"It's amazing to know that five years ago I was writing songs in a basement in the ghetto and now I'm writing for Michael Jackson. "Michael came to Chicago to work with me," says Kelly, beaming. 1-a first in the history of the Billboard chart. "12 Play" got the attention of Janet Jackson, who asked Kelly to remix one of her singles, and her brother Michael, who recorded Kelly's ballad "You Are Not Alone." The song recently debuted at No. Criticizing me is like criticizing the evening news for showing what's really going on." "I wouldn't say my music is raunchy-just sexually aware. "People are allowed to think what they want, and I have a right to sing about what I want," he says, relaxing in the lavender tour bus he takes everywhere because he's afraid of flying. Kelly says he wasn't fazed by the flak-that he wasn't even hurt when he was snubbed by both the Grammys and the American Music Awards, which failed to give him a single nomination. New York's Village Voice said Kelly's material had "the sensitivity of a porno loop." Kelly's hugely successful 1994 tour included barely clad women in cages, not to mention a finale in which he pulled his pants down, a la Marvin Gaye. (His handlers won't allow reporters to broach the subject.) Then there were the risque concerts. But it was with "12 Play" that he became a super-star-if a controversial one.įirst, there were the widely circulated rumors that Kelly had married 16-year-old R&B singer Aaliyah. You had to be impressed." Kelly's debut, "Born Into the 90s," sold more than a million copies. "He was singing original material and he had dance steps to match-all at a small backyard barbecue. "We were all outside just talking and eating and I heard this guy singing songs I'd never heard before," says Wayne Williams of Jive Records. "I discovered the power you get from being onstage." In 1990 a music executive discovered Kelly while he was singing at a barbecue. He knew he'd found his calling after a talent show in which he donned shades and a brown suit to sing Stevie Wonder's classic "Ribbon in the Sky." "That night it was like Spiderman being bit," says Kelly. Kelly began performing while he was going to junior high on the South Side of Chicago, influenced by Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway. Kelly's mother died of cancer in 1993, and there are moments of real pain here, including a short track on which Kelly sings, to the accompaniment of the ocean, "Heaven, if you hear me / I need you / Please come back home." and a moving gospel tribute to his mother that was arranged by gospel trail-blazer Kirk Franklin. ![]() Kelly also works in a driving rap that features The Notorious B.I.G. Still, the album is lush, dreamy and romantic. Kelly" isn't as funky as "12 Play," and it's clearly influenced by producer-of-the-moment Sean (Puffy) Combs. The new album may surprise the singer's hard-core followers. "I've been through a lot in the last two years and I've learned a lot about myself. "The bump-and-grind period of my life was just a mood," he says. ![]() Now, with a self-titled album due out, the 28-year-old has love and death-as well as sex-on his brain. The singer is best known for the explicit lyrics on last year's multiplatinum album "12 Play." The title of Kelly's wonderfully craven single "Bump and Grind" became a catch phrase in urban communities, and won the sensually bald singer a legion of female fans ready and willing to fluff his pillow. Kelly is a changed man-but he hasn't changed that much. The R&B superstar-best known for graphic pillow talk like "Your Body's Callin'" and "Freak Dat Body"-is shooting a video for a new ballad called "You Remind Me of Something." The video is meant to showcase Kelly's sensitive side, and it finds him lounging comfortably in silk pajamas on a gold-plat-ed chair while a young woman in black lingerie feeds him grapes. deep in the mountains in Canyon Country, Calif. Now I would like to take you on a ride tonight Girl, you know we'll have so much fun And give you everything your body needs Satisfaction guaranteed So pull up to my bumper and let the system sound Girl, I bet cha' I can drive you crazy And let me be the one to drop you off Babe, listen to me (rpt 2, 1, 1.R Kelly is a changed man. It's something about your love that's got me going crazy Baby, you know I want you real bad And girl I really like your freaky style How can I be down with you? So get a little closer to my ride I wanna get to know you lady And hip me up on how to get inside you Listen, pretty babyĢ-I wanna roll it, roll it, roll it, roll it Is all I wanna do for you baby Girl, it's something kind of sexy Goin' on about you babe (repeat 1, 1) You remind me of something I just can't think of what it isġ-You remind me of my jeep, I wanna ride it Something like my sound, I wanna pump it Girl you look just like my cars, I wanna wax it And something like my bank account I wanna spend it, baby
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