R. Kelly Leaves Little To The Imagination. Discuss.

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Article In The Voice about how Mr. Kelly takes the sexiness right out of sex.

I'm curious to hear some reactions to this.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

ts: doing it with the lights off (coates) vs. doing it with the lights on (kelly)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

b-b-but he's wearing a mask. i can hardly tell who he is sometimes!

― JaXoN (JasonD), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

you can leave your hat on

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

(but fuck washing it)

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I've always liked Kelly in party mode more than fuck mode anyway, so there's little for me to disagree w/here.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to admit my reaction was "so?" to most of the accustations and claims.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

the notion that 'heaven i need a hug' is typical of his post-comback hits if fucking laughable - does coates have a radio or do radios make him go all mr. softee also? kelly's comeback has been by avoiding the 'i believe i can fly to gotham city cuz i'll be your angel' crap that waylaid his hitstreak as much as any sony digicam action did. now it seems to be sinking in to kelly that the only options he has left (since 'heaven howsabout a hug' was never anything more than a punchline on the radio) is to go back to what put him where he is (was) - isley homages, extended remix epics, metaphors, metaphors, metaphors; he's yet to go back (way) over the top yet and he's laying off biting aaron hall's pipes (which may just be sign of the times more than anything else), and it could just be he's too distracted nowadays for anything to remind him of his jeep (could be people are doing a better job keeping their daughters aways from him too), but coates' mope, even when it does bear some resemblance to what is, is just the same ol same ol they said about barry white and anyone else who's acknowledged that if you're worried about coming off crass or undignified while in the 'physical act of love' (for the coates crowd) or 'fucking like there ain't no tomorrow' (for everyone else), quite possibly you need to work on your game.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

(his goddaughter?)

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

the guy cant really read (according to the vibe interview). what dyou expect?

then again, lots of probably-not-literate old artists wrote better songs than 'the r'.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

don't virtually all r&b singers of today leave little to the imagination? I long for the days of "ride my pony" :'(

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i blame next

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

r kelly as the biggest R&B artist of the time is leading all R&B to realism. 12play was like the bicycle thieves of neo-r&b realism.

r was around before next. theyre not the real offenders.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

it's all Prince's fault

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

why can't R. Kelly just make them come running?

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

haha Matos gave my x-post more resonance!

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

prince still had imagination. well, in between saying that he wanted to fuck the taste out of girls mouths (which i thought was still relatively imaginative), he did. i dont think r kelly has much imagination at all. then again, whos to say R&B artists have to be subtle? maybe r is trying to bring lyrical directness from hardcore metallers to R&B.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't really think that the thesis quoted in the thread title is contestable, even if you like r. kelly as i happen to do sometimes. his metaphors rarely if ever have the humorous quality of, say, classic blues metaphors where the metaphor is made just literal--hence, silly--enough to keep you guessing. (like that whole series of lonnie johnson records about going to the dentist.)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

The Farrelly Brothers, ODB, Paris Hilton, and John Ashcroft have all made their contributions in the war against privacy

I would kill to see a "Big Brother"-style reality show featuring these people.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

ODB?

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, that line made me cringe.

the generalized statement about "today's culture" referencing a seemingly random mix of public figures, topped off with a dose of unearned cynicism (always the "we" so that we don't--heavens!--mistake it for elitism), is one of the nastier and stupider recurring features of some music criticism.

that said i basically agree with the thrust (hehe) of the article, but as noted above, it's not exactly controversial.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

the art of pop music is not making it clear to children that you're talking about mouth fucking.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.si.edu/lemelson/guitars/images/cschuck.jpg

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 17 June 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

didn't R. Kelly get married to an underage girl once???

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Thursday, 17 June 2004 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

he didn't marry his goddaughter

― (Jon L), Thursday, 17 June 2004 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Does anyone listen for the words? I imagine poeple perk up for his lyrics only for a laugh. I mean that. No one takes them seriously. Do they?

― danh (danh), Friday, 18 June 2004 04:27 (twenty-two years ago)

That didn't come out right. But I always picture R. Kelly coming from the Wynonie Harris school, where sex is never really all that sexy. It's kicks.

It's just too bad R. Kelly doesn't have the sense of humor.

― danh (danh), Friday, 18 June 2004 04:38 (twenty-two years ago)

the thing i didnt get about the v.voice article was that they said kelly had a voice from god.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 18 June 2004 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

i dont think r kelly has much imagination at all.

I hate R Kelly, but I disagree with this. I mea, "like two gorillas in the jungle...makin' loove!"

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 18 June 2004 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

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