R. Kelly

Robert Sylvester Kelly is a former Basketball player, songwriter, producer and recording artist. He was born on 8 January 1967 in Hyde Park, Chicago. He belongs to Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of the single mother, Joanne (who was a singer and died in 1993). His father was not present throughout his life. He was raised in Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago in Ida B. Wells Homes Public Housing Project. His house didn’t have much of household. When he was eight, he started singing in the church choir. He was raised in a house filled with women. He was sexually abused by one of the women and was ashamed of discussing this with anyone.

Lulu, his girlfriend, and first musical inspiration, died when he was eight years old by falling in the creek after a fight between him and some older kids over a play area. She was swept away with the stream and later found dead downstream. In 1980, he joined Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park, Chicago. He used to play basketball in college with Ben Wilson (Late Basketball Player at whose funeral he sang “It’s hard to say goodbye to yesterday”). He was asked by his music teacher, Lena McLin, to leave the sport and take up music as a primary focus. On hearing this, he got furious, but his high school talent show performance (in which he sang “Robin in the Sky” a classic by Stevie Wonder) made him change his mind. The music artists who inspired him were Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, The Isley Brothers and Sam Cooke.

He started street performing when he was a teenager and in 1989 he formed a group with Vincent Walker, Marc McWilliams and Shawn Brooks (who also were his friends) named MGM (Musically Gifted Men). They participated in Big Break, a TV show, and won a prize of $100000. In 1990, they recorded a single “Why You Wanna Play Me”. Soon after the release, the group broke up. In 1991, Kelly joined a new group named Public Announcements, which was from Chicago and had a contract with Jive Records. In 1992, he released the debut album with Public Announcements called “Born into the 90’s.” After the success (songs like She’s Got That Vibe, Slow Dance, Dedicated and Honey Love became hits which were all led by Kelly) of the album, they started a tour named 60653 (zip code of neighborhood of Kelly).

In 1993, he got separated from the group and released his debut solo album called “12 Play” (certified gold and six times platinum by RIAA) and succeeded to produce hit “Bump N’ Grind.” The song stayed on the number 1 spot for twelve weeks on Hot R&B Singles of Billboard Chart. After that, he produced two hits, Sex Me, and Body’s Callin, which sold 500,000 copies each, in U.S. The singles were certified gold by RIAA. In 1994, his student (Aaliyah, niece of his manager) released her first album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, which was written and composed by Kelly. It became an instant hit with songs “Back and forth” and “At Your Best” and sold 3 million copies in the United States. It was placed number 18 on billboard 200. His remixes became famous.

He remixed songs for himself (Bump N’ Grind, Homie Lover Friend and Sex me), Aaliyah (The Thing I Click to look into! >> Read More... Like), Toni Braxton Toni Michelle Braxton is an American singer, songw >> Read More... and Barry White. He remixed for Janet Jackson’s “Anytime, Any Place” which featured as Janet Remixed on the remix album of Jackson. In 1994 itself, he secretly and illegally married 15-year-old Aaliyah on 31st August in Cook County, Chicago. However, both denied it but later Aaliyah (who died in a plane crash in the Bahamas when she was 22) sought a complete removal of the record of their marriage. She said that it was an illegal marriage as she could not marry without her parents’ consent (given her underage). In 1995, he got nominated, twice, for Grammy for the first time for writing, composing and producing the last hit of Michael Jackson Story soon >> Read More... “You Are Not Alone.”

In 1995, Kelly released his, critically acclaimed, self-titled album. The album made it to the top on Billboard 200. His second self-titled album produced three singles (You Remind Me of Something, Down and Low and Baby If I) and duet platinum hits. The album sold over million copies and got four times certification from RIAA. In 1996, he released “I Believe I can Fly,” an inspirational song for the movie ‘Space Jam’. It reached number 1 on U.K. charts and number 2 on Billboard Hot 100. The same year he married his former backup dancer named Andrea Kelly. They, together, have three children. After the divorce, which finalized in 2009, he didn’t get to meet his children much. In 1998, he won Grammy for the song. In 1997, he signed the contract with the Atlantic City Seagulls of USBL to play basketball professionally.

He is the first professional basketball player who is also a music artist. He wrote songs for movies Batman and Robin (Gotham City) and ‘ Life Click to look into! >> Read More... ’ (Kelly produced and wrote most of the songs with Wyclef Jean). The same year, his student’s album reached Platinum because of the song “ Be Careful Click to look into! >> Read More... ” featuring R. Kelly. The album released under Rockland Label. In 1998, his fourth studio album R. was branded as the most ambitious project of his career by Los Angeles Times. The album has different genres from Celine Dion’s pop to Nas and Jay-Z’s street rap. It was the first album in which he collaborated with various song producers and music artists. The album sold eight million copies in U.S. and four million copies internationally. The album reached number one spot on R&B and number two on Billboard 200 chart. The same year he settled a lawsuit at $ 2, 50,000 which was filed by Tiffany Hawkins on charges of having sexual relations with her when she was 15 and he 24.

He was also arrested for playing loud music while driving. The prosecutors dropped the charges on 22 July. A lawsuit was filed for a compensation of 10 million dollars. In 2000, at American Music Awards, Kelly won Favorite Male Soul/R&B artist. In the same year, he got the nomination for Grammy Awards in the category of Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Best Rap Performance by duo or Group and Best R&B Album. Also, he launched his record company named “Rockland Label.” The first album released under the label was “Sparkel.” In November 2000, he released TP-2.com, his fifth studio album, whose songs were all written and composed by him. The album reached to top on R&B/Hip-Hop charts and Billboard 200. The album produced song Fiesta, which featured ‘Jay-Z’.

In 2001, he announced album named “Best of Both Worlds” with Jay-Z due to the kind of reception the duo received from their previous collaboration. He was also working on his fifth studio album called Loveland. Album “Best of Both Worlds” was released on 24 January 2002 and was praised by celebrities. The distribution was done on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam in Canada and U.S. Jive handled the international distribution. The album got leaked, still was able to manage 2,85,000 million copies and reached number two on Billboard 200. In 2002, sixth studio album, Loveland, of Kelly got leaked. The release date got delayed, and Kelly re-recorded the album, renamed it (Chocolate Factory) and released it with leaked songs on bonus Loveland discs. Chocolate Factory sold 3 million copies.

The same year he was indicted in Chicago on the allegation of involvement in child pornography. A video showed him indulging in a sexual relationship and urinating on a minor girl. A house search by Miami Police Department caused recovery of alleged girl’s photographs in a towel and proved his alleged involvement with her. In 2003, he was arrested by police on the bases of the evidence in hand. In March 2004, the charges were dropped on the account of lack of causes for the search warrants. The 2004 release named “Happy People/U Saved Me,” a two disc set, got a mixed reaction. In October 2004, he collaborated with Jay-Z to produce album “ Unfinished Business Click to look into! >> Read More... ,” which after release spiked to number one on “Billboard Chart.” A rivalry took birth during the Unfinished Business tour between Jay-Z and Kelly.

He came late to the concerts or didn’t appear at all. Jay-Z’s cousin Tyran Smith attacked Kelly and his bodyguards with pepper spray (proved later after investigation and he was released after four days of services). Jay-Z even had Kelly cut out of the tour. Kelly filed a lawsuit of 75 million dollars against Jay-Z for cutting him out. Jay-Z counteracted it by filing a lawsuit against Kelly which was rubbished by the judges. Jay-Z made Smith executive director of Def Jam Records. In 2005 he got separated from his wife Andrea Kelly and finalized the divorce in 2009. In 2006, he started a tor called Light it Up which later became concert DVD. His eighth studio album, Double Up, was released on 29 May 2007 which had ‘I’m a Flirt remix’, a hit single written by Kelly. The song was a hit and reached top 12th spot on Billboard Hot 100 and 1st on Billboard Hot Rap Tracks.

He collaborated with artists like ‘Usher’ (Same Girl), ‘ Ludacris Ludacris is an actor, businessman, songwriter, and >> Read More... ’ and ‘Kid Rock’. His single (Rise Up) from album Double Up was a tribute to Virginia Tech Massacre and the earnings through the digital download were donated to families of the victims. Kelly started his Double Up tour with Keyshia Cole, ‘Ne-Yo’ and J. Holiday. But soon Ne-Yo was cut out of the tour after which he filed a lawsuit against Rowe Entertainment. He wrote a song called I’m a Beast in which he attacked his disparager without mentioning their names. The song “I Believe” was leaked which according to him was inspired by Barack Obama and contains a small part of his speech. On 3 June 2009 he introduced himself again to his fans with the release of a mix tape. He subsequently delayed his album called “Untitled” which got positive to mix reviews from critics and a single (Number One) featuring Keri Hilson reached number eight spot on R&B chart.

He did concerts in Nigeria, Cape Town, Kampala and Uganda. He was scheduled to perform in London but he didn’t .In December 2009, he collaborated with biography writers’, David Ritz and Tavis Smiley, Smiley Publications to produce his memoirs called “Soulacoaster” which were account of his life so far. In 2010, Kelly started working on albums, Epic, Love Letter and Zodiac, that contained remix of his old creations. In the same year, he formed a super-group named “One8”. The group had various artists from Africa and released their first song “Hands across the World” which was composed and written by Kelly. In December 2010, he released his tenth album named “Love Letter.” The album also had a cover of Michael Jackson’s song “You are Not Alone”. The album became a critical success. The song “When a Woman Loves” from the album got nominated for Grammy Awards and ABC News named it the best single of the year. In 2011, he became Billboard’s number 1 R&B artist of the last 25 years.

On July 2011, he cancelled his much hyped concert at the “Reggae Sumfest” after he was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for emergency throat surgery to drain excess abscess from one of his tonsils. Soon he interacted with fans with a video and assured them that he was doing well. On 10 November 2011, he tweeted the link to his new song “Shut Up” with a message that he was feeling really well after his surgery. On 21 December 2011, he did his first performance after the surgery on The X-Factor (U.S.). On 31 January 2013, he opened up in a radio interview about release of his next album “Write Me Back” which was an extension of the album “Love Letter”. On June 2012 he released his eleventh studio album named Write Me Back. He sleeps in a closet in his Trump Tower apartment. He says it makes him feel safe and a sense that no one in the world knows where he is.

In 2013, he continued his “The Single Ladies Tour.” In the same year he co-wrote the song “Do What You Want,” with Lady Gaga Stefani Joan Angelina Germanotta or ostentatiously >> Read More... (album- Artpop) and featured in it. He collaborated with Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber, the singer, record producer an >> Read More... for the album “PYD.” He also confirmed working with him for a sequel of “Black Panties.” In 2014, at the Chosen Few DJs Picnic in Chicago, he announced work on a new album titled “House Music.”. In 2015, he released a new album named “The Buffet.” He also does quite some philanthropic work. He helped his high school music teacher, Lena McLin, to get her house back which was being converted into a condo. He raised the money to get her to pay for the apartment. He donated huge amounts to various charities such as 20,000 euro to Garth Crooks, who is the representative of a U.K. charity.

He made a donation of 50,000 dollars to Texas Military Family foundation, which he raised from his concert there. He spreads awareness about breast cancer. He raises money through his concerts and donates it to the ones in need. He is the winner of three Grammy Awards (for “I Believe I Can Fly), one BET Awards, many Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, eleven Soul Train Awards and six NAACP Image Awards. He announced his “The Buffet Tour” starting on 21st March 2016.