R. Kelly

Sign the Petition to Change the National Anthem to R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)"

Have you been feeling that the National Anthem is getting a bit tired? Feel like you need to spice up your sense of patriotism? Well, then thank God for the internet and R. Kelly. See also: What's So Funny About A Little Bump N' Grind? R. Kelly, Frank Ocean, And The "Right" Kind Of R&B

K. Michelle

Happy Birthday Ignition: Let's All Bounce, Bounce, Bounce to R. Kelly's 11 Best Food Lyrics

R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)" celebrated its 10th birthday yesterday (which means the crooner is probably giving the song a second look right about now -- sorry!). The tune was one of Kelly's best, and helped convince exhausted party-goers everywhere to hit the hotel lobby before going home. In hon ... More >>

R. Kelly Got Jokes

Sex addict, preacher, comedian: the many sides of r&b's Pied Piper

Two New Tracks On Whitney's Greatest Hits

When I Will Always Love You--The Best Of Whitney Houston drops on November 13, it wil include two new cuts: *A duet version of "I Look To You" with R. Kelly, which producer Clive Davis swears is an instant classic. *And "Never Give Up," written by Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox and Johnta Austi ... More >>

What's So Funny About A Little Bump N' Grind? R. Kelly, Frank Ocean, And The "Right" Kind Of R&B

In case you haven't yet gotten your fill, over the past couple of years, of artists beating Aaliyah samples into a flavorless pulp, not to worry—Yeasayer frontman Chris Keating has got your back. In a Rolling Stone interview published this week, Keating recalls being struck by watching high sc ... More >>

R. Kelly's NYC Soulacoaster Signing Has Been Rescheduled for August 10 (For Now)

R. Kelly's Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me was supposed to be a soul-baring memoir. "I'm tired of being misunderstood," he said 2009 SmileyBooks statement. "I will show you the tears, fears, and sweat. I will open my heart and reveal the good in my life as well as all the drama." Soulacoaster was sl ... More >>

R. Kelly's Write Me Back Rides The Retro Soulacoaster

Around this time last year, I saw R. Kelly at the Prudential Center, and it was one of the most impressive live spectacles I've been witness to in my two-plus decades of attending big arena shows; there was an onstage bar complete with cocktail-shaking mixologist, an acapella reworking of his 1994 s ... More >>

R. Kelly's Memoir Soulacoaster Finally Has a Release Date: Next Thursday, June 28 (!!!)

Remember last fall's hullabaloo surrounding R. Kelly's memoir Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me? First announced back in December 2009, Kelly's book was originally slated for last November 15, but then mysteriously disappeared from online retailers a few days earlier, only to be pushed back to spring 20 ... More >>

R. Kelly Goes Back To Basics With "Share My Love"

R. Kelly's 2010 throwback album Love Letter was one of my favorite records of that year, full of romance and and aesthetics that grabbed from Sam Cooke, late-night smooth-jazz playlists. ("Taxi Cab," in particular, is a corker.) His follow-up to Love Letter is reportedly going to be called Write Me ... More >>

R. Kelly's Book Might Be In Limbo, But He Has A New Song

​R. Kelly took the publicity storm engendered by the news of his possibly upcoming memoir Soulacoaster to release a song via his Twitter account. The track's titled "Shut Up," and it's dedicated to those people who doubted that he'd be able to come back... from the emergency throat surgery he ... More >>

R. Kelly's Memoir Soula Coaster Is Not Coming Out Next Week. And Maybe Not At All? (Updated)

The mysterious case of Soula Coaster's disappearance This isn't a surprising development, but it's an unfortunate one. There seems to be some unexplained drama with the R. Kelly life-changer Soula Coaster: Diary of Me, the cover of which made the rounds this morning. Online bookseller Indigo has th ... More >>

Live: R. Kelly Does It His Way At The Prudential Center

​ R. Kelly w/Keyshia Cole, Marsha Ambrosius Prudential Center Thursday, June 30 Better than: A 45-minute R. Kelly show. It's probably fitting that R. Kelly is opening his shows with a black-and-white film, starring him, one where he's at first bummed out while dressed to the nines and sitti ... More >>

R. Kelly Is Hanging On The Telephone

​ R. Kelly's 2010 album Love Letter sparkles with old-school tropes from top to bottom, so it makes sense that he'd go back to the time when terrestrial radio still mattered for the video for the pleading "Radio Message." He somehow manages to parlay calling into a Chicago radio station at pre ... More >>

R&B Serenity Now: R. Kelly, Ne-Yo, and Others Keep the Quiet-Storm Flame Alive

Watch R. Kelly Kick Off the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

The song is "Sign of a Victory," R. Kelly's Soweto Spiritual Singers-assisted bonkers paean to the evils of global warming and the glory of rainbows, the light at the end of the tunnel, the spirit of nations, sung with the bombastic, reality-denying conviction that is Kelly's signature. He perform ... More >>

Yes! R. Kelly Joins Shakira On the World Cup South Africa Anthem Circuit

​Complete with obligatory ambient animals-on-the-veldt noises! In the vaunted twin R. Kelly lineages--raunchy, metaphorically-detailed sex jams, and completely unrealistic, head-in-the-clouds inspirational homilies--official World Cup anthem (one of three, anyway) "Sign of a Victory" is firmly ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Sam Amidon, Courtney Love, Little Brother, Harlem's Afro-Cuban Renaissance, Roky Erickson, The Human Centipede, and More

Little Brother: happy or not, it's an ending. Photo by Studio Kompleks​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla falls hard for Sam Amidon, the gentle, affable, R. Kelly-covering young folkie, while Camille Dodero applies a lifetime of Courtney Love-related knowledge to Hole's new Nobody's Da ... More >>

The Eerie Relief of Sam Amidon

The gentle, affable, bewildering young folkie banters bizarrely, covers R. Kelly beautifully

Big-Shot Chicago Sun-Times Rock Critic Jim DeRogatis Is Bound For Academia

Critic, author, radio show co-host, professional R. Kelly antagonizer, and all-around polarizing pop-music raconteur Jim DeRogatis announced his resignation from the Chicago Sun-Times late yesterday, where's he held down the pop-critic spot for nearly two decades, give or take a brief, unhappy sti ... More >>

Jimmy Kimmel Exposes the Aziz Ansari/Major Lazer Connection

Never in my life did I think I'd witness a late night TV bit that turned on explaining to a national audience who exactly Skeritt Bwoy is, and why you might see him at a Major Lazer concert. You've got to give it to Aziz Ansari--from Kanye to R. Kelly to Diplo and Switch, he keeps music-related jo ... More >>

R. Kelly Is Preparing His Memoirs

​"I'm writing this book as Robert, not R. Kelly," the singer says. "I'm tired of being misunderstood. I will show you the tears, fears, and sweat. I will open my heart and reveal the good in my life as well as all the drama. I want to tell it like it is." This is gonna even better than that ot ... More >>

Susan Boyle Bypasses Young, Illegal Downloaders En Route To A Second #1

​527,000 copies. She is a commercial juggernaut no one can touch, not least because in all likelihood the vast majority of her fans have no idea how to pirate and/or steal I Dreamed a Dream--the 10th best-selling record of the year and rising fast. If you can find a demographic old enough, thi ... More >>

Devendra Banhart and R. Kelly, 'Maturing'

Did R. Kelly Inadvertently Confess to Having Sex with a 14-Year-Old?

R. Kelly's latest mixtape is The "Demo" Tape, a free, very unlicensed suite of riffs on tracks by T-Pain, Jeremih, Lil Wayne, and more. It's a funny, ouroboric project: Kelly remakes songs by a generation of rappers-turned-singers who in turn make music directly inspired by R. Kelly. At the center ... More >>

News Roundup: R. Kelly, MGMT, Yo La Tengo, New Releases

--R. Kelly, who still wants to have sex with every woman in the world, has been keeping a low profile as of late. But that's changing. The R&B singer has announced Untitled, his first album in two years. Kelly explained to MTV News, "I wanted to mix it up a little. I want whoever listens to the ... More >>

R. Kelly Still Wants To Have Sex With Every Woman in the World, Unfortunately

R. Kelly hasn't tested out his commercial might much since his 2008 acquittal on child pornography charges--12 Play, the follow-up to 2007's Double Up, never came out--so the album-buying public has yet to get a chance to render a verdict on the continued viability of dude's career. But he has occ ... More >>

Sam Amidon Covers R. Kelly

This blog's second sojourn to the Happy Ending Reading and Music Series last week reminded us of Colson Whitehead's stand there back in April, when the evening's musical guest, Sam Amidon, covered R. Kelly's "Relief," one of the most underrated, if also most exceedingly bizarre, tracks in Kells' v ... More >>

R. Kelly, Meet The-Dream: On Kells' New "#1 Fan"

Always loved that moment when pop music snake bites its own tail, and Gwen Stefani rips off Fergie-ripping-off-Gwen Stefani, or Jay-Z bites Rick Ross-biting-Jay-Z, or whatever--the moment when some foundational artist gets lapped by their own legacy and suddenly has to play catch-up. So one nascen ... More >>

Funk Flex Airs Out Famous Pervert R. Kelly

Trey Songz

On the R. Kelly Not-Guilty Verdict

Slate.com's Thorough, and Thoroughly Alarming, R. Kelly Trial Coverage

No Context: R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet," Chapter 3

"Trapped in the Closet": Ironic or Not?

Cred Sheet

Stuff You Need to Know to Avoid Cultural Ostracism

Doodle on U

Insight into the artistic process of one R. Kelly

A Running Diary of the Billboard Music Awards

La Dolce Musto

TP.3: Rehashed

R. Kelly gets a little too comfortable with his mysterious failure to come to trial

Steppin' Wolf

Super-freak turns smooth and frothy Jesus freak, tries to prove he's not your steppin' stone

Letters

Doing It With R. Kelly

Stripping the sexiness right out of sex

Good Morning Little School Girl

Taking a manifestly skillful, manifestly simplistic oeuvre seriously now that it's news

I Believe I Can Open My Fly

Why Michael Jackson Is Damned and R. Kelly Is the Man

Why Birds Suddenly Appear Every Time the American Idol Is Near

The Bronzeville Hop

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

R. Kelly, Snoop, and Some Other Peeps!

Serenading the Boys

Give It Up!