R. Kelly

R. Kelly

Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and record producer. Debuting in 1992 with the group Public Announcement, Kelly went solo within a year for a successful solo career starting with the album, 12 Play (1993). Kelly is known for a collection of hit singles including "Bump n' Grind", "I Believe I Can Fly", "Ignition", "The World's Greatest", and the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet". In 2008, Kelly was named one of Billboard most successful artist ever for their 50th Anniversary List.

Career

Early years

Main article: Public Announcement

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Kelly was into music at an early age. Kelly's mother, Joanne Kelly, was a singer herself and performed in a group called Six Pack. Kelly states that it was she who heavily influenced his interest in music early on. As a teenager, Kelly, began street performing (or busking) under the Chicago 'L' trains before he eventually formed a group with his friend Marc McWilliams. In 1990, Kelly and McWilliams formed the group MGM (Musically Gifted Men). Along with Vincent Corey Walker and Shawnth Brooks, Kelly performed on the TV talent show Big Break, hosted by Natalie Cole, and went on to win the $100,000 grand prize. Soon after, R. Kelly & MGM released their first single, "Why You Wanna Play Me," on Tavdash Records. Tavdash Records sold them to Jive Records in 1991. Due to internal disputes between R. Kelly and MGM, Jive Records replaced them quickly with three other men, later known as Public Announcement.

Shortly after getting his record deal, Kelly met Andre Boykins from Public Announcement and auditioned the guys to be his backup singers and dancers. R. Kelly & Public Announcement released their debut album, Born into the 90's, in December 1991. Released during the new jack swing period of the early nineties, the album yielded the hits "She's Got That Vibe," "Honey Love," "Dedicated," and "Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)," all of which were led by Kelly. The group was billed as R. Kelly and Public Announcement, essentially making the group backup members for Kelly rather than a cohesive unit. After a successful tour ended in 1993, Kelly left Public Announcement to focus on a solo career.

Early solo career (1990s)

Kelly's debut solo album, 12 Play, was released in the fall of 1993 and yielded the singer's first number-one hit, "Bump n' Grind," which spent a record-breaking 12 weeks at number one on the Hot R&B Singles chart. The single became the longest-running number-one R&B hit in over 30 years on the singles chart in Billboard magazine. It was also a hit with the Dominican crowd. Subsequent hit singles were released such as "Your Body's Callin'" and "Sex Me." 12 Play held the number-one spot on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart for nine consecutive weeks, making Kelly one of the hottest, most sought-after performers of the '90s in R&B and hip hop circles. Kelly's career really took off with the success of 12 Play, and Kelly gained success as a record producer working with such notable acts as Toni Braxton, the Winans, Gladys Knight, and Quincy Jones, and introducing urban audiences to young female singers such as Aaliyah and the duo Changing Faces. In 1994, he also produced a remix for Janet Jackson's 1994 hit "Any Time, Any Place" and worked on "You Are Not Alone" for Michael Jackson for his 1995 album, HIStory. It was later determined by a Belgian rights society called SABAM that Kelly had plagiarized the melody for "You Are Not Alone" from the song's original 1993 composition by veteran songwriters-producers and publishers Eddy and Danny Van Passel. Kelly's success continued with the release of his second solo album, R. Kelly, popular for the singles "You Remind Me of Something" and "I Can't Sleep (Baby If I)." A duet with Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers created a hit with "Down Low," partially due to the music video of the song, which introduced fans to Isleys' "Mr. Biggs" character.

Continued success (late '90s and early '00s)

In 1996, Kelly released one of his most successful singles with "I Believe I Can Fly," originally released on the film Space Jam. The single, which came up after the movie's star, Michael Jordan, asked Kelly to compose a song for the soundtrack, was composed while Kelly was on a tour with The Notorious B.I.G.. "I Believe I Can Fly" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the UK Charts for three weeks. The single was a huge worldwide success and remains Kelly's signature song. Rolling Stone Magazine named it as the 408th of its top 500 songs of all time. In 1998, Kelly released a double album simply titled R., which would become his biggest-selling album to date, selling over eight million copies according to the RIAA and Soundscan, and yielded the popular singles "I'm Your Angel" (featuring Celine Dion), "Half on a Baby" and "When a Woman's Fed Up." In 1998, Kelly wrote and produced the debut album of his new female artist Sparkle, which was released on his Rockland label, distributed through Interscope. The album went platinum due to the success of the first single, "Be Careful," a duet featuring Kelly and Sparkle. Kelly also found success with soundtracks such as "Gotham City" from "Batman & Robin", and "The World's Greatest" from Ali. In 1999, Kelly wrote and produced, along with Wyclef Jean, the majority of the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence movie Life. Kelly composed ten songs on the soundtrack, while Jean composed five. Kelly also contributed two songs, "Bad Man" and "Up and Outta Here," to the updated Samuel L. Jackson movie Shaft. In 2000, Kelly released TP-2.com, which yielded the hits "I Wish" and the remix to "Fiesta," which featured Jay-Z. Because of the success of that song and another Kelly/Jay-Z collaboration, "Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent," from Jay-Z's Dynasty album, it was announced in early 2002 that the duo would collaborate on a joint album and tour entitled The Best of Both Worlds. Due to controversy surrounding Kelly at the time, however, there was little promotion for the album when it was finally released and Kelly instead refocused his attention on his solo work as both a recording artist and producer.

During late 2001 and early 2002, Kelly began working on the followup to his album TP-2.com, titled Loveland which was named after a dream he had where he felt love in a world that was so full of hate. The album was scheduled to be released in November 2002, but as with Best of Both Worlds before it, heavy bootlegging led to its being delayed. The singer then retooled the entire album; titled Chocolate Factory, it featured several of the bootlegged tracks, and many have cropped up elsewhere, as noted below. It also came as a six-track bonus disc with the initial pressings of Chocolate Factory. (Bootlegged tracks are listed in this footnote).

In early 2003, Chocolate Factory became a runaway success for Kelly, selling over three million copies due to the success of singles such as "Ignition," "Snake" and "Step in the Name of Love." "Snake," incidentally, became the basis of the dancehall reggae riddim known as Baghdad. Later that year Kelly followed that success by releasing his first, and long overdue, greatest hits collection The R in R&B Collection Volume 1, the album as well as a dvd collection. In 2004, Kelly released the ambitious two-disc set Happy People/U Saved Me, with the first disc including feel-good, stepping-inspired tracks, while focusing on gospel and inspirational material on the second disc. That same year, Kelly performed The Star-Spangled Banner during the introduction of the world championship boxing fight between Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor. His performance, which included a line of dancers doing the "stepping" routine and a prerecorded instrumental track set to the sound of "Happy People," was met with a mixed reaction. In October 2004, Kelly reunited with Jay-Z to do a follow-up to their Best of Both Worlds album shortly after announcing a tour to coincide with the project after the duo performed together during Jay-Z's "farewell" concert at Madison Square Garden a year before. The duo's Unfinished Business album was released and peaked at number one on the Billboard chart.

Double Up and current work

On May 29th 2007, R Kelly released his eighth studio album Double Up included the hit single "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", featuring T.I. and T-Pain. The original track entitled "I'm a Flirt", also produced and co-written by R. Kelly, appeared as a hidden track on Bow Wow's The Price of Fame (2006). However, Kelly never gave the rights for the song to be released as a formal single, although it was played by many radio stations before the remix version. Kelly's first single from 'Double Up' was "I'm a Flirt (Remix)." Bow Wow was not featured on this version of the song. In Kelly's video for "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", he encourages fans to call a number which flashes up quickly on the screen. Fans who called the number were greeted by a recording of Kelly talking about his upcoming album and playing snippets of new songs in the studio. "I'm a Flirt (Remix)" was successful for Kelly. The song peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks. Another hit on the album, "Same Girl", was a collaboration between Kelly and Usher. The single peaked at number 20 on the Hot 100 and peaked at number four on the R&B chart. Other singles such as "Rock Star" featuring Ludacris and Kid Rock, "Sex Planet" and "Freaky in the Club" were R&B charters, although the latter two were not officially released as singles, nor was the title track featuring Snoop Dogg.

Kelly's other single from Double Up titled "Rise Up" was a tribute to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. The song was officially released as a digital download May 15, 2007. Proceeds were donated to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, a fund that helped family members of the victims of the shootings.

In 2008, Billboard reported that Kelly had plans to release his newest album titled 12 Play: Fourth Quarter in the summer of that year but the album was postponed. In the spring, the first single "Hair Braider", peaked at No. 56 on Billboard's R&B chart. On July 28, the entire album leaked online. The album was then pushed back to be released in the fall. On September 18, Kelly released the video to the second single "Skin". However, the album still has no official release date. Though Kelly has not released an album, he has kept busy in the studio doing featured guest spots on numerous remixes including Lookin Boy remix by Hotstylz, Mariah Carey's Touch My Body remix, a verse for a remix to Kanye West's single Love Lockdown, Raheem DeVaughn's "Customer" remix, Beyoncé Knowles' If I Were a Boy remix, T-Pain's Chopped and Screwed remix, among others. A recent track was leaked on the internet titled "I Believe". Kelly states on his official myspace page that Obama's election inspired him to write the song, which contains an excerpt from Barack Obama's presidential acceptance speech. This song is available on iTunes as a free download. While at the Velvet Room in Atlanta in February of 2009, Kelly announced that he was out there working on the album and that it would be called "Untitled". The album has recently been given a September release date. On June 3, 2009, Kelly released his first ever mixtape "The Demo Tape presented by DJ Skee and DJ Drama" as a way to reintroduce himself to fans, start fresh and give his fans something different.

Personal life

Childhood

Robert Sylvester Kelly was born on January 8, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois. Raised in Chicago's South Side projects, Kelly was the third of four children, born to his mother Joanne Kelly, including two brothers Bruce and Carey and a sister, Theresa. Raised in a single-parent household, Kelly was shot by a mugger at thirteen, though the Chicago Sun Times reported claims that his mother (who died in 1993) said that the story was an attempt to cover an attempted suicide. Afterwards, Kelly turned to playing basketball and music to escape the harsh surroundings of his upbringing. Joanne enrolled her children in Kenwood Academy, a prestigious, multiracial public school in Hyde Park. Kelly and his siblings all took the academic tests necessary for admission and they all were accepted. At Kenwood, Kelly met his music teacher and mentor, Lena McLin, whom he credits much of his musical success to. It was she who helped Kelly realize and develop his talents. McLin encouraged Kelly to enter a high school talent show where he performed Stevie Wonder's classic "Ribbon in the Sky". McLin stated in the January 1994 issue of Vibe magazine that she taught her students "music history, theory, piano, choir, opera workshop, jazz workshop- Robert took it all; he wrote some gorgeous music. He knows the Italian bel canto school of singing. He can sing classical music. My students learn breath control, diction, a little German, Italian, and French. After they learn that, they can sing what they want to sing." He often refers to McLin as his second mother. Kelly's mother died after a long battle with cancer in 1993. Kelly's mother made a cameo in one of his early videos, "Dedicated", which was dedicated to her. Kelly's grandmother, Robbie Kelly, was also a great influence in his life.

Marriages and children

In 1994, it was reported that Kelly allegedly married his protégée, R&B singer Aaliyah, whom he had known since she was 12 and with whom he had spent the last three years working on her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. According to Vibe, a marriage document was printed showcasing the marriage certificate and noted that Aaliyah had lied about being eighteen when in truth she was only fifteen. The marriage was reportedly annulled soon afterward and neither singer confirmed the marriage rumors, dismissing them as lies.

In 1996, Kelly married Andrea Lee, a dancer from his tour. Together the couple have two daughters and a son. According to Andrea, later in the marriage Kelly became abusive toward her; at one time she filed an emergency protective order against Kelly but later dropped it. The couple filed for divorce in 2006. The divorce was finalized on January 8, 2009.

Legal cases, lawsuits, and controversies

In 1994, rumors surfaced that Kelly had married fellow singer Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time, which both singers had denied. Two other suits by underage girls were settled and he denied any relationship with either of them, stating that the settlement was strictly to protect his emerging career. Another woman sued him claiming that he seduced her at age 15, got her pregnant, and forced her to get an abortion.

Child pornography charges

On June 6, 2002, Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of having sexual intercourse with a minor. These were later reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, for which he was acquitted on June 13, 2008.

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 Sparkle, a former Kelly protégée, engaging in sex. The tape, released by an unknown source, was sent to the Chicago Sun-Times, the newspaper that broke the story. While some witnesses have identified the alleged victim, the girl and her parents and other witnesses have denied that she is the person shown on the tape. Kelly has also denied that he is the man in the video.

Bootleg copies of that tape became widely available on the black market and over file sharing networks. In June 2002, Kelly was indicted in Chicago for 21 counts of having sex with a minor, which were later reduced to 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. The parents testified to the grand jury that it was not their daughter on the video.

It took more than six years for the case to go to trial. Jury selection began on May 9, 2008, and the trial officially started on May 20 with opening statements from the prosecution and defense. After two weeks, the prosecution's case wrapped on June 3 while the defense's wrapped six days later, on June 9. After less than a day of deliberations, on June 13, 2008 a Chicago jury found R. Kelly not guilty of all 14 counts of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl.

Trial delays

After a number of delays, on October 27, 2006, a Cook County, Illinois court hearing for pre-trial motions set the date of the actual trial to February 7, 2007. On the date of the trial Kelly's lawyer informed the court that his client was unable to attend because he was "undergoing surgery for a burst appendix." He also announced that Kelly was "in good condition and was expected to be released from the hospital later in the day." His attorney stated that Kelly (who pled not guilty) would be in attendance on the next trial date of February 21, 2007. It had previously been announced by the court that the videotape that allegedly shows Kelly performing sex acts with an underage girl will be publicly shown as evidence in the trial.

The trial, however, was delayed due to disputes over when the tape was made and to give medical recuperation time to the sitting judge following a fall resulting in broken bones. Later the case was set for a September 17 date.

Lawsuits by former associates

On October 4, 2006, former employee Henry "Love" Vaughn (who claims to have been a “mentor and guide” to Kelly since he was a teenager) has filed a lawsuit against Kelly accusing him of assault, false imprisonment, and a breach of contract that defrauded him of songwriting royalties. Vaughn claims Kelly and his associates dragged him to the basement of Kelly’s Olympia Fields home on February 19, 2006, and Kelly “repeatedly struck him about the face and body with his fists." Vaughn also claims he gave Kelly the “concept” for the song “Steppin”. Kelly’s spokesman declared that Vaughn is merely trying to extort money and told reporters that a police investigation found no evidence to Vaughn’s assault allegations. Olympia Fields police confirmed that they had investigated the matter but would not comment beyond saying “we didn’t file any charges in the case.”

Tour problems

In late 2004, Kelly and Jay-Z went out on the Unfinished Business tour but the tour was plagued by a rivalry between the two stars and Kelly reportedly showing up late or not at all to gigs. 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. Another night during the concert, Kelly stayed on 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 a member of Jay-Z's entourage attacked R. Kelly with Mace or pepper spray. On April 25, 2006, it was confirmed that Jay-Z's younger cousin, 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. Kelly also launched a $75 million lawsuit against Jay-Z for removing him from the tour, which received a countersuit by Jay-Z which was thrown out by the judge.

In 2007, Kelly began his Double Up tour with Ne-Yo, Keyshia Cole and J. Holiday opening for him. After two shows, promoter Leonard Rowe had Ne-Yo removed from the tour because of a contract dispute. However, Ne-Yo alleges that the reason for the dropout was because Ne-Yo believes he received a better response from critics and fans, even though he only performed at two shows. Ne-Yo filed a lawsuit against Rowe Entertainment. It was shown that Kelly was not mentioned in the lawsuit. In December 2007, Kelly was admonished by the judge for not showing up to another preliminary court hearing on his case due to his tour bus being held up in Utah. The judge threatened to revoke Kelly's bond, but the judge eventually decided not to. In 2008, Kelly released a rap track titled "I'm a Beast" in which he coarsely attacked his detractors, though Kelly himself never mentioned by name who the song was directed to.

Discography

Main articles: R. Kelly discography and R. Kelly production discography

Studio albums

• 1992: Born into the 90's (with Public Announcement)
• 1993: 12 Play
• 1995: R. Kelly
• 1998: R.
• 2000: TP-2.com
• 2003: Chocolate Factory
• 2004: Happy People/U Saved Me
• 2005: TP.3 Reloaded
• 2007: Double Up
• 2009: Untitled

Official Mixtapes

• 2009: The Demo Tape

Collaboration albums

• 2002: The Best of Both Worlds (with Jay-Z)
• 2004: Unfinished Business (with Jay-Z)

Compilation albums

• 2003: The R. in R&B Collection, Vol. 1
• 2005: Remix City, Volume 1

Filmography

• 2005: Trapped in the Closet (1-12)
• 2007: Trapped in the Closet (13-22)

Awards

• American Music Award
  • 2000, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist.
  • 2005, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist

• BET Awards
  • 2003, Best Male R&B Artist

• Billboard Awards
  • 2001, Top R&B/Hip Hop Artist
  • 2001, Top R&B/Hip Hop Album (TP2.com)
  • 2001, Top R&B/Hip Hop Singles & Tracks (“Fiesta”)
  • 2001, Top R&B/Hip Hop Artist - Male
  • 2001, Top R&B/Hip Hop Album Artist
  • 2001, Top R&B/Hip Hop Album Artist - Male

• BMI Awards
  • 1998, Pop Songwriter of the Year (for “I Believe I can Fly”, “I Can’t Sleep Baby (If I)”, and “I Don’t Want To” (recorded by Toni Braxton))

• Grammy
  • 1998, Best R&B Song ("I Believe I Can Fly")
  • 1998, Best R&B Male Vocal Performance ("I Believe I Can Fly")
  • 1998, Best Original Song from A Soundtrack ("I Believe I Can Fly")

• NAACP Image Awards
  • 2001, Outstanding Male Artist
  • 2001, Outstanding Music Video (“I Wish”)

• Soul Train Awards
  • 1999, Best R&B/Soul Album, Male (R.)
  • 1999, Sammy Davis Jr. Entertainer of the Year Award
  • 2000, Best R&B/Soul or Rap Album (R.)
  • 2001, Best R&B/Soul Single, Male (“I Wish”)
  • 2001, Best R&B/Soul Album, Male (TP2.com)
  • 2004, R&B/Soul Album, Male (“Chocolate Factory”)

• Source Hip Hop Awards
  • 1999, R&B Artist of the Year
  • 2001, R&B Artist of the Year

• Vibe Awards
  • 2003, R&B Vanguard Award

See also

• List of honorific titles in popular music

External links

• Official website
• R. Kelly at IMDb