R. Kelly

Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967 in Chicago, who goes by the stage name of R. Kelly), is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer. He appeared on the music scene as the founder and lead singer of Public Announcement and later became one of the most successful male artists of the 1990s. Kelly is renowned for hits such as "Bump n' Grind", "I Believe I Can Fly", and his oft-ridiculed mini-opera/film Trapped in the Closet. He has sold 31 million albums in the US alone with over 50 million albums sold worlwide making him the most succesful R&B male artist of the 90s.

Kelly is also notable for a current case against him on charges of child pornography arising from videotaped sex acts. A widely distributed video allegedly shows Kelly performing sex acts on an underage young woman.

Biography

Early career

In 1989, Kelly formed the group MGM and the next year, released his first single "Why You Wanna Play Me" with the group on Tavdash Records. The group appeared on the TV talent show Big Time (hosted by Natalie Cole) the following year and won. His manager at the time was Richard Simmons. However, it wasn't until Kelly sang at a backyard barbeque (which Wayne Williams of Jive Records attended) that he was finally noticed and from there, he was signed by Williams to Jive Records. In late 1991 Kelly was introduced to Aaliyah and his then-group Public Announcement recorded much of what would become "Born Into the '90s". Within a few months, the song would be the featured on the group's first album, Born Into the '90s -- featuring songs like "She's Got that Vibe", "Slow Dance", "Dedicated" and "Honey Love" -- was released in January 1992. R Kelly had just turned 25 when he released the album and it went platinum by the end of the year.

12 Play and Aaliyah

Template:Sample box start variation 2 Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end By 1993, Kelly had left the group to forge a solo career. Kelly's solo debut, 12 Play, yielded three top 40 singles: "Sex Me." (Pt. 1)", "Your Body's Callin'", and the chart-topping "Bump & Grind". In 1994, he completed singer Aaliyah's debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. Released that summer, the album eventually went 2x platinum on the strength of singles like "Back and Forth" and "At Your Best".

Kelly and Aaliyah married illegally in 1994 -- Aaliyah was only 15 but claimed to be 18 on the marriage papers. Vibe magazine revealed their marriage in 1995, and the two quickly and quietly annulled their union. Aaliyah also ended her professional partnership with Kelly at that time. She would go on to have a successful career, albeit one tragically cut short by her death in a plane crash on August 25, 2001. At the time, rumors of the marriage were fended off with denials; however, over a decade later, allegations of dalliances with underage girls would come back to haunt him.

Successful collaborations

After his brush with controversy, Kelly returned to the studio to record his third album (his second solo effort). His 1995 self-titled album was another big success, selling over 5 million copies and spawning hit singles such as "You Remind Me of Something", "I Can't Sleep (Baby If I)" and his collaboration with legendary R&B group The Isley Brothers featuring Ronald Isley, "Down Low (Nobody Has To Know)". The album was hailed by some as the singer's most mature.

In 1995, Kelly found success as a songwriter penning hits for the R&B group Changing Faces and pop and R&B music stars Janet Jackson (producing the remix for Jackson's 1994 smash, "Any Time, Any Place") and Michael Jackson (penning and co-producing the single, "You Are Not Alone" for Jackson's HIStory).

I Believe I Can Fly & R.

In 1996, "I Believe I Can Fly" was released from the Space Jam Soundrack. R. Kelly has stated Michael Jordan told him to come up with the song, and the song was composed while he was touring with The Notorious B.I.G. in Detroit. "I Believe I Can Fly" was an across the boards hit, hitting number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the UK Pop Charts. The single was a huge worldwide success and is R. Kelly's most famous song to this day. Rolling Stone Magazine named it as one of the top 500 songs of all time. Also memorable is his 1997 Grammy's performance of "I Believe I Can Fly" which saw the whole auditorium give a standing ovation. In 1997 he also had a hit with "Gotham City".

In 1998, the double disc "R." was released to enourmous success. The duet "I'm Your Angel" with Celine Dion topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 6 weeks. Other singles included the Sam Cooke inspired "If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time", "When A Woman's Fed Up" and "Home Alone". The "R." album has since been certified 8 times platinum by RIAA.

TP-2.COM

In 2000, Kelly returned to his famed 12 Play style with the official sequel TP-2.COM (12 Play 2000). This album was an enourmous success, and at the time had the highest selling debut week for an R&B album, debuting at number 1 on the Billboard 200. Hits included "I Wish", "Fiesta-Remix" with Jay-Z, "Feelin' On Yo Booty" and "The Storm Is Over Now". This album is a fan favourite and considered a milestone in 00's R&B.

The Best of Both Worlds

After being noted for singing hooks on hip-hop tunes by The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Puff Daddy and Jay-Z, there were talks that his collaborations with the latter rapper led to what was supposed to be a history-making project as the rapper and the singer teamed up to record an album together. Released in 2002, The Best of Both Worlds debuted at #2 on the Billboard pop albums chart, but no music videos were shot for the album. Commercially, the album was a disappointment for both R. Kelly himself and for Jay-Z, who didn't want to be associated with the singer during his child pornography trial.

Sexual allegations

Allegations of Kelly's sexual activity with underage girls go as far back as 1991, when several girls claimed to have had sex with him. In 1994, rumors surfaced that Kelly had married fellow singer Aaliyah, which both singers had denied in the past.

However, none of the prior reports reached the level of publicity that followed the release of a video tape in February 2002 that allegedly showed Kelly and a 14-year-old daughter of an associate, and niece of a former Kelly protege, engaging in sex. The tape, released by an unknown source, was sent to the Chicago Sun Times, the newspaper that broke the story. While witnesses have identified Kelly and the girl, the alleged girl and her parents have denied that she is the person shown on the tape.

Bootleg copies of the tape became widely available on the black market and over file sharing networks. The tape showed numerous sex acts, including the girl being urinated upon. In June 2002, Kelly was indicted in Chicago for 21 counts of soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts, and seven counts of producing child pornography. These charges came after viewing the tapes showed that there was no actual sexual intercourse involved. Currently, Kelly still faces fourteen of the charges. In addition to those charges, Kelly was further indicted in Florida in January 2003 on twelve counts of possession of child pornography. However, the charges were dropped after the search that led to the indictment was ruled illegal. In 2004, allegations emerged that among Kelly's tapes was one including gospel singer Deleon Richards, the wife of New York Yankees baseball player Gary Sheffield.

There have been several other lawsuits against R. Kelly. A female dancer sued for invasion of privacy alleging secret taping of her private acts with him and allowing distribution of copies without her consent. Two other sex suits by underage girls were settled and he denied any relationship with either of them. Another woman sued him claiming he seduced her at age 16, got her pregnant, and forced her to get an abortion.

During the pornography controversy, Kelly's problems carried over into his own family. His wife, Andrea, sought a restraining order against him on September 2, 2005 claiming he physically and verbally attacked her on two occasions but rescinded her request on September 26. Andrea had been a backup dancer before they married and is the mother of his son and two daughters. A trial date has still not been set [1] but it will feature a public showing of the videotape that allegedly shows Kelly performing sex acts with an underage girl.

Loveland

During late-2001 and early-2002 Kelly began working on the follow up to his album TP-2.com entitled Loveland. The album was scheduled to be released in November 2002, but like the BOBW (The Best of Both Worlds) project before it, it was affected by heavy bootlegging. Due to this, Kelly was forced to go back to the studio and record another album Chocolate Factory which was released in February 2003. The album did feature several of the bootlegged tracks - and many have cropped up elsewhere, as seen below.

Tracks possibly intended for Loveland album, which wound up on the bootlegged version include:

1. "Spirit" (ended up on Happy People/U Saved Me)
2. "All I" (as yet unreleased, but sampled by Mannie Fresh on his 2004 track "Lady, Lady")
3. "Leap of Faith" (ended up on Happy People/U Saved Me)
4. "Make Me" (ended up on Chocolate Factory under the name "You Knock Me Out")
5. "Fly" (extended opera influenced version of "I Believe I Can Fly" as used on the TP-2 Tour)
6. "The World's Greatest" (was already released on the Ali OST)
7. "(Step) In The Name Of Love" (ended up on Chocolate Factory in both original mix and remix, which was a No. 1 R&B hit)
8. "Love For Me" (renamed "Far More" and was availible on the bonus Loveland CD with the first pressings of Chocolate Factory)
9. "Somethings Never Change" (as yet unreleased, a very 1970's Stevie Wonder-like track)
10. "Forever And Ever" (a.k.a. "Marry Me" - ended up on Chocolate Factory under the name "Forever")
11. "You Bring Me Joy" (as yet unreleased, a soulful bedroom ballad)
12. "Make You My Baby" (track given to Joe and appeared on his 2003 album And Then...)
13. "Come to Daddy" (originally part of the BOBW tracklisting, unknown if this would have been on Loveland)
14. "Kiss You In Those Places" ( still unreleased, but appeared on original TP-3: Reloaded tracklisting, but not final album)
15. "More and More" (track given to Joe, was a single, and appeared on his 2003 album And Then...)

Other tracks including "Loveland", "Heaven I Need A Hug", "Raindrops", "What Do I Do" and "Apologies of a Thug" may have also been apart of the album, but wound on on the bonus CD that came with Chocolate Factory.

Chocolate Factory and Happy People/U Saved Me

Despite the controversies, Kelly moved on with his career releasing his first album since the allegations came up with Chocolate Factory in 2003. The album became a big success yielding the number two hit remix of "Ignition" and the top 10 single, "Step In the Name Of Love" as well as the top 20 single, "Snake." Kelly's success continued not only with his own projects but also with now-defunct boy band B2K when he produced the #1 hit "Bump, Bump, Bump". He produced an album by frequent collaborators The Isley Brothers, titled Body Kiss, which became the group's first album in their career to debut at the top spot of the Billboard Top 200 album charts.

In 2004, he released a two-CD set, Happy People/U Saved Me. Happy People showcased sex-free secular dance tracks while U Saved Me was an inspirational album. Due to the album being released as a double CD set, the album sold over three million copies despite the modest chartings of singles "Happy People", "U Saved Me" and "Red Carpet (Pause, Flash)".

Unfinished Business

Kelly and Jay-Z released a follow up to the album The Best of Both Worlds in October 2004, Unfinished Business, which included eleven previously unreleased tracks by the duo. It debuted at #1 on the US Billboard albums chart. This release was timed to coincide with The Best Of Both Worlds Tour. The tour was troubled almost from the start with Kelly often showing to concert a couple of hours late. The singer, according to Jay-Z, often complained that the touring lights weren't directed towards him and often left during the middle of sets forcing the rapper to carry on with the set. Another night, Kelly ended a concert in St. Louis early and was later seen serving McDonalds food at the drive-thru. Another night during the concert, Kelly stayed in his tour bus for two hours before finally coming out to perform an uninspired set.

Jay-Z eventually removed R. Kelly halfway through the tour, after R. Kelly accused Jay-Z's entourage of attacking him with Mace or pepper spray. On April 25, 2006, it was confirmed that Jay-Z's childhood friend, Tyran (Ty-Ty) Smith confessed in a Manhattan Criminal Court to pepper-spraying R. Kelly and four of his bodyguards at Madison Square Garden in October 2004. Smith had been charged with assault, but was allowed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct for four days of community service. After the original incident, Jay-Z made Smith an executive of Def Jam Records. A Kelly rep said that Kelly's $16 million lawsuit against Jay-Z and Smith is close to a settlement.

Trapped in the Closet

Kelly, who has sometimes referred to himself on record as the Pied Piper of R&B, had a pop hit in a collaboration with rapper Ja Rule and singer Ashanti titled "Wonderful". He released a new album titled TP-3: Reloaded in August 2005, which heralded back to his classic 12 Play period. In April 2005 Kelly released the long awaited "In The Kitchen", well-known among fans attending his live shows. The song was intended to be the album's lead single and received major radio airplay for a couple of months, but Kelly eventually decided to leave it as a buzz single after the song's failure to top the R&B charts. It was quickly followed up just weeks later with his "Trapped In The Closet" mini-opera, which rapidly climbed, and then quickly fell, the R&B and urban culture charts nationwide.

After the novelty success of the five-chapter song, which Kelly had likened to an audio version of Desperate Housewives prior to its release, Kelly revealed that he was working on parts six through ten of the song. They were released to radio later in the summer, in a similar fashion to how the first five were released, and Kelly promising to tie up some loose ends that the first five left. Another song off the album was a duet with rapper The Game titled "Playas Only", which despite an earlier climb failed to ignite the charts, quickly dropping off as fast as it peaked. At the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, Kelly notably gave a six minute long lip-synched performance of his "Trapped in the Closet" suite, which was given mostly mixed reviews.

Kelly was confirmed to be on a charity single hosted by singer Michael Jackson on the single, "I Have This Dream", which is to pay tribute to Hurricane Katrina victims. There were rumors as to Kelly's involvement in the song. Several articles stated Kelly was producing the track while other articles said that he's one of the performers. It has yet to be released. Kelly was recently on his own solo tour entitled, "Mr. Show Biz presents: The Light It Up Tour."

Trivia

• R. Kelly had the most Billboard Top 40 hits of any male artist during the 1990s with 15.
• In 2005 VH1 voted "You Remind Me of Something" by R. Kelly as one of the "Top 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs, Ever".
• R. Kelly's "Bump & Grind" stayed at #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart for twelve weeks making it one of the longest-running #1 hits on the chart since the chart's reinstation to Billboard in 1965. It was the longest-running #1 hit in 1994 but then replaced by Mary J Blige's "Be Without You.
• In 2003, comedian Dave Chappelle made a music video on his comedy show parodying Kelly's sex scandal. In the video titled "Piss on You," which contains elements from Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)" and "Feelin' on Yo' Booty," Chappelle depicts Kelly as having a urine and scat fetish. Kelly is shown pouring from a bucket labeled "R. Kelly's Doo Doo Butter" and spraying liquid from a can labeled "R. Kelly's Urine." Minutes later in the same episode, he played the "Piss on You Remix," a parody of "Ignition (Remix)."
• In 2002, MADtv also produced a music video parody featuring Aries Spears as Kelly singing of his ability to "get away" with statutory rape. The video, a parody of Kelly's "The World's Greatest," features Kelly flirting with a several teenage girls and preparing to make a sex tape with them. An additional joke, was that the video was labeled as being directed by Roman Polanski.
• In 2005, the animated Adult Swim series The Boondocks dedicated an entire episode, "The Trial of R. Kelly", to parodying the singer's alleged crimes.
• In 2005, again, MADtv produced a music video parody about his urban opera Trapped in the Closet titling it "Trapped in the Cupboard."
• In the South Park episode Trapped in the Closet, R. Kelly appears at Stan's house singing his opus trying to get Tom Cruise to come out of the closet. A returning gag with Kelly is that, like in the song, at any given time Kelly will pull out a gun causing every one to panic. At the end of the episode, instead of coaxing Cruise out of the closet, Kelly joins him and sings "now I'm in the closet too."[2]
• "Weird Al" Yankovic also made a parody of Trapped in the Closet, aptly named "Trapped in the Drive-Thru."
• He made a collaboration with Wisin Y Yandel in order to make reggaeton more popular. The song was called "Burn it up".
• In 1997, Kelly signed a contract to play professional basketball for the Atlantic City Seagulls of the USBL.

Discography

For a detailed listing of albums and singles, see R. Kelly discography.

Albums

Year	Album	US	UK	RIAA
1992	Born Into the '90s (R. Kelly & Public Announcement)	#42	-	Platinum
1993	12 Play	#2	#20	5x platinum
1995	R. Kelly	#1 (3 weeks)	#18	7x platinum
1998	R.	#2	#27	8x platinum
2000	TP-2.com	#1 (2 weeks)	-	5x platinum
2002	The Best of Both Worlds (R. Kelly & Jay-Z)	#2	#37	Platinum
2003	Chocolate Factory	#1 (2 weeks)	#10	4x platinum
2003	The R. In R&B Collection, Vol. 1	#4	#4	2x platinum
2004	Happy People/U Saved Me	#2	#4	3x platinum
2004	Unfinished Business (R. Kelly & Jay-Z)	#1 (1 week)	#61	Platinum
2005	TP-3: Reloaded	#1 (2 weeks)	#23	2x Platinum
2005	Remix City Vol. 1	# 26	# 46	Gold

Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions			Album
		US	US R&B	UK
1992	"She's Got That Vibe" (with Public Announcement)	59	7	3	Born into the 90's
1992	"Honey Love" (with Public Announcement)	39	1 (2 weeks)	-	Born into the 90's
1992	"Slow Dance" (with Public Announcement)	43	1 (1 week)	-	Born into the 90's
1993	"Dedicated" (with Public Announcement)	31	9	-	Born into the 90's
1993	"Sex Me, Pts. 1-2"	20 (gold)	8	75	12 Play
1994	"Bump n' Grind"	1 (4 weeks) (platinum)	1 (12 weeks)	8	12 Play
1994	"Your Body's Callin'"	13 (gold)	2	19	12 Play
1994	"Summer Bunnies"	55	20	23	12 Play
1995	"You Remind Me of Something"	4 (platinum)	1 (1 week)	-	R. Kelly
1996	"Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)" (feat. Ernie Isley & Ronald Isley)	4 (gold)	1 (7 weeks)	-	R. Kelly
1996	"Thank God It's Friday	-	- (7	23	R. Kelly
1996	"I Can't Sleep Baby (If I)"	5 (platinum)	1 (2 weeks)	-	R. Kelly
1996	"Street Dreams (Remix)(Nas featuring R. Kelly)"	-	18	12	It Was Written
1996	"I Believe I Can Fly"	2 (platinum)	1 (6 weeks)	1 (3 weeks)	Space Jam Soundtrack
1997	"Gotham City"	9 (gold)	9	9	Batman & Robin [Soundtrack]
1998	"Be Careful" (Sparkle feat. R.Kelly)	-	-	9	Sparkle
1998	"I'm Your Angel" (feat. Céline Dion)	1 (6 weeks) (platinum)	5	3	R.
1998	"When a Woman's Fed Up"	22	5	-	R.
1998	"Half on a Baby"	-	61	16	R.
1998	"Home alone (featuring Keith Murray)"	65	22	17	R.
1999	"Did You Ever Think"	27	8	20	R.
1999	"If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time"	12 (gold)	5	2	R.
2000	"Satisfy You (Puff Daddy featuring R.Kelly)"	2 (gold)	1 (2 weeks)	8	Forever
2000	"Only The Loot Can Make Me Happy"	-	-	24	R.
2000	"I Wish"	14	1 (2 weeks)	12	TP-2.Com
2001	"The Storm Is Over Now"	-	-	18	TP-2.Com
2001	"Fiesta"	6	1 (5 weeks)	23	TP-2.Com
2001	"Feelin' on Yo Booty"	36	9	-	TP-2.Com
2001	"We Thuggin'" (Fat Joe feat. R.Kelly)	15	-	-	Jealous Ones Still Envy
2002	"The World's Greatest"	34	-	4	Ali [Soundtrack]
2003	"Ignition (Remix)"	2	2	1 (4 weeks)	Chocolate Factory
2003	"Snake" (feat. Big Tigger)	16	9	10	Chocolate Factory
2003	"Step in the Name of Love [Remix]"	9	1 (2 weeks)	-	Chocolate Factory
2003	"Thoia Thoing"	13	6	-	The R. in R&B Collection, Vol. 1
2004	"Happy People"	19	7	6	Happy People/U Saved Me
2004	"U Saved Me"	52	14	6	Happy People/U Saved Me
2005	"Trapped in the Closet"	22	4	-	TP.3 Reloaded
2005	"Playa's Only" (feat. The Game)	65	36	33	TP.3 Reloaded
2005	"Slow Wind"	-	30	-	TP.3 Reloaded
2005	"Burn It Up" (feat. Wisin & Yandel)	-	-	-	TP.3 Reloaded
2006	"That's That Shit" (Snoop Dogg feat. R. Kelly)	20	9	-	Tha Blue Carpet Treatment

Grammy awards

• Best R&B Song ("I Believe I Can Fly")
• Best R&B Male Vocal Performance ("I Believe I Can Fly")
• Best Original Song from A Soundtrack ("I Believe I Can Fly")

(all were won in 1998)

External links

• R. Kelly at IMDb
• MTV News: The R. Kelly Reports. (with Illinois charges)
• VH1 News.
• Florida charges.

• Fansite.