R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly (born
January 8,
1967 in
Chicago, Illinois), who goes by the stage name of
R. Kelly, is an
American R&B singer-
songwriter and
record producer who first burst out of 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 & Grind" (
1994), "I Believe I Can Fly" (
1996), "Ignition (Remix)" (
2003) and his mini-opera "
Trapped In The Closet" (
2005). He is also notable for a current case against him that has him up for charges of
child pornography after allegedly performing sex acts on an underage girl on tape.
Early life
Born in Chicago's Southside Projects as the eldest of four children born to Joanne Kelly, his father has remained unknown. As a teenager, Kelly used his love for basketball and music to get away from the grimy streets he was living in. While in high school, Kelly began participating in talent shows and was told by one of his music teachers that he was going to be a star at singing. Upon graduating, however, Kelly allegedly tried to make ends meet by being a stripper. When that failed, he decided to follow his dream of singing, first performing in Chicago's train stations and in other areas of the street by piano.
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 Break (hosted by
Natalie Cole) the following year and won. His manager at the time, David Hyatt, introduced him to Wayne Williams at
Jive Records. Sometime around 1991 he met
Barry Hankerson. Hankerson became his full time manager after David Hyatt was sentenced in prison for running a large midwest drug ring. In late 1991 Kelly was introduced to
Aaliyah, and his then group Public Announcement recorded much of what would be "Born Into the '90s" at a recording studio Kelly leased. Within a few months, songs like "She's Got that Vibe", "Slow Dance", "Dedicated", and "Honey Love" would be the featured songs in
Born Into the '90s, which was released several days after Kelly's 25th birthday in January 1992. A huge
R&B success, the album would yield the featured songs as the hits and would eventually go Platinum selling over a million copies.
12 Play and Aaliyah
By 1993, Kelly had left the group to forge a solo career released his solo debut,
12 Play. The album yielded the top 40 singles, "Sex Me (Pt. 1)", the
#1 hit, "Bump & Grind", and "Your Body's Callin'". In 1994, he had completed singer
Aaliyah's debut album,
Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. Released that summer, the album eventually went
platinum on the strength of singles like "Back and Forth" and "At Your Best".
Kelly and Aaliyah illegally married 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, going on to a hugely successful career that came to a tragic end when she died in a
plane crash on
August 25,
2001. Allegations of dalliances with underage girls would come back to haunt Kelly nearly ten years later, but at the time, rumors of the marriage were brushed off with denials.
R. Kelly: the Singer, songwriter and producer
After his brush with controversy, Kelly returned to the studio to record his third album (his second solo effort). He released his self-titled album in 1995, which was a big success like its predecessor, 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 singer
Ronald Isley of the famed
Isley Brothers, "Down Low". The album was hailed by some as the singer's most mature record. Before then, people had perceived Kelly to be a
sexual deviant because of the lyrics on
12 Play.
In 1995, Kelly found his huge success as a songwriter penning hits for
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 album in 1995). The latter single became the first in music history to debut atop the
Billboard Hot 100 at #1. SABAM, Belgian right society however confirmed that the tune of the song was originally composed in 1993 by Eddy & Danny Van Passel, veteran Belgian songwriters, producers and music publishers. This was brought to the respective courts' attention in the United States in 2005 but has yet to be proven.
"I Believe I Can Fly", R., "Sparkle", TP-2.Com
In 1996, Kelly would release his most successful single up to that time with the theme song from the Michael Jordan movie,
Space Jam - "
I Believe I Can Fly". The inspirational song became a #2 single and helped Kelly win three Grammy Awards including
Best R&B Song. He was also nominated in the Song of the Year and Record of the Year categories for that particular song. Kelly took two years off from music until coming back with the ambitious double
concept album,
R. in 1998. That album featured a hit duet with pop superstar
Céline Dion titled "I'm Your Angel", which became Kelly's second #1 single on the Billboard pop singles chart. Other hits included "When A Woman's Fed Up" and "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time".
R. would become Kelly's biggest-selling album in the US, selling over 8 million copies there.
During the same year of his own release: the
R. album, Kelly also found time to completely produce, write and arrange an album for the debut artist of his
Rockland imprint. R&B singer
Sparkle had a massive hit atop the R&B charts for 6 weeks with the track "Be Careful", a duet with Kelly himself about the tribulations of a broken marriage, much in the vein of his own "When a Woman's Fed Up". Despite the hit, Sparkle's career never got going and the singer called it quits with Kelly, returning two years later on
Motown with a tepid effort, no longer promoted by Kelly's superstar backing. Sparkle would later return to the spotlight speaking against Kelly during his court case for child pornography, claiming the girl in the video was her niece.
In 2000, Kelly returned with
TP-2.com, which was promoted as a sequel to his 1993 classic album
Twelve Play. The biggest singles weren't based on his sexual prowess - "I Wish" was dedicated to the people Kelly adored who had died, and "Fiesta" (whose
remix version featured acclaimed rapper
Jay-Z) was about partying. Only the third single, "Feelin' On Your Booty", showcased what the majority of the album demonstrated.
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
|
R. Kelly in the police mugshot |
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 on. 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.
According to
E! Online, there have been several other lawsuits against R. Kelly. One was from a female dancer who claimed 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. [
1] Recently in his sex trial, it's been announced that the sex tape that allegedly shows Kelly and an underage girl, will be given a public showing in court. A trial date still has not been set.
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." Despite the controversy, Kelly's success had continued not only with his own project but also with now-defunct
boy band B2K when he produced the #1 hit "Bump, Bump, Bump". He nearly produced an entire album by frequent collaborators
The Isley Brothers, titled
Body Kiss, which became the group's first album in their career to debut at #1.
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."
* 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.
* 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.
*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."
* In 1997, Kelly signed a contract to play professional
basketball for the
Atlantic City Seagulls of the
USBL.
For a detailed listing of albums and singles, see R. Kelly discography.Albums
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album |
! width="30">| 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 | 8 | 75 | 12 Play |
| 1994 | "Bump n' Grind" | 1 (4 weeks) | 1 (12 weeks) | 8 | 12 Play |
| 1994 | "Your Body's Callin'" | 13 | 2 | 19 | 12 Play |
| 1994 | "Summer Bunnies'" | 55 | 20 | 23 | 12 Play |
| 1995 | "You Remind Me of Something" | 4 | 1 (1 week) | - | R. Kelly |
| 1996 | "Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)"
(feat. Ernie Isley & Ronald Isley) | 4 | 1 (7 weeks) | - | R. Kelly |
| 1996 | "Thank God It's Friday | - | - (7 | 23 | R. Kelly| 1996 | "I Can't Sleep Baby (If I)" | 5 | 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 | 1 (6 weeks) | 1 | Space Jam Soundtrack| 1997 | "Gotham City" | 9 | 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) | 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 | 5 | 2 | R. | | 2000 | "Satisfy You (P. Diddy featuring R.Kelly)" | 2 | 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 | 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 Y Yandel) | TBA | TBA | TBA | TP.3 Reloaded | |
| | | | | |
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)*
Best selling music artists*
Celebrity sex tape*
*
MTV News: The R. Kelly Reports. (with Illinois charges)
*
VH1 News.*
Florida charges.*
R Kelly Fan Site/Backup Message Board.*
#1 R Kelly Message Board with up to date info for his fans. Since July 2003.*
R. Kelly music database.*
R.Kelly´s Lyrics.*
Judge refuses to drop R. Kelly porn case. ( 2005 Reuters Limited )
