went platinum, selling more than
50 million units around the world, and his tours
sold out. The 45-year-old performer has been a very
lucrative enterprise for more than 20 years.
"Say what you want about R. Kelly, his audience has
been so loyal to him," says Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture at Duke University. "He's always
felt the need to give back to them, even if that's
going to stunt him creatively."
Kelly, who
headlines Chrysler Hall in Norfolk on Sunday, is like the Tyler Perry of
urban-pop. His emergence in the early '90s
dovetailed with a jarring change in R&B.
Hip-hop - its crude lyricism, brash sound and posturing - had started to harden
the genre. Kelly's
approach evoked the romanticism of soul's past, as his lyrics spoke directly to the streets. Like Perry with his thinly plotted movies,
Kelly's songs appealed to an audience the mainstream had largely ignored.
The native Chicagoan brought different textures and ideas to R&B, namely sophomoric, streetwise metaphors. Kelly's lady love, for instance, reminded him of his "jeep," something he wanted to "ride." And he sang
such lines with an earnest fervor and no trace of
irony. For better or worse, the singer-songwriter's
thug soul style opened the gates for the likes of Jaheim, Chris
Brown, Tank and Trey Songz.
In the process,
Kelly also garnered big pop success, peaking in
1996 with the inspirational single "I Believe I Can
Fly," which won three Grammys. He tempered his vulgar lyrical impulses in 1998,
when he shared the mic with Canadian schmaltz diva
Celine Dion. Their syrupy duet, "I'm Your Angel," topped Billboard's Hot
100.
"He's been kind of a paradox," Neal says.
"He has musical sensibilities that far outweigh what the marketplace is willing for him to do. If he were an
Adam Levine or somebody like that, nobody would have a problem with allowing him
to be as creative as possible."
But Kelly has
found other outlets for his restless creativity. When he wasn't writing and
producing for himself, Kelly crafted hits for
others that often carried more nuance and emotional resonance than his own
records. "I Am Your Woman" and "Guess What," two overlooked singles Kelly wrote and produced for R&B singer and fellow Chicagoan Syleena Johnson, are
among the smartest soul records he's done. Kelly also wrote Michael Jackson's last No. 1 smash, "You
Are Not Alone," and the graceful title track to
Whitney Houston's last album, "I Look to You."
Kelly also gets credit for reviving the careers of soul veterans
Ron Isley and Charlie Wilson. His productions gave their new sugar daddy images
a winking sense of humor and made them relevant to
the hip-hop generation.
Kelly's status in the pop
realm nose-dived in 2002 when a tape surfaced that allegedly showed Kelly urinating on an underage woman. In June of that year, Kelly was
indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of child
pornography. The charges were later reduced to
soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts and
seven counts of producing child pornography.
Although a jury found him not guilty in 2008, Kelly's standing in the pop
world was diminished. He became something of a
creepy joke, and calling himself the "Pied Piper
of R&B" certainly
didn't help.
"He was kind of at the precipice to become a major pop star with 'I Believe
I Can Fly,' " says Neal of Duke University. "The scandals undermined that, so I don't think he's going
to be taken seriously by pop critics and the pop
audience."
But Kelly's fans stick by him. His
albums released in the midst of the embarrassing legal
issues, especially 2003's "Chocolate Factory" and 2004's double album "Happy
People/U Saved Me," were multiplatinum smashes.
Each effort featured the crude, lusty songs his fans expect in addition to
soul-searching, gospel-imbued numbers showing Kelly
struggling with personal demons. Among them: the
loss of his mother in 1993 and struggles to
reconcile the sexual and spiritual selves. The latter has drawn comparisons to Marvin Gaye, whose
personal demons were explored in "Divided Soul: The
Life of Marvin Gaye," the brilliant 2003 biography written by David Ritz, who
also collaborated with Kelly on the singer's bizarre memoir, "Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me," published
in June.
Neal has written about the parallels
between Gaye and Kelly.
"Marvin Gaye's outlet
was drugs. R. Kelly's
was sex, underage sex in particular," Neal says. "R. Kelly is never going to
have the gravitas that Marvin Gaye did, and we will
never know enough about Marvin Gaye in comparison to what we know about R. Kelly. There's still a
pedestal that Marvin Gaye is on that when people hear certain stories, they say,
'No, that's not true.' Whereas you hear things about R. Kelly, and you say,
'Of course, that's true.' There's an accessibility
about R. Kelly and
that's been his choice. Marvin was never in a media landscape where that was
even a possibility."
When he's not struggling with religiosity and sexuality
in song, Kelly gives more of his ghetto-centric sense of humor on projects like "Trapped in the Closet," an often-clever, video-driven musical of sorts Kelly calls a "hip
hopera." He modeled the serial after the over-the-top soap operas his mother and grandmother
used to watch. Ten new chapters of the twisted series were released last month, and Kelly recently announced plans to take "Trapped in the Closet" to Broadway.
"R. Kelly has so much stuff
going on in his head that it can't be fully articulated in music," Neal says.
"He had to find a visual narrative for it. The
stuff is really compelling on a bunch of levels.
He's actually using elements of traditional opera
in 'Trapped in the Closet.' It really is a ghetto
novella for his audience."
In the studio lately,
Kelly has been exploring the past. His recent albums, 2010's "Love Letter" and
"Write Me Back," released in June, are unabashed retro efforts that revisit soul
from the '60s and '70s. And he's convincing,
sometimes moving, as he emulates Teddy Pendergrass, Al Green or Ron
Isley.
The "real R.
Kelly," the thug soul
star who built his career braiding the vulgar and
the sublime, peeks through here and there. But
given all the wild twists and turns in his career
and in his life, perhaps it has never been clear who the real R. Kelly is. And from what he says in his memoir, even Kelly doesn't seem to know.
But his journey to self,
from the dark, creepy corners to the ambitious bright spots and all the awkward points in between, has yielded
culture-shifting music - for better or worse.

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/12/different-sides-r-kelly

mjscarousal	Gunsnhalen said: pssh they don't even mention his best song If I Could Turn back The Hands Of Time. The rest of the article is just We get it. R.Kelly did bad shit & sang some vulgar songs & has slow ballds.. basically he is a human being. How many times do people have to examine him as if he is an enigma Agree.
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Mong	Gunsnhalen said: pssh they don't even mention his best song If I Could Turn back The Hands Of Time. The rest of the article is just We get it. R.Kelly did bad shit & sang some vulgar songs & has slow ballds.. basically he is a human being. How many times do people have to examine him as if he is an enigma Didn't realise that normal human beings fuck underage girls and piss on them.
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jackson35	and for the love of god, stop comparing him to marvin g.
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neonlights	HonestMan13 said: He's not that deep. I don't support his music any longer, I have daughters. Define deep? and no one cares if you no longer support him. You did at one point and you're one of the millions of people who made him a wealthy man. Your "support" is no longer needed.
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neonlights	You sound hurt. Poor you! But nice to know that you sat down and read an entire article on your King.
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neonlights	No one's even talking to you.
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neonlights	Gunsnhalen said: neonlights said: You sound hurt. Poor you! But nice to know that you sat down and read an entire article on your King. Jesus is king. R. Kelly is an illiterate wannabe gangster. He is not king of shit Neon you on some creepy shit if you think anyone thinks Robert Kelly is king of anything. Robert Kelly is King and you will deal.
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neonlights	HonestMan13 said: Even nicer to know that there's still rats in the hood Yes, your mother. Tell her I said hi.
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