R. Kelly

R. Kelly, 2007

Robert Sylvester "R." Kelly (born January 8, 1967 in Chicago ) is an American singer , songwriter , record producer , rapper , director and actor . With more than 140 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the most successful music interpreters today.

In addition to his international solo hits such as I Believe I Can Fly or If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time , Kelly is also known for collaborations, compositions and productions for artists such as Michael Jackson , Whitney Houston , Mariah Carey , Celine Dion , Britney Spears , Aaliyah and, in recent years, for Kanye West , Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga . In the 2000s, Kelly was the songwriter with the most placements in the US singles charts, after Timbaland .

R. Kelly, whose career has been marked by allegations of underage abuse since the 1990s , was found guilty of crimes of this kind in 2021.

biography

Youth and private life

Robert Kelly grew up with a single mother, Joanne Kelly, and three siblings in a council estate on the South Side of Chicago . In 1993 his mother died of cancer. In his youth he made a name for himself as a basketball player with the Atlantic City Seagulls and discovered his musical talent in the music club of his high school . At first Kelly played the piano by ear, later he bought a portable keyboard and earned his first living as a street musician . At the age of twelve he was hit in the shoulder by a stray bullet on his way to school.

In 1994 he had a relationship with a musician he was promoting . Marriage to Aaliyah , then 15, was illegal and was canceled after a few months. Kelly was married and has two sons and a daughter.

Career in the 1990s

In 1991 R. Kelly signed a contract with Jive Records . The first release was called Born into the '90s and earned it platinum for the first time in the US in 1993. On his first tour of England, he performed three times in London at the sold-out Hammersmith Apollo . 18 months later he already played five other sold-out shows in the same hall as well as an appearance in Wolverhampton . While his debut album in Great Britain was still grossing silver, he was already at the top of the pop charts with the successor 12 Play . Your Body's Callin ' , the first single, became Kelly's first Top 20 single in the UK in early 1994. Sex Me (Pt. 1 & 2) was eventually awarded gold. His debut album received awards for Best Album and Best R&B Album at the Billboard Music Awards in 1994. His follow-up album entitled R. Kelly , released in 1995 , went seven times platinum, and all four singles were also awarded platinum. On his sold-out European tour, his stopovers were Wembley Stadium in London and the NEC in Birmingham . R. Kelly received an award for Bump 'N Grind for Best R & B / Soul Single Male at the Soul Train Music Awards and for Best Album at the Billboard Music Awards .

In addition to his own publications, he worked as a songwriter, producer and mixer for other artists. In 1995, Janet Jackson had him remix her Anytime, Anyplace . He wrote, produced and arranged, among other things, Michael Jackson's hit You Are Not Alone . The song became a worldwide number one hit. For You Are Not Alone and Stroke You Up (Changing Faces) he was honored by the 1995 BMI Pop Citation of Achievement for his artistically valuable achievements. It was later revealed that Kelly had stolen most of the tune. His album R (double CD) was released in October 1998 and consists of 30 tracks (130 minutes playing time), including the hits I Believe I Can Fly and Gotham City . Both the singles and the album stayed in the top ten for weeks and in the German charts for a total of six months. Kelly has been awarded double platinum for over 300,000 records sold in Germany alone and has sold over seven million records worldwide to date.

The single I Believe I Can Fly from the Space Jam soundtrack earned him Grammys in the categories Best Song For A Motion Picture, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance . He was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year . At the 28th Annual NAACP Image Awards won I Believe I Can Fly as Best Music Video and Best Song . He was named Pop Songwriter of the Year 1998 at the BMI Awards , and Kelly was nominated in several categories at the MTV Video Music Awards. This was followed by the top 10 single Gotham City from the Batman & Robin soundtrack .

In early 1999, I'm Your Angel in a duet with Celine Dion, another number one placement in the Billboard charts. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, he was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration Vocals for I'm Your Angel and Best R&B Performance by a Duo (for Lean Me On with Kirk Franklin , Mary J. Blige , Bono & Chrystal Lewis), and at the Source Hiphop Music Awards he was named Artist of the Year by the hip-hop scene. At the Soul Train Awards, he was honored as Entertainer of the Year and with the Best Male R & B / Soul Album . Further honors and nominations followed, including an award for R&B / Hip-Hop Artist of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards and Favorite Male Soul / R&B Artist at the American Music Awards. Looking back over the year, Billboard Magazine stated, “R. Kelly had more top 40 hits in the 1990s than any other male solo artist (15 pieces), of which eight singles were in the top 10. "

Career from 2000

R. Kelly (2006)

Kelly's first single I Wish from the album TP-2.com in 2000 took top positions in the international charts. In Germany, the song placed first as a newcomer. The album was awarded six platinum records in the United States. For Michael Jackson's studio album Invincible, which was released in autumn 2001, he wrote and produced the title Cry , which was also released as a single in Europe, but could not build on the success of You Are Not Alone . In 2002 Kelly's first collaboration with Jay-Z was released, which went platinum. The album Chocolate Factory , released in 2003, was number 1 on the Billboard charts even before it was released and includes top ten hits such as Ignition, Snake and Step in the Name of Love .

Kelly's first best-of album, The R. in the R&B Collection, followed at the end of 2003 . In 2004 he released two successful albums, Happy People / U Saved Me and Unfinished Business , and went platinum four times. The latter was a collaboration with rapper Jay-Z. Big Chips, Happy People and You Saved Me were released from the albums . Happy People / U Saved Me was in the top 10 of several states, including Great Britain, USA and Germany as well as Unfinished Business , which was number one on the US charts. TP-3: Reloaded was released in July 2005 and placed in the top 10 worldwide. In the USA the album was awarded double platinum. The seventh studio album by R. Kelly was advertised with the single releases In the Kitchen, Trapped in the Closet, Playa's Only, Slow Wind, Burn It Up and Kickin 'It With Your Girlfriend .

The title of the eighth studio album, which was released in May 2007, is Double Up . The single I'm a Flirt (Remix) was released together with rapper TI and singer T-Pain . The song also appeared in the original version with rapper Bow Wow on his album The Price of Fame . The song was released in March and was already at number 8 and 11 on the American R&B and rap tracks. He received support from T-Pain and TI and producers and artists such as Snoop Dogg , Ludacris , Nelly , Chamillionaire and Keyshia Cole . In 2008, R. Kelly recorded a remix duet with Beyoncé for the track If I Were A Boy . On the occasion of the election of Barack Obama as US President, R. Kelly wrote the title I Believe . This was available for free download on iTunes. In Germany, the title was released in December 2008 as a download single. After Obama's inauguration , the title entered the German charts at number 92.

Another album, Untitled , was released in 2009, followed by Love Letter in 2010 , a tribute album to R. Kelly's role models Sam Cooke , Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye . In 2012 the album Write Me Back was released , followed by Black Panties in 2013. These last albums could not place themselves in Europe, but reached the top ten in the United States. Also in 2013, R. Kelly took part in Lady Gaga's song Do What U Want . In 2019, Lady Gaga had the duet removed from all download portals and streaming services after the US television documentary Surviving R. Kelly was broadcast . The streaming service Spotify removed R. Kelly's tracks from the playlists due to the documentation and will no longer suggest his tracks to users for listening in the future. His record label RCA Records also terminated the collaboration with Kelly.

Awards and reception

The following important information is missing from this article or section:

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In 2010, Billboard magazine named him the most successful R&B artist in 25 years. In 2013, Vibe magazine named Kelly “the greatest musical genius of the last 20 years”. In 2015, Rolling Stone listed him as 80th of the 100 best songwriters of all time . Kelly fans from the Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain, among others, have been celebrating “International R. Kelly Day” every March since 2010.

Sexual abuse of minors

Kelly has been accused of sexual acts with minors on multiple occasions. The first such allegations go back to 1994. The musician was acquitted in May 2010 in a lawsuit on charges of child pornography production . The prosecution accused Kelly of having sex with his 13-year-old goddaughter. However, both had denied being the people who can be seen on a video presented by the prosecutor. The video was leaked to a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 . The public prosecutor's office had called up twelve witnesses who wanted to have recognized the goddaughter. The defense complained, however, that a characteristic mole on the man's back could not be seen in the video and therefore it could not have been Kelly. It had taken the twelve jurors two days to deliberate.

In January 2019, the US television station Lifetime aired a six-hour series entitled Surviving R. Kelly . This dealt with allegations of sexual abuse against Kelly. The documentary assumed that the singer himself was a victim of abuse in his childhood. She also shed light on the - later declared invalid by a court - marriage of the then 27-year-old Kelly to the singer Aaliyah Haughton , who is said to have been only 15 years old during the marriage. Several women accuse Kelly of sexual abuse in the documentary. Robert Kelly's ex-wife Andrea Kelly also reports abuse by her former husband in the film. Robert Kelly and his management denied the allegations, speaking of "troublemakers and liars in search of profit and fame". After Surviving R. Kelly aired , law enforcement agencies investigated the allegations and called on potential witnesses and victims to report to them. Radio stations, streaming services and also Kelly's music label RCA, which belongs to Sony Music, distanced themselves from him.

In late February 2019, Cook County prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for Kelly. He then surrendered to the authorities and was arrested. Kelly was able to leave the prison after three days by putting on bail of $ 100,000. Prosecutors charged Kelly nine cases of sexual abuse of minors. This is said to have extended over the years 1998 to 2010, three of the four alleged victims were between 13 and 16 years old during the crimes. The state of Illinois bans sex with anyone under the age of 17. The lawyer Michael Avenatti , who represents two of the alleged victims, had given the law enforcement authorities a week before Kelly's arrest a video that is supposed to show him sexual acts with a 14-year-old. Kelly herself denied any illegal activity.

On July 13, 2019, R. Kelly was arrested again. He was charged with 13 criminal offenses, including child pornography, seduction of a minor, sexual exploitation and obstruction of justice. Kelly, as before, denied guilt. In Chicago, Illinois, as well as in New York and Minnesota, there were long indictments against Kelly, among other things for sexual abuse of minors. The trial began in New York City on August 9, 2021. Prosecutors accuse Kelly of having sexually abused women and girls, including minors, for decades. He is also said to have produced masses of child pornography. According to the indictment, Kelly faced blackmail and sexual exploitation of minors. He himself denied any criminal act up to the start of the trial. However, in a pre-scheduled hearing, his attorneys admitted that Kelly had sex with singer Aaliyah Haughton in the 1990s when she was a minor. On September 27, 2021, a jury found him guilty on nine counts. Eleven victims, nine women and two men, had testified during the trial in federal court in Brooklyn , New York . Six of them were minors at the time of the crime. Kelly herself didn't testify. The sentence was announced for May 2022.

Discography

→ Main article : R. Kelly / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1993	12 play	-	-	-	UK20th gold (61 weeks)UK	US2 × 6 Six-fold platinum (65 weeks)US	First published: November 9, 1993
1995	R. Kelly	DE69 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK18th gold (13 weeks)UK	US1 × 5 Quintuple platinum (68 weeks)US	First published: November 14, 1995
1998	R.	DE8th gold (34 weeks)DE	AT45 (7 weeks) AT	CH26th gold (27 weeks)CH	UK27 platinum (30 weeks)UK	US2 × 8 Eight times platinum (51 weeks)US	First published: November 10, 1998
2000	TP-2.com	DE2 gold (50 weeks)DE	AT36 (9 weeks) AT	CH6th gold (31 weeks)CH	UK21 gold (5 weeks)UK	US1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (58 weeks)US	First published: November 7, 2000
2003	Chocolate Factory	DE18 (8 weeks) DE	-	CH24 (7 weeks) CH	UK10 gold (27 weeks)UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (60 weeks)US	First published: February 17, 2003
2004	Happy People / U Saved Me	DE10 (6 weeks) DE	AT60 (2 weeks) AT	CH21 (5 weeks) CH	UK11 gold (11 weeks)UK	US2 × 3 Triple platinum (15 weeks)US	First published: August 24, 2004
2005	TP-3: Reloaded	DE26 (5 weeks) DE	AT75 (1 week) AT	CH30 (7 weeks) CH	UK23 silver (8 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (20 weeks)US	First published: July 5, 2005
2007	Double up	DE46 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH39 (3 weeks) CH	UK10 (4 weeks) UK	US1 platinum (21 weeks)US	First published: May 29, 2007
2009	Untitled	-	-	-	-	US4 (17 weeks) US	First published: November 30, 2009
2010	Love letter	-	-	-	-	US6th gold (31 weeks)US	First published: December 14, 2010
2012	Write me back	-	-	-	-	US5 (18 weeks) US	First published: June 25, 2012
2013	Black panties	-	-	-	-	US4th gold (24 weeks)US	First published: December 10, 2013
2015	The buffet	-	-	-	-	US16 (8 weeks) US	First published: December 11, 2015
2016	12 Nights of Christmas	-	-	-	-	US177 (1 week) US	First published: October 21, 2016

Web links

Commons : R. Kelly  - Collection of Images

• Official website (English)
• R. Kelly at laut.de
• R. Kelly in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Evolution of R. Kelly - bet.com , accessed November 8, 2013
2. ↑ Most Successful Songwriters: 1890–2008 and 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s thejanuarist.com, accessed February 22, 2019 (English)
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Haley Potiker: Have R. Kelly's alleged crimes finally ended his career? In: Vice.com. December 23, 2015, accessed May 23, 2018 . 
5. ↑ People R. Kelly & Wife Finalize Divorce magazine as viewed July 25, 2017
6. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Stolen world hit - King of Klau . September 13, 2007
7. ↑ mwza.com: R. Kelly “I Believe” Obama Inspired . December 17, 2008
8. ↑ Lady Gaga distances herself from R. Kelly
9. ↑ Why Spotify is making R. Kelly's music disappear
10. ^ R. Kelly Dropped by RCA Records After Documentary Furor
11. ↑ The Juice Presents Top 50 R & B / Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years - The Juice . Billboard.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011.
12. ↑ http://www.vibe.com/photo-gallery/20-greatest-musical-geniuses-93
13. ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/03/13/international-r-kelly-day-vandaag-is-r-kelly-muziek-oke
16. ↑ ^{a b} New documentary reveals dire details about the allegations against R. Kelly. Stern, January 5, 2019, accessed February 23, 2019 . 
17. ^ Acquittal for R. Kelly. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010, accessed on February 23, 2019 . 
18. ↑ Justice is investigating allegations against R. Kelly. n-tv, January 9, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 . 
19. ↑ New York: Jury selection in the trial of R. Kelly started. In: Der Spiegel . August 9, 2021, accessed August 9, 2021 . 
20. ↑ R. Kelly faces police in Chicago. Der Spiegel , February 23, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 . 
21. ↑ Handcuffs for R. Kelly. Der Tagesspiegel, February 23, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 . 
22. ↑ R. Kelly is in jail. Image, February 23, 2019, accessed February 23, 2019 . 
23. ↑ R. Kelly in custody - video is said to show sex with a 14-year-old. Rheinische Post, February 23, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 . 
24. ↑ Sexual abuse arrest warrant - R. Kelly turns himself in. Die Welt, February 23, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 . 
25. ^ R. Kelly in custody again , accessed July 12, 2019
26. ↑ New allegations of sexual assault against pop singer R. Kelly. Editorial network Germany, March 15, 2020, accessed on March 13, 2020 . 
27. ^ Allegations of abuse: R. Kelly fails for the third time with a request for dismissal. May 5, 2020, accessed on May 5, 2020 (German). 
28. ↑ Christian Zaschke: R. Kelly trial began in New York. Retrieved August 9, 2021 . 
29. ↑ Sexual exploitation of minors: Trial of R. Kelly begins in New York. Retrieved August 9, 2021 . 
30. ↑ Jury finds US musician R. Kelly guilty. Tagesschau, September 27, 2021, accessed on September 28, 2021 . 
31. ↑ Abuse Trial: R. Kelly Found Guilty of All Counts . In: Der Spiegel . September 27, 2021, ISSN  2195-1349 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 27, 2021]).
32. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US