| R. Kelly | |
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R. Kelly performs in his "Light It Up Tour" in 2006. |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Robert Sylvester Kelly |
| Born | January 8, 1967 (age 44) |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Contemporary R&B, Pop Rap, Gospel |
| Occupations | Singer, Songwriter, Actor, Remixer, Arranger, Rapper |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, keyboard, guitar |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | Jive, RCA |
| Associated acts | Public Announcement, Jay-Z, Ginuwine, Boo & Gotti, Twista |
| Website | r-kelly.com |
Robert Sylvester Kelly (Born January 8, 1967), better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Often referred to as the King of R&B, Kelly is recognized as one of the most successful R&B artists of all-time. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play. He is known for a collection of major hit singles including "Bump n' Grind", "Your Body's Callin'", "I Believe I Can Fly", "Gotham City", "Ignition (Remix)", "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time", "The World's Greatest", "I'm a Flirt", and the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet". In 1997, Kelly won three Grammy Awards for "I Believe I Can Fly".
Kelly has also written, produced and remixed songs for many artists including Ronald Isley and The Isley Brothers, The Winans, Charlie Wilson, Quincy Jones, Luther Vandross, K-Ci & JoJo, Hi-Five, N-Phase, Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Maxwell, Kelly Price, Gerald LeVert, Jaheim, Raheem DeVaughn, Tamia, Syleena Johnson, Britney Spears, Usher, Ray J, Ginuwine, Tyrese, Marques Houston, B2K, Twista, Ciara, Nivea, Nick Cannon, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, and Jennifer Lopez among others.[1][2]
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has recognized R. Kelly as one of the best-selling music artists in United Sates with 33.5 million albums sold.[3] In March 2011, R. Kelly was named the most successful R&B artist of the last 25 years by Billboard.[4][5][6] According to Sony Music Entertainment, Kelly has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making Kelly one of the best-selling music artists of all-time.[7] As one of the world's most prolific artists, Kelly's talent, longevity and achievements reflect on his impact in redefining the scope of R&B and popular music today. Throughout his career, Kelly has been cited as an inspiration among numerous singers and songwriters.
Born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Kelly was the third of four children.[8] Kelly's single mother, Joanne, was a singer and a Baptist. Kelly's father was absent throughout most of Kelly's life.[9] Kelly began singing in church at age eight.[8] In Chicago, Kelly's family lived in the projects at 63rd Street before relocating to a small house at 107th and Parnell Streets. Kelly entered Kenwood Academy in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in the fall of 1980 where he met his music teacher Lena McLin, who encouraged Kelly to perform the Stevie Wonder classic Ribbon in the Sky in a highschool talent show.[9][10][11] 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 1989, Kelly and McWilliams formed the group MGM (Musically Gifted Men).[12] 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.[8]
Kelly and the group Public Announcement released their debut album, Born into the 90's, in early 1992. 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.[13] During late 1992, Kelly and Public Announcement embarked on a tour called "60653", whose title was the zip code of Kelly's neighborhood.[8] Kelly left Public Announcement in January 1993.[9]
Kelly's 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 Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart. Subsequent hit singles were "Your Body's Callin'" and "Sex Me".[13] 12 Play was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1994, eventually going six times platinum.[14] Kelly also produced Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, the 1994 debut album by R&B singer Aaliyah. Kelly was attributed to writing "You Are Not Alone" for Michael Jackson for Jackson's 1995 album, HIStory, but has been faced with allegations of plagiarism. During this time, as well as writing and producing, Kelly also became known for his remixes. He remixed his own songs, "Bump N Grind", "Your Body's Callin" featuring Aaliyah, and "Sex Me", as well as songs for other artists including Aaliyah, Changing Faces, and Toni Braxton. He also produced a remix for Janet Jackson's 1994 hit "Any Time, Any Place"
Kelly's success continued with the release of his second solo album, R. Kelly, popular for the singles "You Remind Me of Something", "I Can't Sleep (Baby If I)", and "Down Low", a duet with Ronald Isley. Kelly's self-titled album sold four million copies, thus receiving 4× platinum certification from the RIAA.[14] Kelly promoted the album with a 50-city "Down Low Top Secret Tour" with LL Cool J, Xscape, and Solo. In May 1996 Kelly was featured on the cover of Ebony Man (EM) magazine with the headline proclaiming "R. Kelly The new King of R&B" where he discussed touring, working with Quincy Jones, Toni Braxton, and Janet Jackson ("When I first met them, I could tell they liked my albums. There was always a certain song they named off my album. They said they wanted something like that." Braxton liked "My Body's Calling".), as well as his influences Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway ("The way he approached the woman he loved in his songs. He didn't hold back" he says of Hathaway. "He was raw with what he had to say. And Marvin Gaye was the same.") and Michael Jackson's dedication to music ("He's another person that I feel is married to his music. That's why we related so well.")
In 1996, Kelly released one of his most successful singles with "I Believe I Can Fly", an inspirational song originally released on the soundtrack for the film Space Jam. "I Believe I Can Fly" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the UK charts for three weeks and won three Grammy Awards in 1998.[13] Rolling Stone magazine named it as the 406th of its top 500 songs of all time.[15] For the film Batman & Robin, Kelly recorded the top ten single "Gotham City".[13]
In 1997, Kelly fulfilled a longtime dream of his and signed a contract to play basketball with the Atlantic City Seagulls of the USBL. Kelly wore the number 12 in honor of his album 12 Play.[16] Kelly said "I love basketball enough to not totally let go of my music, but just put it to the side for a minute, and fulfill some dreams of mine that I've had for a long time." Kelly's USBL contract contained a clause that would allow him to fulfill a music obligation when necessary. "If Whitney Houston needs a song written", Gross said, "he would be able to leave the team to do that and come back". Kelly is believed to be the first music artist to play professional basketball.[17]
In 1998, Kelly released R., his is the fourth studio album and first double album. It was released in the United States on November 17, 1998 (see 1998 in music). It was the first time that Kelly allowed other record producers to produce or co-produce on his album, as opposed to producing the entire album himself, and his first time collaborating with various artists on his album. It is currently Kelly's biggest selling album to date, selling 8 million copies in the US according to RIAA.
R. went to number one on the R&B albums chart as the third album to do so, and went second place on the Billboard 200 chart. It spawned Kelly's second number one U.S. pop hit, "I'm Your Angel", a duet with Celine Dion. The album also contains the number one R&B hit, "I Believe I Can Fly", which had been released two years earlier on the Space Jam soundtrack.
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 film 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 follow-up to his album TP-2.com, titled Loveland. 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 rerecorded the entire album, titled Chocolate Factory, which featured several of the bootlegged tracks on the bonus Loveland disc.
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" were also popular singles. "Snake", incidentally, became the basis of the dancehall reggae riddim known as Baghdad. Later that year Kelly followed that success by releasing his first 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.
The Unfinished Business 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 were not 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.[18] 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.[19]
On May 29, 2007, R Kelly released his eighth studio album Double Up, which 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.[20]
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 showing up to another preliminary court hearing on his case due to his tour bus being held up in Utah.[21] 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.[22]
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. Billboard also named Kelly among the most successful artists ever for its 50th Anniversary List.[23] In the spring, the first promotional single "Hair Braider", peaked at No. 56 on Billboard's R&B chart. On July 28, the entire album leaked online.[24] The album was then pushed back to be released in the fall. On September 18, Kelly released the video to the second promotional 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 'n' Skrewed" 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 was available on iTunes as a free download the first week it was released.
On June 3, 2009, Kelly released his first ever mixtape, The Demo Tape (Gangsta Grillz) presented by DJ Skee and DJ Drama as a way to reintroduce himself to fans.[25]
While at the Velvet Room in Atlanta in February 2009, Kelly announced that he was out there working on the album and that it would be called Untitled.[26] The album was given a September 29, 2009 release date,[27] but was delayed until October 13, 2009. The album release was again delayed and was released under Jive Records on December 1, 2009. It got mixed to positive reviews from critics. The single "Number One", which features Keri Hilson, peaked at #8 on the US R&B Chart.
Kelly performed for the first time in Africa headlining the Arise African Fashion Awards in Johannesburg, South Africa on June 20, 2009.[28] Kelly scheduled to perform in Cape Town before heading to Nigeria as part of the annual ThisDay music and fashion festival in July. Kelly also performed in Kampala, Uganda in January 2010. He also scheduled to perform in London as part of his first international tour in eight years, but he did not make his London concert. "I'm very excited about my first visit to Africa, I've dreamed about this for a long time and it's finally here," Kelly said in a statement. "It will be one of the highlights of not only my career but my life. I can't wait to perform in front of my fans in Africa — who have been some of the best in the world."[29]
Kelly performed the inspirational song "Sign of a Victory" at the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony on June 11, 2010.[30]
On July 13, 2010, a song called "Tongues" surfaced, reportedly the lead single from Kelly's upcoming album Zodiac. The song is produced by Bangladesh and features Ludacris.[31] The first single from Love Letter is called "When a Woman Loves". The music video for the song was released in August 2010.
In an interview in the September 2010 issue of XXL magazine, Kelly mentioned that he is currently working on three new albums entitled "Epic", Love Letter, and Zodiac".
On September 13, 2010, Kelly released one of his three new albums, Epic. A collection of Kelly's most "epic" ballads, including five new songs; the compilation was only released in Europe.
Kelly's latest album Love Letter was released on December 14, 2010 worldwide. The album includes 15 songs, the latter being a bonus track which is a cover of Michael Jackson's "You Are Not Alone", which was written and produced by Kelly as well. The next single, "Love Letter" and "A Love Letter Christmas", the Christmas remix to "Love Letter", were released as singles on November 22, 2010. Love Letter has been critically acclaimed by music critics and highly-praised by critics and fans alike. The first single "When a Woman Loves" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. In promotion of "Love Letter" he performed at the 2010 Soul Train Music Awards and on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. All songs on the album were written and produced by Kelly.
Recently, Kelly collaborated with several African musicians forming a supergroup known as One8. The group features 2Face from Nigeria, Alikiba from Tanzania, Congolese singer Fally Ipupa, 4X4 from Ghana, hip-hop artist Movaizhaleine from Gabon, Zambia's JK, Ugandan hip-hop star Navio and Kenya's Amani, the only female in the group. The first release from the group is "Hands Across the World" written and produced by Kelly.[32][33]
In March 2011, Kelly was named the #1 R&B artist of the last 25 years by Billboard.[4][5][6]
Kelly is currently working on his memoirs entitled Soulacoaster, expected to be released in the Spring 2012.
After a July 1996 brawl at a Lafayette, Louisiana health club involving bodyguard William Robert Savy, Kelly was placed on a year's unsupervised probation starting August 13, 1997. One of the victims, Christopher Mahoney, needed 110 facial stitches.[34]
Kelly was arrested on April 8, 1998 on three misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, including one charge on violating noise ordinance for playing loud music from his car.[35] Prosecutors from the district attorney's office dropped the first two charges on May 7 and the noise charge on July 22 that year.[36][37]
On February 3, 2002, a video allegedly showing Kelly engaging in sex with, and urinating on, an alleged 14 year old girl surfaced. The girl defended R. Kelly, later saying that she consented. The story, that was released by an unknown source, was sent to the Chicago Sun-Times, the newspaper that broke the story. Kelly denied that he was the man in the video.[38] Bootleg copies of that tape became widely available on the black market and over file sharing networks.[39] In June 2002, authorities searched Kelly's house in Davenport, Florida. Officers allegedly found pictures of an alleged underage girl on a digital camera – wrapped in a towel in a duffel bag.,[40] Kelly was arrested in January 2003 on those charges. In March 2004 these charges were dropped due to a lack of probable cause for the search warrants.[41] In June 2002, Kelly was indicted in Chicago on 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.[42]
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.[43] 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 pleaded not guilty) would be in attendance on the next trial date of February 21, 2007.[44] It had previously been announced by the court that the videotape that allegedly showed Kelly performing sex acts with an underage girl would 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.[45] 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 Kelly not guilty of all 14 counts.[46]
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