My official comments on Mr Robert Sylvester Kelly also known as R. Kelly.
He released an album entitled Untitled back in December. Now long before that, he released his first mixtape. I honestly didn't care much for the mixtape for a number of reasons. The main reason is the fact that an artist that's been around for 20 years, an artist that has been a trendsetter and an influence for younger artists has no real ground to gain by simply trying to do something that everybody does nowadays.
With that said, I am glad this dude cut the braids. Is it me, or did he start growing those out a little late in his career. I'm not even 30 yet and I think I'm too old to start getting my hair braided. He was at least three albums deep into his solo career by the time braids appeared.
But I digress, let's talk about this Untitled album shall we? In many ways, it's R. Kelly in a return to form. I always felt like it was past time for him to leave the "closet" alone and make a R&B album again. Trapped In the Closet was a theatrical train wreck and yet we couldn't stop watching it. Double Up was okay but there were way too many cameos...much like a weak rap album. Untitled has four songs that feature cameos and most of them are in good taste (good taste as the Kells can be).
We do see R. do something different in this album. Songs like Be My #2, and I Love the DJ are very much dance inspired that's not of the stepping in the name of love variety. This is the type of variety that I've always wanted to see from R. Kelly, granted it did take years and years to actually get around to it. After that though, we have the old R. Kelly in songs like Echo and Text Me.
R Kelly has an innate ability to sing about sex in the most blunt (and ignorant at times) ways, there are no hidden messages in his songs. If he says "girl you make me wanna get you pregnant", he literally means that. You would think that a man who has been the center of many sex scandals would watch what he says more closely; but, a tiger can't change it's stripes and neither can Kells.
The one thing that I wondered before ever listening to the album was, "why is the album called Untitled?" After listening to the album, I figured it out. This album is pretty much disjointed. There isn't a through-line or a song that encompasses the sound of the album. I would think that someone who has not only written many hits for himself, but for others would have one song that could represent the album. There are songs on this album that I do like for different reasons, but I can't consistently play the entire album like any of his first few albums.
I'm not going to grade this album, but I will say that if you've never ever heard a R Kelly album, listen to this one. There's some fun songs, songs with interesting lyric choices, and the typical song that you may want to add to your "slow jam I'm trying to get some" playlist.
With all of that said, I wish to add something about Mr Kelly. The difference between him and Jay-Z (since they're about the same age). Is that Jay-Z has progressed more as an artist, his content has grown and yet he's still been relevant. R Kelly on the other hand hasn't really shown much progression after 20 years, and I wonder, what would happen if Kells was tired of sex? Would he have anything to talk about?
Maybe, but probably not.
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