R - R. Kelly

R. Kelly dropped “R.” in 1998, and it marked a big change in the artist as he was finally at the point where he had seemingly reached a point just before his peak. This is evident in the single which you find on here with things such as “Home Alone”, “I Believe I Can Fly” and “If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time”.

Disc 1:

1. “Home Alone”

To kick off the album, we get one of the best tunes he ever recorded ...
...as he drops a club banger with a collaboration with Def Squad’s Keith Murray, and it sets the thing off nicely as it gives you high hopes of what he can deliver for the rest of the album. The hook is as inviting as the funky beats, and that’s what makes it so special.

**Five Stars**

2. “Spendin’ Money”


Later going on to feature as the sample for Naughty By Nature’s “Holiday”, this is a groovy little ... more

R. Kelly dropped “R.” in 1998, and it marked a big change in the artist as he was finally at the point where he had seemingly reached a point just before his peak. This is evident in the single which you find on here with things such as “Home Alone”, “I Believe I Can Fly” and “If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time”.

Disc 1:

1. “Home Alone”

To kick off the album, we get one of the best tunes he ever recorded as you have him bringing you into a party mood as he drops a club banger with a collaboration with Def Squad’s Keith Murray, and it sets the thing off nicely as it gives you high hopes of what he can deliver for the rest of the album. The hook is as inviting as the funky beats, and that’s what makes it so special.

**Five Stars**

2. “Spendin’ Money”

Later going on to feature as the sample for Naughty By Nature’s “Holiday”, this is a groovy little joint which is bound to get you two-stepping along to the beat as he grabs you with its smoothness, and how it adds an extra dimension to the club tunes which is he able to create.

**Five Stars**

3. “If I’m Wit U”

The Trackmasters and R. Kelly come together for what are a range of tracks where they collaborate on the beats to come up with something exciting. On this occasion the smooth beats soon break out in the Audio Two’s “Top Billin’” as his goes for a gentle one. It changes the mood of things, and it is executed well.

**Four Stars**

4. “Half On A Baby”

Interestingly, this was wrote for Bobby Brown, before Kells decided to keep it for himself, and it is clearly a hit for him as he goes for a low-tempoed joint to get down to. The lyrics fit in much better with the style of the artist who ultimately too them, and he owns it.

**Four Stars**

5. “When A Woman’s Fed Up”

This went on to be one of the singles from the double album, and it has him doing amongst on of the best-composed joint from it, as he shows that he is right in-tune with the beats, and the lyrics accompany the flow of it perfectly. You can’t have it any better than this, and her makes it such a stand-out tune for “R.”

**Five Stars**

6. “Get Up On A Room”

It seems as though he had forgotten what we know him best for, so at last he plays up to the “Bump ‘N’ Grind”, and “”Sex Me”-type of songs as he slows it all down in order to get sensual and show how he has changed his ways of doing this over the years. It is never going to be as good as the old days, but he modernises everything and remains current.

**Four Stars**

7. “One Man”

On this one you have him working with some of his won beats, and this is immediately apparent in the way he goes about it as it sounds just as pure as you expect to here in tunes from him, and this means that he has full control over what he goes in this one as he explains how he is a better candidate for a lover, in comparison to the one she had before.

**Four Stars**

8. “We Ride”

Kells is forced into changing the way he does things, and he does a gentle mid-tempo one to allow him to take on the additional support from the rappers, Noreaga, Vegas Cats (whoever he is), Cam’Ron, and Jay-Z, after seeing how well things went with the Biggie collaboration on the previous eponymously-named album.

**Four Stars**

9. “The Opera” (Lude)

10. “The Interview” (Lude)

11. “Only The Loot Can Make Me Happy”

It seems as though money is the main focus of the album, and this is the one I would consider to the best of them where he refers to this in the album. It is a killer tune, and the way that the Trackmasters dictate the production makes it so involving. The way Keels jumps on the chorus gets me each time as he sings of how it is his main motivation in life.

**Five Stars**

12. “Don’t Put Me Out”

From this point, to the end of this disc features production solely from Kelly by himself, and for this one it really makes it a high-quality tune as he sings a song which has him addressing the fact that he has clearly realised where he has gone wrong in the relationship which he is involved in. Unlike many universal songs, this one sounds very specific and real, so are made to believe each word.

**Four Stars**

13. “Suicide”

This composition in the opening of this one is very unlike what we are used to from him, however he quickly shows that he hasn’t changed as he brings it back to the smooth sounds which we are more familiar with. You have the characteristics narrative from him as he tells a story in it very clearly, and it makes it much easier to engage with. It also has him seemingly developing what we would here in the “Trapped In A Closet” series.

14. “Etcetera”

On this one you have him getting down once again as he does a tune which i heavy in the bass, and t is padded out with smooth synth. You have him taking influence from past classics in this field, such as Zapp’s “Computer Love”, and you here elements of this forming the tune in a passive manner.

**Four Stars**

15. “If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time”

I’m sure that many were annoyed by how often this used to be played around the time it was released as it is a bit of an epic ballads, and it takes effort to really engage with it the whole way throughout, but on the whole I would consider it to be a strong one from him, and you can really fell everything he says.

**Four Stars**

16. “What I Feel/Issues”

This one is just about him on the piano, and some little additional things as you get towards the end. The simplicity of it all makes you concentrate upon the lyrics which he comes with, and it speaks nothing but the truth here upon how he feels about the personal troubles he had gone through up to this point. He confesses all the bad he has done, and attempts to move on from it all.

**Four Stars**

17. “I Believe I Can Fly”

Everyone knows this inspirational song which stood out as the best song from the film. I feel that it dramatically boosted R. Kelly's career, despite the fact was doing very well before it was released. Originally featured on the “Space Jam” soundtrack, it is the one which everyone knows him for, and it marked a time where he didn’t have to try to do anything urban to win over fans.

**Five Stars**

Disc 2:

1. “The Chase” (Intro)

2. “V.I.P.”

To get the second disc underway, he comes with a track which has him collaborating with the DeGrate brothers of Jodeci, Mr. Dalvin and DeVante Swing, who do their well-known Voice Box vocals to hype it up as we take it to the club, and get into something big to restart the album, and refresh it after the power ballads at the end of the last one.

**Five Stars**

3. “Did You Ever Think”

This was another single off the album, and it hasn’t been received much attention since dropping back in 1998, however I would have to say that it is a very strong one by his as it has them combination of him and the Trackmasters making a tune which plays up to his strengths as a singer, and also gives it the ability to open up to other places too.

**Five Stars**

4. “Dollar Bill”

Here Foxy Brown starts the thing off, and even references another tune on the album before Kells gets a chance to do what he wants to with this joint, and the result of doing such a thing just lifts it as it adds a little more variety to it all. With the explicitness of her words, it shocks you into taking notice of this particular tune.

**Five Stars**

5. “Reality”

Obviously with having it a double album, it means that there are so many tunes and you are likely to be bored when he does so many tunes which are very similar to each other, and I have to say that this one appears to be so much like other tunes on the album, but still has something special to lift you as we are right into the second disc of it all.

**Four Stars**

6. “2nd Kelly”

Complete with lots of futuristic sounds as the thing begins, you have Kells doing things in a completely new way to what he usually would as he refers to “Computer Love”, as I had before, as tries out something new with some space-age loving and it comes across as if he has some idea of what he wanted to do with it, but threw t together in a rush, so the results seem to be lie this too.

**Three Stars**

7. “Ghetto Queen”

I would have to say that this is a big tune on the album, and as you hear it on the album you are likely to feel this way, however you are unlikely to remember it as it isn’t really that special in what it does. You have a little rap from the Chicago Hip Hop group, Crucial Conflict, and personally I would have to liken them to Bone Tugs in terms of the way they do things. The beats to this remind me of Usher’s “U Got It Bad”, which may have some influence on how you feel towards it too.

**Four Stars**

8. “Down Low Double Life”

The beats on this one show that Kelly has been able to move on with the beats, and has been influenced by the sounds of the other producers who have come on him this album, as previous ones only had him taking on this role in it all. It is a nice one by him, but just doesn’t have the energy which many of others possess. I liked the lyrics though as he went into detail on how he feels about having to live two lives whilst cheating on his girlfriend.

**Three Stars**

9. “Looking For Love”

The artist seems to lose it on this one, and it makes the thing fall apart from this song on-wards with the exception of one big tune). The production, which is all done by him, seems to be over-complicated in its construction, and it means that it crumbles as he performs it all, and since it is a slow one, this is very apparent o the listener. Jaheim took many of the elements of this to make a tune of his won with the same title.

**Two Stars**

10. “Dancing With A Rich Man”

I was feeling this one, and I didn’t really understand what he was doing with it as you have him singing in Spanish and French, and English interchangeably, and it just made it a bit of a mess. It is clearly one of the worst you get here, and it doesn’t fit in with anything here at all.

**One Star**

11. “I’m Your Angel”

This was a big collaboration at the time as you have a duet with Kells and Celine Dion, but it is just something I would never want to listen to, and I’m sure that this is more for Celine fans than it for people who enjoy most of R. Kelly’s work.

**One Star**

12. “Money Makes The World Go Round”

With the Trackmasters behind the beats o this one and Nas rapping as a guest on the tune, it seems much more like a Nas joint than one by Kells as you have everything sounding like something which he would have dropped around his “I Am...”-“Nastradamus” phase” , but it is well done, and certainly one to look out for.

**Five Stars**

13. “Gotham City”

To end off the second disc, and the whole album, you have another soundtrack which he recorded, however I have to say that in this case it wasn’t a very good one by him, and I thought very little to it as he attempts to re-create what he did with “Space Jam” with an equally as emotive tunes for the “Batman & Robin” film, but it just doesn’t wok for me.

**One Star**

This album is highly significantly in the forming of the artist as it is the one which had him move on greatly from his amateur past and into a much more understanding state of mind where he was able to find out what he wanted to do with his music. It was on this one where he realised that he is such a force in the R&B/Hip Hop collaboration tunes, and he is also able to come with some powerful ballads. It also has him mock the whole opera thing, but a few years later, he would be creating his own Hip Hopera in “Trapped In A Closet”. This album features some of his best work, but is blighted by lots of little annoying ones, which bring down the quality.  

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