(R.Kelly, sitting at the mic and keyboard where he recorded “I Believe I Can Fly,” Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone,” Maxwell’s “Fortunate,” and more.)
[note: I know this post might be overly-long for my ADD-readers who are used to the cursory cliff-notes style journalism of the web...so, here's a Cheat Sheet: R.Kelly lives in a huge fortressed log cabin/Rainforest Cafe/Hard-Rock Cafe memorabilia museum. He previewed his upcoming Untitled album. My highlights were the power ballad "Elsewhere," the song "Falling from the Sky" (written and rejected by Chris Brown), and Echo (featuring yodelling). He told hilarious stories about Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and himself...and he reacted to Trey Songz' diss record.]
On Monday night, I was part of a small group of writers and bloggers who got the chance to hear R.Kelly’s upcoming Untitled album, not at a studio, but at Kelly’s own home in a southern suburb of Chicago.
First off, the house: the rest of the houses on the block are modest and medium-sized, but at the very end of the cul-de-sac is a huge gate, like a fortress, and the huge house behind is looks almost like a suburban church. Inside, think luxury resort ski-lodge. Lots of huge wood log beams, 30foot ceilings, and a living room with it’s own curtained stage. R.Kelly had a full catered soul food buffet from MacArthur’s, and one of his boys played bartender, dispensing Kelly’s own potent punch called “Sex in the Kitchen.” And once the visitors (including R.Kelly’s own team, Wendy Washington, Tice and Carlos from Jive, his longtime friend Wayne Williams, and his highpowered managers Jeff Kwatinetz and Kai Henry , On the media side were Jawn Murray, DJ Skee, Vanessa from XXL, Shaheem and Whitney from MTV, Natasha from YBF, Lowkey, Bdot, and more) were all fed and fully juiced….R himself came out, looking very trim, youthful, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He worked the crowd like a politician, shaking hands, introducing himself….and then he jumped up on the coffeetable and led a toast, “May the best part of our past be the worst part of our future.”
Listening to the Untitled album, there were some of the typical and non-remarkable uptempo jams, like “Outta the Game,” and “Exit,”…but then the song “Echo,” had radio hit written all over it…if The Dream’s songwriting is very R.Kelly derivative (and it is), then R.Kelly takes his own technique right back and one ups the younger comp with “Echo,” (co-produced by Infinity) which may be the first R&B banger featuring yodeling. Yes. Yodeling.
more from my visit to R.Kelly’s house…and his new video with Keri Hilson “Number One,”… after the jump…
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