A brief look at R. Kelly

I first became fascinated with R. Kelly when I was introduced to "Trapped in the Closet" while visiting a friend at Harvard (irony?). Somehow we managed to watch the first twelve chapters and, as I sat there afterwards, reflecting on my experience, I could not help but think that my life was entering a new era: the "Post-Trapped in the Closet" phase. Fortunately I had overestimated the video's effect on my perception of reality and my daily life continued more or less as expected. The only noticeable difference was that I now found myself thoroughly intrigued by all things R. Kelly. Who is this man? What goes on inside his head? Is he actually serious?

My quest for answers to these questions has only increased the mystery surrounding the man and his music, though it has lead to some fairly interesting discoveries. The first being this:



Second, my love of deep cuts is no secret and R. Kelly's catalogue has some real hidden treasures. Songs like Sex Weed, Kickin' It With Your Girlfriend, Sex In the Kitchen, Tryin' To Get A Number, and The Zoo are prime examples of R. Kelly's provocative, lewd, and often baffling song-writing.

A few examples:

Girl you're in the kitchen

Cooking me a meal

Something makes me wanna come in there and get a feel

-from "Sex in the Kitchen"

Girl, I got you so wet
It's like a rain forest
Like Jurassic Park
Except I'm your sex-a-saurus baby

-from "The Zoo"

Girl you got that sex weed
I just want to hit it all the time
Sex so good that it gets me high
Bring that home grown to me

-from "Sex Weed"

*I have to note at this point that, upon proof-reading this post, I noticed that all three of those quotes begin with R. Kelly addressing his female counterpart as "girl." In a perfect world, this would eventually become a poetic device forever linked to the genius of R. Kelly. So if in 50 years some new R&B singer begins a verse or chorus with "girl," scholars will note that this verse is very 'Kellian' in nature. That is, assuming that there will be R&B scholars in the future. Again...perfect world scenario here.

The most fascinating aspect of R. Kelly as a song-writer is that he appears to be dead serious. The 'Real Talk' video and the lyrics above could easily have come from some comedian satirizing modern R&B or simply just trying to get a laugh. However, R. Kelly writes songs comparing sex to marijuana or a burning desire to toss his girl's salad without so much as a hint of sarcasm. His new album, 12 Play: Fourth Quarter, is set to be released in early 2009, and with song titles such as "Wanna Make a Baby," "Freaky Sensation," and "Playas Get Lonely," it promises to be a good one.