Biography
Arguably one of the most successful R&B singer/songwriters of the 1990s and 2000s, R. Kelly spun tales of sexual abandon and repentance into chart gold and Grammy wins, but his reign of success at the top of the charts, which included such singles as "Bump n' Grind" and "I Believe I Can Fly," came crashing down in 2019 when long-simmering allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors led to his arrest. Born Robert Sylvester Kelly in Hyde Park, Chicago on January 8, 1967, he was the third of four children raised by his mother in the Ida B. Welles Homes public housing project. According to Kelly's autobiography, Soulacoaster, his upbringing bordered on the Dickensian in terms of strife: he was reportedly subjected to sexual assault by an older woman, lost his first girlfriend in a drowning accident when he was eight years of age, and was shot in the shoulder by boys who stole his bicycle. He found solace from this turmoil, and from the lean financial circumstances at home, in singing at church and later, at Kenwood Academy, where a music teacher nurtured his nascent talents. Reportedly, his tenure in high school was cut short by an unspecified learning disability, and he dropped out to form the singing group MGM (Musically Gifted Men), which cut a single called "Why You Wanna Play With Me" in 1990. MGM disbanded shortly after its release, and Kelly joined forces with a singing and dancing group called Public Announcement. The quartet's fortunes rose swiftly in the late 1980s: Kelly's win on the syndicated talent show "Big Break" led to a record contract from Vibe and a debut album, Born into the '90s (1992) which caught the last dying embers of the new jack swing movement. Two singles from the LP - "Honey Love" and "Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)" - rose to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B Singles charts, while a third, "Dedicated" earned Kelly his first Top 40 pop single. Kelly parted ways with Public Announcement after a 1992 and issued his first proper solo album 12 Play (1993), which did much to cement Kelly's public image - for better or worse - as a soulman with a decidedly carnal edge. "Bump n' Grind" shot to the top of the Hot 100 and R&B/Hip-Hop singles charts and remained on the latter for 12 weeks, while "Sex Me" and "Your Body's Callin'" both landed in the R&B Top 5. 12 Play would go on to earn platinum status six times over, and made Kelly an in-demand talent as both performer and producer. His next great success came in the latter capacity with Age Ain't Nothing But a Number (1994), the debut album for 15-year-old singer Aaliyah. The lead single, "Back & Forth" netted Kelly another #1 R&B single, but the triumph was also marked by controversy when it was revealed that Kelly had secretly married his underage protégé in 1994. Though the oversight was laid at Aaliyah's feet - she admitted that she had falsely claimed to be 18 - a patina of unseemliness began to creep into Kelly's Mr. Loverman persona. But he managed to remain above it for much of the next two decades, largely due to his talent for generating blockbuster hit singles and albums. He earned his first Grammy nominations in 1995 for writing and producing "You are Not Alone," the last No. 1 single by another artist whose legacy was clouded by troubling allegations, Michael Jackson, and scored a personal triumph that same year with his eponymous second studio album, which became his first to chart at the top of the Billboard 200. The album generated three No. 1 R&B singles, including "You Remind Me of Something" and "Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)," which featured the legendary Ronald Isley, but both were outshined by "I Believe I Can Fly," a 1996 single written for the "Space Jam" (1996). The single - which enjoyed near-ubiquitous airplay in the fall of that year - rose to No. 2 on the pop singles chart and earned Kelly three Grammys, including Best R&B Song. For the next few years, it appeared that Kelly's Midas touch couldn't be dimmed - he scored his biggest-selling album to date with R. (1998), which featured both "I Believe I Can Fly" and "I'm Your Angel," a duet with Celine Dion that rose to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. A third single, "When a Woman's Fed Up" (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop: #5) brought him a Grammy nomination, as did a collaboration with P. Diddy on "Satisfy You." Kelly then took the reins for his 2000 album, TP-2.com, which gave him another #1 on the Billboard 200 and a No. 1 R&B single with "Fiesta," a duet with Jay-Z. A second collaboration between the pair on Jay's "Guilty Until Proven Innocent" led to a highly publicized joint album, The Best of Both Worlds (2002). The LP was forced to delay its initial release due to bootlegging issues, but that problem paled in comparison to a scandal that erupted around Kelly's personal life. A video that reportedly depicted Kelly engaged in sexual activity with an underage girl surfaced online, as did reports that Kelly had settled not one but two suits involving sexual relationships with underage girls. Though Kelly denied the allegations, he was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography and later arrested twice in Miami, though the charges were dropped due to a lack of probable cause. Despite these legal wins, Kelly's career appeared to be poised on a precipice. Radio stations had dropped him from their airplay lists, and Best of Both Worlds proved to be less than the industry juggernaut promised by the hype. Bootlegging had again undermined a new project, this time his long gestating Loveland LP. Undaunted, Kelly re-recorded the entire album and issued it as Chocolate Factory (2003). Once again, Kelly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, scoring a No. 1 single with "Ignition" and selling three million copies of the LP. He quickly followed it with a double album of gospel material titled Happy People/U Saved Me (2004), which again yielded a No. 1 R&B/Hip-Hop album, while a reunion with Jay-Z on Unfinished Business (2004) gave both artists another No. 1 on the pop album charts. However, the subsequent tour fell apart under alleged bad blood between the two performers, though Kelly again rebounded with TP.3 (2005), his fourth #1 on the Billboard 200. The album also featured the first five "chapters" of his epic "Trapped in the Closet" musical saga, which told, in a tone somewhere noir and high camp, the story of a one-night stand gone horribly awry. A video, featuring dramatized versions of 12 chapters, was also released in 2005, generating equal amounts of praise and parody, most notably by "Weird Al" Yankovic on his Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) LP. Though now fully embroiled in the child pornography case, Kelly's recorded output continued at a dizzying pace, with Double Up (2007) and a slew of new singles and remixes, some intended for a new album titled 12 Play: Fourth Quarter bookending the case and its eventual dismissal in 2008. Buoyed by the decision, he ploughed forward, issuing Untitled in 2009 and the collection Epic which include his World Cup single "Sign of a Victory, in 2010. It was followed just months later by Love Letter (2010), an album of new material that earned stellar reviews, and for a period of time, it seemed that Kelly had settled into a period of not only personal serenity but career celebration: Billboard named him the #1 R&B artist of the previous quarter century, noting his 35 Top 10 hits and 11 #1s. But alarms rang out again when Kelly was rushed into emergency throat surgery, which took him out of circulation for a few months; he was soon back in action with a new single, "Shut Up," aimed at those who doubted his ability to rebound from the operation, and an autobiography, Soulacoaster, in 2012. But his next studio album, Write Me Back (2012), only reached No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200, prompting Kelly to again issue more chapters of the "Trapped in the Closet" story. He soon followed this with Black Panties (2013), a reprise of the raunchy material from the early part of his career. Neither it nor its follow-up, The Buffet (2015), could match his previous successes, and though he remained active as a singles artist, teaming with Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne for various releases, his album output slowed to just a single album, 12 Nights of Christmas, in 2016. The following year, Kelly's past appeared to finally catch up with him: articles from various media outlets alleged that he had held multiple women in near-prison-like conditions in what was described as a "sex cult," while the Washington Post took to task representatives from Kelly's labels for turning a blind eye to his behavior for decades. By 2018, the Time's Up movement had called for a boycott of Kelly's music and performances, while led to Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora ceasing promotion for all his recorded output and RCA dropping him from its roster. Kelly responded with the 19-minute denial track "I Did It," which he issued through Soundcloud in 2018. Critics lambasted the single, as well as a Facebook page launched by Kelly to discredit a six-part documentary series titled "Surviving R. Kelly" (Lifetime, 2019). His legal troubles only worsened on February 22, 2019, when Kelly was arrested on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving minors.
