There is a part of each artist that desires to be timeless. A part of that wants to blaze a new trail, or to reinvent a trail that already exists. Then there is a part of an artist that needs to be relevant. It’s a part that can seem to be regressive at times and a part that can leave long time fans wayside as the artist tracks back to a time period that there fans and them have outgrown. R. Kelly’s latest project, Untitled, can be categorized as the latter. A period where R. Kelly is attempting to find himself, while remaining relevant with the younger generation. Instead of creating trends, Kellz is content with being a chameleon, adapting to lyrics and music of today’s radio scene and creating tracks that fit that world. In many ways it’s sad to see Kelly’s latest evolvement because it feels like blatant imitation. The project brings up several questions but the most important being, is the end project art or imitation of art? Kelly shows he can stand with any of his contemporaries but honestly who ever questioned that.
As for R. Kelly’s venture into the world of outside producers, the album for the most part is a well polished project. Though Kelly has a production credit on each track, the outside influence can be felt immediately. Each beat has a radio or club feel, which gives Kellz album worth of potential singles. The tracks range from the Euro-club feel of “I Love The DJ” to the trendy radio Rap vibe of “Supaman High.” He reaches for all audiences and with quite a selection of singles, each possible one would target the same age group but from a drastically different perspective. Unfortunately, the plethora of singles are all based around the same subject matter. R. Kelly doesn’t hold his tongue, and with some of his most questionable writing of his career, Untitled eventually feels rather repetitive and tired.
One of Kelly’s best attributes as a songwriter and singer is his ability to tell a story. From the “Trapped In The Closet” series to “When a Woman’s Fed Up,” R. Kelly has a catalogue of extremely well crafted narratives. This project features only one such track, entitled “Elsewhere.” It’s the only time, besides “Religious,” where Kelly shows any type of emotion that isn’t inspired by knocking boots or booty calls. Though it maybe the best song on the album, it’s placement toward the end of an album that only talked about sex, clubs and sex, makes it hard to take the song serious. It’s blatantly out of place on Untitled even though it is one of the album’s highlights.
Tracks like “Whole Lotta Kisses” suffer from bluntly raunchy lyrics like “Open up your legs” and “let me kiss your private part.” It’s unfortunate because musically the track is one of the more satisfying tracks on the album and instrumentally could set the mood. Lyrics like these plaque the entire album, taking respectable tracks and then ruining it with a laugh out loud moment. Between this type of questionable writing, and the overuse (or maybe even use) of Auto-Tune and other vocal altering production methods creates an odd final ending.
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Even with the albums flaws R. Kelly proves that he indeed is a force to be reckoned with on the radio, while demonstrating his staying power. He still can make radio accessible music. This however is the first time where the conversation of R. Kelly’s relevance lies as he creeps into his forties. The man who once drew comparisons to Marvin and claimed to put the R in R&B fails to offer fans a mature, well-crafted, complete project. Kellz dedicates an entire album to sex – and where he succeeded with classic tracks like “Bump in Grind,” he stumbles with “Whole Lotta Kisses.” The album’s lack of personal or even sensual music prevents the project from taking off. Untitled is as unfocused seemingly insincere as fans have found one of our generation’s greatest songwriters.
