the R in R&B

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.

Stop the Bull----!!!!!!!!

This is an official stop the bull**** message.

It's been a while, but there's a lot of b.s. going on. So much that I had to use capital letters and (hopefully) proper grammar (we'll see on that one).

It's December 2009 and some things are happening as they should. People are getting set for Christmas, buying things again. The economy seems to be slowly turning for the good. But there are some things that make me want to scream "stop the bull****!!!!"

R. Kelly released a new album on the first of the month. I previewed the album. This old man is yodeling. Yodeling, son!!!!!!! Why Kells? Some things that the Pied Piper does never really surprise me. He sings about sex so much, that I've been desensitized by most of what he says. We've seen and heard so much crazy come from him (the Trapped in the Closet series for example) and Robert Sylvester Kelly doesn't believe in hinting. The Teflon Don, as I would like to call him, has a blunt method that surprising has worked for 10 albums...very few R&B artists in this day have (maybe 3). But Kells, c'mon son! You're singing about banging the headboard and really that makes me think more of your scandals. Apparently you are done with I Believe I Can Fly type songs. The first line to a song called Text Me is "Text me back something freaky. Let me know just how you want to do me." Is that how Tiger got caught? Anyway, this dude is over 40 writing the same type of material he wrote almost 20 years ago.

I now wish to address tattoos. I've often fantasized about getting a tattoo or two, but due to professional reasons, money and overall courage I haven't. There are some people who don't have this problem. Instead their problem is the opposite. They have too much money, courage, and tattoos happen to help their profession and/or credibility. Take Lil Wayne for example...he has another face tattoo...don't believe me, check it out.


That's a series of stars on the side of his face. This kind of doesn't surprise me more than the glasses he's wearing. It's just not a hot look. By the way, his umpteenth baby mama gave birth to his umpteenth baby (for those keeping score, that 2 in less than 6 months...I think 4 that we know of. He took that Every Girl song literally) But anyway, back to tattoos. Example number 2, the one that Wayne be stuntin' like, Baby (aka Birdman)


Um...a star on the stop of your head? For real, son? I guess he wants to be spotted from a birds eye view.

Anyway, I was going to write a blog about Hip Hop and gay. I still may do it. It will focus on Hip Hop's problem with the gay culture...sayings like "no homo" and others have gone a little far, and the lyrics don't make things better. On top of that, rappers try to depict themselves as "hard", but sometimes their lyrics and album covers don't help that image. And then some tend to do stupid things like this on stage.


Um...why are two dudes on the stage in their drawers? No comment.

Last but not least: Tiger Woods. I think he leads a sad life. He's intense. Tiger is an elite athlete that focuses so much on winning major championships. He doesn't think much about the other tournaments and probably not much of anything else for that matter. According to his latest statement, he uses words like "sins" and "transgressions". For a pro athlete, these words are serious...perhaps too intense. I think that he will stress himself out more than the media and other critics. He's a private person that takes things way too serious. I am not giving him a pass, by any means, but intense people like Tiger tend to ruin their own lives before other people get the chance. I wouldn't be surprised if he spent more time on the golf course trying to win majors. He may take a page from Kobe Bryant's book. Kobe made sure that his game didn't fall off, he became even more dominant. Tiger may try to do that, but with that the microscope will be on him even more for the next year or two...or until something really great or terrible happens. Regarding the accident, he must have been distraught to get into an accident coming out of the driveway.

Anyway...R. Kelly, Baby, Wayne, and yes even you Tiger: stop the bull****!