R. Kelly by R. Kelly - RYM/Sonemic (2024)

godson14 May 15 2003

R. Kelly starts this disc off with a straight-up gospel sermon, and his vocal style is well-suited to it. He learned his craft in church, and he gives praise to God on the disc's liner notes. Of course, the second song is called "Hump Bounce," so that also tells you where this popular, strong-voiced soul singer is coming from.

Kelly sings about different aspects of love, sex, and relationships, with a style that owes much to those who came before him--Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and a host of others who refined and perfected the art of expression through vocalization. His formula is simple: take a slow or mid-tempo modern R&B structure, add a healthy dose of gospel-inflected vocal runs, up and and down the scale, and Presto!--another hit.

Kelly's material is almost all of the slow-groove style. This is music to make out to, plain and simple, and Kelly is good at what he does. On "Not Gonna Hold On," Kelly and producer Barry Hankerson create a truly hypnotic jam, one that gives the singer room to flex his impressive vocal chops. The arrangement is spare, with just a steady drum tap, and a synthesized keyboard flowing like rainwater behind the background vocal track. Kelly knows how to create a mood, and he does it over and over again.

Published

nicsu Mar 21 2024

self-titled church album

R. Kelly busting out a self-titled album as his sophom*ore attempt. Imagine "12 Play" but replace the aggressive hip-hop sound with a more flesh out gospel theme. It works for the most part and Kelly does keep his Hip-Hop influences on his sleeve for this, which adds extra depth to this sound.

It's good.

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schicken46 Feb 04 2021

This is my first R. Kelly record and it is incredibly hard to know what to do with it knowing about the man. I have not watched Surviving R. Kelly yet, but I have listened to the Behind the Bastards episodes about him. I know he is a terrible person and he's basically gotten away with it. And now I'm supposed to review his singing and songwriting chops.
Kelly writes catchy songs. There's no denying that. His albums are long and yet I don't get as exhausted as I should. That's a testament to both his skills as a songwriter and as an arranger (more on that in a minute). I think there are so many things you can criticize about R. Kelly the person and the performer, but the melodies don't appear to be one of them.
Now, his lyrics are pretty problematic, though that is way more true of his later music than this record. There are fewer "oh science, I know what he's singing about" moments on this record than there are on (the hilariously named) TP-2.com, which I am listening to at the same time. (Both have November release dates.) The thing that is impressive to me, in terms of craft, is his deviation from R&B lyric-formula. He's very comfortable singing words that don't quite rhyme or don't scan. And, if he was a different human being, I might be very impressed by this. It's certainly unconventional. And he pulls it off.
Which brings us to his voice. I am not super blown away by his instrument - that's not to say he's a bad singer only that I don't think he is, from a technical perspective, one of the great singers of all time. (He is not Whitney, Mariah, etc.) But his skill is very much at using the studio with his voice, to do different things and to create a whole wall of R. Kelly in these songs. He's certainly one of the more talented vocal arrangers in R&B history (that I've heard). And that, combined with his technical chops and unique approach to lyrics, makes him truly unique, as far as I know, in the history of the genre.
And then there's the fact that he plays many of the instruments himself. (I cannot confirm what percentage.) That's another thing that makes him extremely impressive as a musician - he is a very good singer, he's a great vocal arranger, he's a pretty good songwriter, and he's a multi-instrumentalist.
I don't think he's a good producer, but I feel like that's true of virtually every R&B producer of the 1990s. If he wasn't so in love with the cliches of '90s R&B album production, I would struggle much more with this record and the person he is.
I used to not care at all about the people who made art, whether or not that art was great. I wanted to evaluate the art on its own merits. But, at the same time, I would insist that art exists in time, and so I would try to judge art by where it sat in history. The thing is, history involves people, including the artist. And the artist has choices just like all of us. I can no longer ignore the personal choices artists make when those choices harm people. If I'm aware of those actions, they have to factor into what I think of the art, just like the art's context in time.
I know R. Kelly had a bad life before he got famous. I cannot imagine what it was like to grow up like he did. My life has been so fortunate in comparison. But then he got rich. Because of his abilities, for sure. And he now has resources he didn't have as a child. But, instead, he uses his money - and the things he learned as a child - to actively harm people. And he has not faced any real consequences. And I can't ignore that.
He is an incredibly impressive musical talent, making music I don't particularly like. But he is a terrible person who has ruined the lives of multiple women. And, unfortunately, his musical talent just isn't enough to make up for that.

Published

djiaind Jul 09 2012

1Intro - The Sermon 3:20 2.50 Average I find this opening, unconvincing.
2Hump Bounce 4:06 4.00 Excellent I think I would have opened with this
3Not Gonna Hold On 4:04 3.50 Above Average
4You Remind Me of Something4:10 4.00 Excellent
5Step in My Room 3:48 3.50 Pretty Cool. Closing on 4.00.
6Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby 4:20 3.00 Above Average
7(You to Be) Happy (feat. The Notorious B.I.G.) 4:36 3.50 Pretty Good
8Down Low (Nobody Has to Know) (feat. Ronald Isley & Ernie Isley) 4:48 3.00 Above Average (Great to see The Isleys still there)
9I Can't Sleep Baby (If I) 5:31 2.50 Average (Nice performance as usual, but lacking sparkle)
10Thank God It's Friday 3:54 3.00 Above Average
11Love Is on the Way 3:02 4.00 Excellent, laid back track
12Heaven If You Hear Me 0:57 3.50 Pretty good, but short, M.Gaye reminder
13Religious Love 4:12 3.50 Pretty good.
14Tempo Slow 4:10 3.50 Pretty good
15As I Look Into My Life 1:30 2.50 Average Different style but not I'm not v.impressed
16Trade in My Life 6:21 3.00 Above Average. A final, longer track might be defining. This
isn't
Overall 3.28 Above Average

Published

Nodima Feb 01 2012

R. Kelly (Produced by R. Kelly) [Jive Records 1995]

1|Intro - The Sermon|3:20 3.5 - 4
2|Hump Bounce|4:06 4
3|Not Gonna Hold On|4:04 3.25 - 4
4|You Remind Me of Something|4:10 4
5|Step in My Room|3:48 4 - 4.5
It's certainly an option to be creeped out by this song.
6|Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby|4:20 4 - 4.25
7|(You to Be) Happy (feat. The Notorious B.I.G.)|4:36 4.25 - 5
8|Down Low (Nobody Has to Know) (feat. Ronald Isley & Ernie Isley)|4:48 5
9|I Can't Sleep Baby (If I)|5:31 2 - 2.5
R. Kelly would totally rewrite this song as the vastly superior "I Believe I Can Fly" later, so I've never really been into it. The cheese is too thick, even if it helps change the pace.
10|Thank God It's Friday|3:54 4 - 4.5
11|Love Is on the Way|3:02 4
12|Heaven If You Hear Me|0:57 3
13|Religious Love|4:12 4 - 4.75
14|Tempo Slow|4:10 4 - 4.5
15|As I Look Into My Life|1:30 3 - 3.25
16|Trade in My Life|6:21 3 - 3.5

Overall: 61 - 62.75 3.87/5 76 - 78%: Solid; few major reservations; TRY IT

R. Kelly is the R. Kelly that's gone largely forgotten in a decade twice removed from smooth-rolling R&B's heyday, a world where "Ignition", "I'm a Flirt" and of course "Trapped in the Closet" carry more cultural capital than a "Hump Bounce" or "Down Low" many, many times over. But it doesn't deserve to be that way, because R. Kelly is one of the few albums Kelly's released while feeling challenged by his peers, and when the R in R&B is on his A-game it's a great sound. Younger fans won't find the absurdist streaks that both bolster and deflate his modern material, but you can definitely feel him winking at you with subject juxtapositions like "The Sermon" and "Hump Bounce" or "Down Low" and "Religious Love". And, you know, that one song nobody's ever heard of where he spends four minutes using vehicle metaphors to explain how he plans to treat a woman in bed. R. Kelly is a lot like a distilled version of his Happy People/U Saved Me dual release, with half the tracks dedicated to sensuality and joy while the other half deals with his religious struggles. There's even a stepping track in "Thank God It's Friday". R. Kelly's light on jokes but, really, once you've cut a record like "You Remind Me of Something" it's probably okay to pump the brakes (...!) on humor for the rest of the LP.

Obviously some folks will probably find R. Kelly a little too brooding and moody as a result; this album is probably the most focused on vocal runs and showy Blackness than any of his others save maybe 12 Play, which means it's pretty light on straight up songwriting. I mean, there's verses and everything, but don't expect anything nuanced that might get in the way of R. Kelly doing his thing. If you're a fan of great, churchy vocals, smoothed out, hip-hop inflected R&B and subtly infectious melodies (for many current R&B artists, sadly, a lost art) R. Kelly is definitely a CD to add to the collection. I can totally understand if you just have to skip it due to his legal history; if I couldn't help but picture him peeing on young women while listening to this I'd probably struggle to praise it so much, too. But if you're able to cast aside personal issues in favor of sheer musical talent, this guy's really the closest thing his generation has to a Prince-like figure and he really deserves a little more respect in that regard.

Published