R. Kelly (Robert sylvester Kelly) THe king of RNB.

Robert Sylvester Kelly born January 8, 1967 better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and record producer. Debuting in 1992 with the group Public Announcement, Kelly went solo within a year for a successful solo career starting with the album, 12 Play (1993). Kelly has been known for a collection of hit singles including "Bump n' Grind", "I Believe I Can Fly", "Ignition" and the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet", "The World's Greatest".

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Kelly was into music at an early age. Kelly's mother, Joanne Kelly, was a singer herself and performed in a group called Six Pack. Kelly states that it was she who heavily influenced his interest in music early on. As a teenager, Kelly, began street performing (or busking) under the Chicago 'L' trains before he eventually formed a group with his friend Marc McWilliams. In 1989, Kelly and McWilliams formed the group MGM (Musically Gifted Men). Along with Vincent Corey Walker and Shawnth Brooks, Kelly performed on the TV talent show Big Break, hosted by Natalie Cole, and went on to win the $100,000 grand prize. Soon after, R. Kelly & MGM released their first single, "Why You Wanna Play Me," on Tavdash Records.[1] Internal disputes led to a conflict between R. Kelly and MGM, and they decided to part ways.

R. Kelly, with the help of manager Barry Hankerson, was able to get out of his contract with MGM. Hankerson then helped Kelly sign a deal with Jive Records in 1991.
Shortly after getting his record deal, Kelly met Andre Boykins from Public Announcement and auditioned the guys to be his backup singers and dancers. R. Kelly & Public Announcement released their debut album, Born into the 90's, in December 1991.

One of the last albums to be released during the new jack swing period of the early nineties, the album yielded the hits "She's Got That Vibe," "Honey Love," "Dedicated," and "Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)," all of which were led by Kelly.

The group was billed as R. Kelly and Public Announcement, essentially making the group backup members for Kelly rather than a cohesive unit. After a successful tour ended in 1993, Kelly left Public Announcement to focus on a solo career.

Early solo career (1990s)Kelly's debut solo album, 12 Play, was released in the fall of 1993 and yielded the singer's first number-one hit, "Bump n' Grind," which spent a record-breaking 12 weeks at number one on the Hot R&B Singles chart. The single became the longest-running number-one R&B hit in over 30 years on the singles chart in Billboard magazine. It was also a hit with the Dominican crowd. Subsequent hit singles were released such as "Your Body's Callin'" and "Sex Me." 12 Play held the number-one spot on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart for nine consecutive weeks, making Kelly one of the hottest, most sought-after performers of the '90s in R&B and hip hop circles.

Kelly's career really took off with the success of 12 Play, and Kelly began outside work as a record producer working with such notable acts as Toni Braxton, the Winans, Gladys Knight, and Quincy Jones, and introducing urban audiences to young female singers such as Aaliyah and the duo Changing Faces. In 1994, he also produced a remix for Janet Jackson's 1994 hit "Any Time, Any Place" and worked on "You Are Not Alone" for Michael Jackson for his 1995 album, HIStory. It was later determined by a Belgian rights society called SABAM that Kelly had plagiarized the melody for "You Are Not Alone" from the song's original 1993 composition by veteran songwriters-producers and publishers Eddy and Danny Van Passel.

Kelly's solo success continued with the release of his second solo album, R. Kelly, popular for the singles "You Remind Me of Something" and "I Can't Sleep (Baby If I)." A duet with Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers created a hit with "Down Low," partially due to the music video of the song, which introduced fans to Isleys' "Mr. Biggs" character.

Continued success (late '90s and early '00s)In 1996, Kelly released one of his most successful singles with "I Believe I Can Fly," originally released on the film Space Jam. The single, which came up after the movie's star, Michael Jordan, asked Kelly to compose a song for the soundtrack, was composed while Kelly was on a tour with The Notorious B.I.G. "I Believe I Can Fly" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the UK Charts for three weeks.

The single was a huge worldwide success and remains Kelly's signature song. Rolling Stone Magazine [3] named it as the 408th of its top 500 songs of all time. In 1998, Kelly released a double album simply titled R., which would become his biggest-selling album to date, selling over eight million copies according to the RIAA and Soundscan, and yielded the popular singles "I'm Your Angel" (featuring Celine Dion), "Half on a Baby" and "When a Woman's Fed Up." In 1998, Kelly wrote and produced the debut album of his female artist Sparkle, which was released on his Rockland label, distributed through Interscope.

The album went platinum due to the success of the first single, "Be Careful," a duet featuring Kelly and Sparkle. Kelly also found success with soundtracks such as "Gotham City" from Batman & Robin," "Bad Man" from Shaft and "The World's Greatest" from Ali. In 1999, Kelly wrote and produced, along with Wyclef Jean, the majority of the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence movie Life.

Kelly composed ten songs on the soundtrack, while Jean composed five. Kelly also contributed two songs, "Bad Man" and "Up and Outta Here," to the updated Samuel L. Jackson movie Shaft. In 2000, Kelly released TP-2.com, which yielded the hits "I Wish" and the remix to "Fiesta," which included a collaboration with Jay-Z. Because of the success of that song and another Kelly/Jay-Z collaboration, "Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent," from Jay-Z's Dynasty album, it was announced in early 2002 that the duo would collaborate on a joint album and tour entitled The Best of Both Worlds.

Due to controversy surrounding Kelly at the time, however, there was little promotion for the album when it was finally released and Kelly instead refocused his attention on his solo work as both a recording artist and producer.

During late 2001 and early 2002, Kelly began working on the followup to his album TP-2.com, titled Loveland which was named after a dream he had where he felt love in a world that was so full of hate. The album was scheduled to be released in November 2002, but as with Best of Both Worlds before it, heavy bootlegging led to its being delayed. The singer then retooled the entire album; titled Chocolate Factory, it featured several of the bootlegged tracks, and many have cropped up elsewhere, as noted below. It also came as a six-track bonus disc with the initial pressings of Chocolate Factory. (Bootlegged tracks are listed in this footnote.

In early 2003, Chocolate Factory became a runaway success for Kelly, selling over three million copies due to the success of singles such as "Ignition," "Snake" and "Step in the Name of Love." Later that year Kelly followed that success by releasing his first, and long overdue, greatest hits collection The R in R&B Collection Volume 1, the album as well as a dvd collection.

In 2004, Kelly released the ambitious two-disc set Happy People/U Saved Me, with the first disc including feel-good, stepping-inspired tracks, while focusing on gospel and inspirational material on the second disc. That same year, Kelly performed The Star-Spangled Banner during the introduction of the world championship boxing fight between Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor. His performance, which included a line of dancers doing the "stepping" routine and a prerecorded instrumental track set to the sound of "Happy People," was met with a mixed reaction. In October 2004, Kelly reunited with Jay-Z to do a follow-up to their Best of Both Worlds album shortly after announcing a tour to coincide with the project after the duo performed together during Jay-Z's "farewell" concert at Madison Square Garden a year before.

The duo's Unfinished Business album was released and peaked at number one on the Billboard chart. "Snake," incidentally, became the basis of the dancehall reggae riddim known as Baghdad.
[edit] Double Up and current workOn May 29th 2007, R Kelly released his eighth studio album Double Up included the hit single "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", featuring T.I. and T-Pain.

The original track entitled "I'm a Flirt", also produced and co-written by R. Kelly, appeared as a hidden track on Bow Wow's The Price of Fame (2006). However, Kelly never gave the rights for the song to be released as a formal single, although it was played by many radio stations before the remix version. Kelly's first single from 'Double Up' was "I'm a Flirt (Remix)." Bow Wow was not featured on this version of the song. In Kelly's video for "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", he encourages fans to call a number which flashes up quickly on the screen. Fans who called the number were greeted by a recording of Kelly talking about his upcoming album and playing snippets of new songs in the studio. "I'm a Flirt (Remix)" was successful for Kelly.

The song peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks. Another hit on the album, "Same Girl", was a collaboration between Kelly and Usher. The single peaked at number 20 on the Hot 100 and peaked at number four on the R&B chart. Other singles such as "Rock Star" - featuring Ludacris and Kid Rock, "Sex Planet" and "Freaky in the Club" were R&B charters, although the latter two were not officially released as singles, nor was the title track featuring Snoop Dogg.

Kelly's other single from Double Up titled "Rise Up" was a tribute to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. The song was officially released as a digital download May 15, 2007. Proceeds were donated to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, a fund that helped family members of the victims of the shootings.

In 2008, Billboard reported that Kelly had plans to release his newest album titled 12 Play: Fourth Quarter in the summer of the year but the album has been postponed. In the spring, the first single "Hair Braider", peaked at No. 56 on Billboard's R&B chart. On July 28, the entire album leaked online. The album was then pushed back to be released in the fall. On September 18, Kelly released the video to the second single "Skin".

However, the album still has no official release date. Though Kelly has not released an album, he has kept busy in the studio doing featured guest spots on numerous remixes including Lookin Boy remix by Hotstylz, Mariah Carey's Touch My Body remix, a verse for a remix to Kanye West's single Love Lockdown, Raheem DeVaughn's "Customer" remix, Beyoncé Knowles' If I Were a Boy remix, T-Pain's Chopped and Screwed remix, among others.

A recent track was leaked on the internet titled "I Believe". Kelly states on his official myspace page that Obama's election inspired him to write the song, which contains an excerpt from Barack Obama's presidential acceptance speech. This song is available on iTunes as a free download. He has now changed the name of the album to "Untitled". There is still no release date but it's rumored that it will feature new tracks on which he is working right now in Atlanta.

ChildhoodRobert Sylvester Kelly was born on January 8, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois. Raised in Chicago's South Side projects, Kelly was the third of four children, born to his mother Joanne Kelly, including two brothers Bruce and Carey and a sister, Theresa. Raised in a single-parent household, Kelly was shot by a mugger at thirteen, though the Chicago Sun Times reported claims that his mother (who died in 1993) said that the story was an attempt to cover an attempted suicide.

Afterwards, Kelly turned to playing basketball and music to escape the harsh surroundings of his upbringing. Joanne enrolled her children in Kenwood Academy, a prestigious, multiracial public school in Hyde Park. Kelly and his siblings all took the academic tests necessary for admission and they all were accepted. At Kenwood, Kelly met his music teacher and mentor, Lena McLin, whom he credits much of his musical success to. It was she who helped Kelly realize and develop his talents. McLin encouraged Kelly to enter a high school talent show where he performed Stevie Wonder's classic "Ribbon in the Sky". McLin stated in the January 1994 issue of Vibe magazine that she taught her students "music history, theory, piano, choir, opera workshop, jazz workshop- Robert took it all; he wrote some gorgeous music.

He knows the Italian bel canto school of singing. He can sing classical music. My students learn breath control, diction, a little German, Italian, and French. After they learn that, they can sing what they want to sing." He often refers to McLin as his second mother. Kelly's mother died after a long battle with cancer in 1993. Kelly's mother made a cameo in one of his early videos, "Dedicated", which was dedicated to her. Kelly's grandmother, Robbie Kelly, was also a great influence in his life.

Marriages and childrenIn 1994, it was reported that Kelly allegedly married his protégée, R&B singer Aaliyah, whom he had known since she was 12 and with whom he had spent the last three years working on her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. According to Vibe, a marriage document was printed showcasing the marriage certificate and noted that Aaliyah had lied about being eighteen when in truth she was only fifteen. The marriage was reportedly annulled soon afterward and neither singer confirmed the marriage rumors, dismissing them as lies.

In 1996, Kelly married Andrea Lee, a dancer from his tour. Together the couple have two daughters and a son. According to Andrea, later in the marriage Kelly became abusive toward her; at one time she filed an emergency protective order against Kelly but later dropped it. The couple filed for divorce in 2006. The divorce was finalized on January 8, 2009.