Interview on Access Hollywood

Interview on Extra TV

R. Kelly says he wrote 462 songs for The Buffet, and they're all hits

For R. Kelly, the process of creating new music is relatively easy—all he has to do is listen. “I walk around every day with a radio playing constantly in my head, and this radio station plays a lot of hits,” he tells EW. “But it’s all my songs, so that’s something to be excited about 24 hours a day.”

WKLS was working overtime during the creation of The Buffet, Kelly’s thirteenth studio album. “I’ve done 462 songs for this particular album,” he says. “They’re not ideas, they are whole full songs. I wanted to be sure that I really nailed it to the point that when I started breaking it down to the 14, 15, 16 songs that go on the album that I had more than enough to choose from, and they would all be great choices.”

Rapper R. Kelly Says His Single 'Sex Me' Is Tame

January 21, 1994 | By Los Angeles Times

Singer-rapper R. Kelly says he always gets a good laugh when he hears people describe his hit single ''Sex Me'' as steamy.

''People don't realize this is the clean version - you should have heard it before the cuts,'' he says, referring to the trims by nervous record-label executives.

''The way it was originally, they were afraid it wouldn't get any airplay, so they cut it to the bone
.
''The original version was written after I'd been cooped up in the studio so long that I wasn't able to party like I usually do. I just let my feelings out writing that song.''

''Sex Me'' is the first single from Kelly's Jive Records album, 12 Play, which also includes such songs as ''I Like the Crotch on You'' and ''Your Body's Callin.''

Even with the assorted edits, the album is far raunchier than his 1991 million-selling debut, Born Into the '90s, which established him as a force in the R&B/hip-hop market.

''On my first album, I was holding back,'' Kelly says. ''This second album is the album I wanted to make the first time. But I didn't want to come on too strong too soon.''

These days the joke about Kelly is that the R. in his name (actually short for Robert) really stands for ''raunchy.'' But he insists he doesn't have a one-track mind.

''The new album isn't totally about sex,'' says Kelly, who was signed by Jive two years ago after his manager discovered him at a 1990 audition.

''I tried to get some variety on the album. I've also written and produced three songs for the Winans' gospel group. Now would people as religious as they are work with a sex maniac?''

Entertainment Weekly: R. Kelly's Heroes

We ask the ''I Believe I Can Fly'' singer ten stupid questions  
By Matt Diehl on Nov 15, 1996

R. Kelly may be infamous for salacious seduction jams like ''Down Low,'' but after women, the self-proclaimed King of R&B's greatest passion is... basketball. No surprise, then, that Kelly, 29, jumped at the chance when his idol, Michael Jordan, asked him to pitch in on the Space Jam soundtrack. The result: the slam-dunk hit ''I Believe I Can Fly.'' ''I prayed over the project!'' exclaims the bald-headed lover man from Chi-town. ''The movie's very big and very positive, and that's where I want to go. The rest is history.''

1. So what does R. Kelly have in common with Bugs Bunny?

I'm adventurous, I love to have fun, and I'm not afraid to jump where no man has jumped before. I'm silly like that — I'm just silly. And I love carrots.

2. How about Michael Jordan?

My game is kind of similar to his [laughs]. I love basketball like Michael — you can definitely say that! I may not dunk like he does, but I have a love for the game. And I love my moms.

3. Have you and Michael ever gone one-on-one?

Not one-on-one, but we've played together quite a few times at the athletic club. It was inspiring to play with him, to see that he's approachable, real down-to-earth. The game was to 32 — I scored 6 points. Pretty good when you're going against the man!

4. Do you and Michael get your heads shaved at the same place?

No. I cut my own hair, and I think he cuts his. It's easy to cut a bald fade.

5. Why didn't you get Jordan to bust a move on the mic?

He'd never do that. He's a shower singer, that's what I've heard him say. It would really take some work to get him to sing in public, I believe.

6. Are you the Tazmanian Devil or Roadrunner on the court?

Both. Sometimes I get in my wild mood and get like Taz — hackin' and doin' what I got to do to win. But if the people playing against us are slow, I like to run like the Roadrunner.

7. What female cartoon character would you like to get ''on the down low'' with?

I'd put just a touch of tan on Jessica Rabbit. She's smooth and pretty, but I'd get rid of the cigarette.

8. Do you really believe you can fly?

Absolutely — there's no way I could've written that song without believing it. I've always wanted to write a song for kids, to let them know they can do anything they want to. My inspiration when I was little was George Benson's ''The Greatest Love of All.'' I've always wanted to do a song like that.

9. This is a really stupid question, but what's your favorite basketball team?

The Bulls — they've got a lot of heart. I predict another NBA championship. And I also predict I'm gonna get some free box tickets. Please let Michael read this!

10. Finally, have you ever eaten rabbit?

Never. I couldn't do Bugs like that, man. If he ever heard I ate rabbit — that's funny!

R. Kelly Speaks: No Apologies

Chi-town's R&B King on "Sex in the Kitchen," platinum albums and what it takes to be a playa
Aug. 25, 2005

On his new album, TP.3 Reloaded – which continues in the horny tradition of 1993's 12 Play and 2000's TP2.Com – the Chicago R&B megastar also pushes the boundaries of what we know as pop music. "Trapped in the Closet," a brilliant five-volume, sixteen-minute soap opera about a cheating husband, pushed TP.3 to the top of the charts, despite the fact that it has no lyrical hook. "I certainly didn't go into the studio and say, 'I'm gonna write a novel today,"' says Kelly, answering questions about everything but his legal woes through a speakerphone in a Chicago hotel room. "The song scared me at first, because I was two minutes into it still singing the verse. But everyone in the studio said, 'I love it!' Now I'm up to fifteen chapters."

What is your first musical memory?

My mom actually had a band called Six Pack – even though there were seven of them – who went around Chicago performing popular songs. Her voice was like Gladys Knight mixed with Aretha Franklin. When I was a kid, the band used to sit around our place playing cards. She had a record player – an old, beat-up one – but it worked. The first thing I remember hearing is the Isley Brothers' "Harvest for the World." When I was sixteen, I was invited to one of their shows, but it was in a tavern, so I couldn't watch. I was backstage, crackin' the door, lookin' out. All I could hear was the crowd screaming. My mom was tearing up the clubs.

How did you find your voice?

I'd sing around the house. One day my mom told me, "If you get this riff that Stevie Wonder does, then you'll be able to sing anything." It was from the very end of "Master Blaster (Jammin')." Then I started learning everybody's riffs, from Donny Hathaway to Jeffrey Osborne to James Ingram. That helped me create my own style of singing.

All ten of your records have gone platinum – where do you hang those trophies?
Downstairs in my house I have a museum room. I keep all of my awards down there, and childhood photos, and even all the clothes I've worn on tour, in videos and on album covers.

Do you have any memorabilia from other artists?

R. Kelly Takes Over The Morning Riot, April 17, 2014

Interview with the Streetz 94.5 Morning Grind

Interview with Majic 107.5/97.5

Interview with DJ Prostyle on Power 105.1

R. Kelly came by through DJ Prostyle's show (Aug 5) and he discussed his legacy in R&B and finding 2 Chainz to rap on his current single, "My Story."

Kellz also took over the mix in the 4 o'clock hour and the first song he requested was "It Seems Like You're Ready." Can't go wrong with a good slow jam, right? 

Catch the full interview now:

Throwback: Raw & Uncut Interview, 1998

R. Kelly Tells Why He Nearly Quit Music, Talks Inspiration For 'Black Panties' LP

In 1998, R. Kelly was ready to walk away from it all. 

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was coming off the immense success of his R. album, which would go on to become the biggest selling work of his career (8 million copies sold in the U.S.). But professional differences between the artist and his management team nearly forced Kelly to retire from the music industry all together.

“I was dealing with serious management problems… I was at that position in that part of my career where I was being threatened to be left by my [team],” Kelly tells VIBE. Ironically, the controversial talent, who beat child pornography charges in 2008, says that it was that moment in which he felt his most vulnerable. 

“I was told if I didn’t do what I was told to do that I would never sing again… or that I would be blackballed from the music industry,” Kelly continues. “I was actually believing some of that stuff.” 

So what turned it all around? Kelly says that it was a Denzel Washington movie that re-energized him. “I really got inspired by the film The Hurricane (the 1999 movie that starred two-time Oscar winner Washington as falsely incarcerated boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter). I went into the studio and started working on new music for TP-2.com and [later] the Chocolate Factory. I just said, ‘You know what? I’m not going nowhere no matter who I’m with. Whatever this gift is it lives within me.’” 

More than a decade later, Kelly says he's turned the page on his turbulent past. The performer, who is working on his summer album Black Panties, says that fans can expect more the bare-bones honesty that can currently be heard on his latest work, Write Me Back. 

“I’m not afraid to say I’m wrong, too,” Kelly adds. “If I hadn’t been through it then it’s not fair for me to talk about it. That would mean that I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. If I’m going to write about a touchy subject like [cheating] and it affects a relationship, whether it’s breaking them up or making them up, I have to know what I’m talking about. My research is myself.”

R. Kelly Defends 'Trapped In The Closet' Saga: 'You Can’t Hate On That'

When R. Kelly first released his “Trapped In The Closet” series in 2005, the R&B-musical-meets-tongue-in-cheek-soap-opera was viewed as both groundbreaking and a joke unworthy of the Chicago icon’s immense musical talents. But according to Kelly—who is currently finishing up his upcoming summer album Black Panties—critics of the 33-chapter “Trapped” series (which ended in 2102) continue to have it all wrong.

“I think there are a lot of misconceptions about ‘Trapped In The Closet,’" Kelly explains to VIBE. He even goes as far to compare his left field creation with the discovery of flight. “It’s no different than when someone came into the room and said, ‘I got a great idea about how to fly,’ he says with no hint of irony. ‘I call these things wings…this is called a plane. It will actually fly in the air and get you to a certain destination.’ Now people were looking at [the inventor] like he was crazy [laughs]. They looked at him like, ‘We don’t understand any of this.’ That’s how some people viewed ‘Trapped In The Closet.’"

He continues: "It’s different…it’s new; it’s unique; it’s alien. But you keep looking at it.’” Indeed, Kelly, who tops VIBE’s ‘20 Greatest Musical Geniuses Since 1993' list, says he never expected such a polarizing reaction to the laughable tale of Sylvester, Cathy, Gwendolyn, Twan, and a scene-stealing midget.

“You are always going to have the negative and the positive,” he says. "‘Trapped In The Closet’ is something I didn’t even expect. It is strange, but if you are going to be called a genius—which I don’t think of myself as—then you have to [break those barriers]. You can’t hate on that. You have to respect a person willing to sacrifice their career to try something new… something entertaining. You can say a lot about ‘Trapped In The Closet.’ But the one thing you can’t say is it’s not entertaining. And aren’t we in the entertainment business?”

R. Kelly Talks Upcoming Bonnaroo Performance: "I Can Rock Any Damn Thing"

It was a shocking sound clash of two entirely different musical worlds. But when R&B superstar R. Kelly made a surprise appearance during the end of a stellar set by headlining French synth-rock band Phoenix at Coachella this month, it became the talk of the long-running storied gig. Still fans should not have been that surprised. According to Kelly, the Grammy-winning veteran is plotting a takeover of the indie rock music festival circuit. The singer-songwriter—who was recently chosen as VIBE’s greatest musical genius since 1993—is set to perform on the same stage as Beatles giant Paul McCartney, among others, at the upcoming Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (June 13-16). And he will join the left-field likes of Björk, and Belle and Sebastian in his hometown of Chicago at the Pitchfork Music Festival (July 19-21).

“I appreciate them for even considering me,” Kelly said to VIBE of the various music festivals that have recruited him to perform. “I was shocked. I had never even heard of Bonnaroo to be honest. But when you are honest about who you are you get blessed back. That’s probably why they called me because I am music. I can rock any damn thing. It doesn’t matter who is out there because music is love. Music is one color.”

Kelly says there’s a reason why pop and rock fans gravitate towards his musical catalogue. He points to his blues background as the great equalizer. “Well, you have to understand that my grandfather was a blues singer,” he explains. “He played guitar. I was inspired by him, musically, too. I came up with a bag of musical goodies, so when I became famous I was able to incorporate some of everything that my mother did, that my grandfather did, and my uncles did just sitting on the porch. All of that is in me. It’s really just my family coming through me.”

R. Kelly is set to release his upcoming album Black Panties this summer.

R. Kelly Gives Advice To Miguel And Frank Ocean; Aims To Nurse R&B Back To Health

It’s been a banner year for R. Kelly. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-producer is still receiving glowing praise from critics and fans for his soulful throwback album statement Write Me Back. Kells recently was chosen as one of the headliners for the buzz-heavy Pitchfork Music Festival taking place in his hometown of Chicago (June 19-21). And the 46-year-old most recently topped VIBE’s top 20 musical geniuses list, beating out such majestic figures as the late Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG, Eminem, Rick Rubin, Erykah Badu and Kanye West.

But as he finishes up work on his upcoming summer release Black Panties, the polarizing talent has been keeping an eye on the new breed of R&B visionaries. When asked his thoughts on Frank Ocean, the Weekend and VIBE’s current cover boy Miguel —three acts currently redefining the guidelines of soul—the legend, who has dropped such classics as 12 Play, R., and The Chocolate Factory, had some sage advice for the newer kids on the block.

“I think these guys are good…they have the potential to be in it for a long period of time,” Kelly said of the trio. “That’s only if they start to write about life and not just writing a good song. I’ve seen a lot of guys that people say were promising. I’ve seen them come and go. They have to start writing about everyday life. That will keep you in the game and push you to legendville. If you are in this music, you may as well be in it to be a legend.”

As for all the talk of R&B music being dead, Kelly bristles at such a notion. “I don’t believe R&B is dead and I don’t think it’s going to die as long as I’m alive,” he confidently says. “I think it has caught a bad, terrible cold. It has the flu. And I think I’m the doctor. When I come back with my next album and we are going to shake this cold.”

VIBE’s full-length Q&A with R.Kelly featured in our 'Big List' issue is on stands now.

Q&A: R. Kelly - The Mind Of A Mad Genius

And for his next trick, R. Kelly will make you love country music. But before he dives into tragic love songs, VIBE talks to Chi-Town’s prodigal son about being brilliant

WORDS: Keith Murphy
ILLUSTRATION: Jack Hughes

The genius of 46-year-old singer/songwriter/producer Robert Sylvester Kelly is in his otherworldly ambition. “I’ve really been writing a lot of country songs,” says the Chicago native. He’s serious. “I used to get criticized for doing a ‘Bump & Grind’ then turning around and doing a gospel song. But the truth is I’m glad I have a gift that allows me to switch lanes.” Kelly embracing his inner Johnny Cash should not be taken as some Snoop Lion switch up. Who is willing to place a bet against the man who struggled with reading only to become one of the greatest writers of his generation?

Kelly’s money has always been on his talent. He had designs of penning his own brand of rhythm and blues: devilish admittances via gospel vocals (12 Play). and that should have been the end of the story, except we’d be stuck in 1993. Over the next two decades, Kelly would total nearly 40 million albums sold as a soloist, birthing some of the best R&B ever heard (ex. 1998’s R, 2001’s TP-2.com, and 2003’s Chocolate Factory).

But world-beating stats do not make a genius. It’s breaking outside your comfort zone as the modern-day king of sex-drenched bedroom instruction to become an evolved studio visionary (Aaliyah, Changing Faces, Isley Brothers). It’s pulling off a seamless segue into the pop realm delivering monstrous hits for icons like Michael Jackson and Celine Dion; all while remaining a staple in the hip-hop sphere (his multitude of collaborations with Jay-Z and Biggie). Even when Kelly is at his most ridiculous—study the ‘hood-musical-meets-soap-opera saga “Trapped in the Closet”—it somehow works.

The greatest musical mind of the VIBE era took time out to discuss his genius process, surviving pornography charges in 2002 and why his next album Black Panties will reclaim his freak flag.

Tarnished But Still Platinum, Nov 2003

On a recent afternoon R. Kelly found himself onstage in a small Manhattan nightclub, singing a gorgeous, gentle version of the Sam Cooke classic "You Send Me." When he finished, he looked up from the piano, expecting applause. There was none. This wasn't a concert, after all, it was a photography shoot for a magazine.

And so, while a few dozen assistants and stylists and hangers-on continued to assist and style and hang on, Mr. Kelly applauded his own performance. He said: "Y'all won't give it up for me? All right, I'll give it up for y'all." And soon everyone else joined in.

It often seems that Mr. Kelly's enormous appetite for adulation is matched only by his remarkable power to generate it. That power has been put to the test during the last year and a half. In June 2002 he was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts involving child pornography after the authorities said he made a sexually explicit videotape with an under-age girl. That tape, which surfaced in February 2002, has been widely bootlegged and sold by street-corner vendors, flea-market salesmen and even some record stores. In January he was arrested in Miami and charged with 12 counts of possession of child pornography, including photographs of himself having sex with a minor.

Machine Gun Kelly: R. Kelly took aim at music and hit several targets

R. Kelly says he can't even begin to address all the things that have been written that are wrong about him."I can't answer that because there's too many things," says Kelly. "The way my career is going right now you're always going to have negativity. You're going to always have people misunderstand you, because they just don't know you. Even though I forgive them as they come in the door."

Kelly (the "R" is for Robert) has been one of the most successful R&B singers of the past 20 years. With hits including "I Believe I Can Fly," "Ignition," "Step In the Name of Love" and "I'm Your Angel," Kelly has topped pop and R&B charts around the world.

Raised in Chicago, Kelly grew up listening to classic R&B vocalists and trying to sing like them.

"Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, even Jeffery Osbourne, those guys are guys I studied," says Kelly. "The guys I listened to. I liked their riffs. I liked their tones. As I got older I started mixing and blending it into my tone and my voice, so I started developing my own style."

He says by the time he was 15 or 16 he was certain making music was his future. He signed with Jive Records and released his first album, "Born in the 90's" in 1992.

"I just knew I had a voice. I heard music and I wanted to get it out of me," he says.
He says he pitched pop ballads, but the compnay wanted him to sound like the R&B that was popular at the time.

Magic Man: The Smooth, Sexy, and Unsinkable Mr. R. Kelly

Is there any contemporary musician whose life has reached the highest highs and the lowest lows the way R. Kelly’s has?

From a two-decade-long string of hits—including the number-one inspirational single “I Believe I Can Fly” and one of the best dance jams of all time, “Ignition (Remix)”—to his 2008 trial over allegedly making a videotape that showed him having sex with (and pissing on) a supposedly underage girl, Robert Sylvester Kelly has had a career of which both dreams and nightmares are made.

Lately, though, it’s been mostly dreams—after a long couple of years of nightmares. Kelly was found not guilty of all the charges against him, but the fallout from the trial, which was almost seven years in the making, destroyed his marriage. And then in 2011, Kelly had emergency throat surgery.

“I was scared as hell. I didn’t know what was going on,” Kelly says on the phone from his tour bus. “I didn’t know if I was going to have to start singing softer or what. But thank God that’s not the case.”

Once he recovered, Kelly turned 2012 into a banner year. He produced the soundtrack for Whitney Houston’s final motion picture, Sparkle, which came out this past August. Kelly also released a memoir, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, along with his 11th studio album, Write Me Back. Then, last week, the Independent Film Channel premiered the next installment of Trapped in the Closet, Kelly’s “hip-hopera”—the first new chapters since 2007.

R. Kelly calls new tour 'one big dating game'

Singer-songwriter R. Kelly is in a unique position: having too many hits.

He is modern R&B’s most prolific artist and producer, going back to 1992 and his days in R. Kelly and the Public Announcement before going solo with “12 Play” (1993), “R. Kelly” (1995), “TP-2.com” (2000), “Happy People”/“You Saved Me” (2004) and “Love Letter” (2010).

He also has produced and written for the industry’s top acts — names such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Celine Dion, Aaliyah, Britney Spears, Toni Braxton, Maxwell and Usher.

So when Grammy-winning Kelly mounts a new tour, he stuffs his set list with everything — not just his own hits but also the hits he worked on for others.

“For me, that’s the hardest part of the show,” he says. “It takes me three or four weeks to gather all the files and decide what you’re going to hear and what’s going to go where.”

Artists know there are certain songs in their repertoire that are musts — songs they have to perform or risk fan revolt.

“That’s fortunate and unfortunate because even those are a lot of songs for me,” Kelly says. “I’m coming from 26 years in the business doing these hits. People grew up with them, and everyone has their favorites.”