Full Name
Robert Sylvester Kelly (A.K.A. Kells & The Pied Piper) (Born January 8, 1967 (Give or take a few years and a few days) in Chicago, IL)

See Also: Public Announcement

Albums
R. Kelly & Public Announcement - Born Into The '90s
R. Kelly - 12 Play
R. Kelly
R. Kelly - R.
R. Kelly - TP-2.Com
R. Kelly & Jay-Z - The Best Of Both Worlds
R. Kelly - The Hits & Unreleased Vol. 1
R. Kelly - Loveland
R. Kelly - Chocolate Factory
R. Kelly - Gotham City Clubbin' Part 2
R. Kelly Presents The Pied Piper
R. Kelly - Happy People/U Saved Me
R. Kelly & Jay-Z - Unfinished Business
R. Kelly - TP.3 Reloaded
R. Kelly - Double Up

Singles
R. Kelly - Bump 'N' Grind (Single)
R. Kelly - Down Low (Nobody Has To Know) (Single)
R. Kelly - Gotham City (Single)
R. Kelly - I'm A Flirt (Remix) (Single)
R. Kelly - Ringtone (Single)

Also Featured On...
Aaliyah - Age Ain't Nothing But A Number
Aaliyah - Dedication
Addams Family Values
Ashanti - Concrete Rose
Big Wy - True Hogg Campaign
Booty Call
Changing Faces - All Day, All Night
Crooked I - Evolution Of A Boss Mixtape
Crucial Conflict - Good Side Bad Side
Disses & Hot Shit Cornerstore Mixtape Vol. 3
DJ Quik - Break Bread
DJ Quik - The Trauma Mixtape Version 2
DJ Whoo Kid - Westside Reloaded
Do Or Die - D.O.D.
The Fast And The Furious
Fat Joe - J.O.S.E. (Jealous Ones Still Envy)
The Game - You Know What It Is Volume 3
Ginuwine - The Senior
Hardball
In Too Deep
The Isley Brothers - Body Kiss
The Isley Brothers - The Essential Isley Brothers
Jason's Lyric
Jay-Z - The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
Jay-Z - The Black Mixtape (Special Limited Edition)
Life
A Low Down Dirty Shame
Merry Fucking Christmas 6: The Miracles Of Christmas (Thug Radio Mixtape)
MTV Party To Go Vol. 6
MTV Party To Go Vol. 9
MTV The First 1000 Years: R&B
Nas - Remix, Unreleased & Demos
Nas - From Illmatic To Stillmatic: The Remixes
The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death
The Notorious B.I.G. - Duets: The Final Chapter
The Nototious B.I.G. - Greatest Hits
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
Phuck U Symphony II: Fuck Song (Thug Radio Mixtape)
Puff Daddy - Forever
Quincy Jones - Q's Jook Joint
Redman - Ill At Will Mixtape Vol. 2: BC4 - Straight Outta Lo-Cash
Shaft 2000
Snoop Dogg - Tha Blue Carpet Treatment Mixtape
Snoop Dogg - Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
Soul Food The Series: The Best R&B Of 2000
Space Jam
Sparkle
A Thin Line Between Love & Hate
Truth Hurts - Truthfully Speaking
Twista - Kamikaze
Tyrese A.K.A. Black-Ty - Alter Ego
Luther Vandross - One Night With You: The Best Of Love Volume 2
Welcome To Tha Chuuch Vol.8: Preach Tabarnacal!
Whodini - Six
The Wood

Bio From All Music Guide
Urban R&B producer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter R. Kelly and his supporting band Public Announcement began recording in 1992 at the tail end of the new jack swing era, yet he was able to keep much of its sound alive while remaining commercially successful. While he's created a smooth, professional mixture of hip-hop beats, soul-man crooning, and funk, the most distinctive element of Kelly's music is its explicit carnality. Over the course of two albums, the singer has been able to make songs like "Sex Me," "Bump 'N' Grind," and "Your Body's Callin'" into hits because his production has been seductive enough to sell such blatant come-ons.

Kelly and Public Announcement released their debut album, Born Into The '90's, at the beginning of 1992. It was an instant R&B smash, while earning a fair amount of pop airplay; "Honey Love" and "Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)" were number one R&B hits, while "Dedicated" was his biggest pop hit at number 31. 12 Play, released in the fall of 1993, established R. Kelly as an R&B superstar, eventually selling over five million copies. The first single, "Sex Me (Parts I & II)," went gold, and the second, "Bump 'N' Grind," hit number one on both the pop and R&B charts in 1994; it stayed on the top of the R&B charts for an astonishing 12 weeks, while it logged four weeks at the top of the pop charts. The follow-up, "Your Body's Callin'," was another gold single, peaking at number 13 pop. Also in 1994, he produced Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, the hit debut album for then-15-year-old Detroit R&B singer Aaliyah. Late in the year, it was revealed that Kelly and Aaliyah had wed in August. The news sparked a small storm of controversy in the media, yet it didn't hurt the careers of either singer. Kelly next wrote and co-produced "You Are Not Alone," the second single from Michael Jackson's HIStory album, which was released in the summer of 1995. Later that year, Kelly released a self-titled album which became his first to top the pop charts. R. Kelly sold four million copies and produced three platinum singles, all of which hit number one R&B and reached the pop Top Ten.

Kelly truly consolidated his crossover success with the 1996 single "I Believe I Can Fly," which he recorded for the Michael Jordan movie Space Jam. The song won Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. Kelly remained in the public eye in 1997 with another Top Ten soundtrack tune, Batman & Robin's "Gotham City." The two-disc R. followed in 1998 and became Kelly's biggest-selling album yet, going platinum six times over. Its first single, a duet with Celine Dion titled "I'm Your Angel," became Kelly's second number one pop hit with a six-week run on top; even though subsequent singles were more successful on the R&B charts, Kelly was well on his way to landing more Top 40 hits in the '90s than any other male solo artist, and notched another with his guest appearance on Puff Daddy's R&B chart-topper "Satisfy You." Moving his blockbuster success into a new decade, Kelly returned in 2000 with TP2.Com, which spent three weeks at number one on the album charts and scaled back the ambition of R. to return to familiar lyrical themes. He scored two more R&B number ones with "I Wish" and "Fiesta" (the latter featuring guest Jay-Z), and had further hits with "Feelin' on Yo Booty" and "The World's Greatest," the latter from the soundtrack of the Will Smith film Ali.

In the wake of "Fiesta," Kelly and Jay-Z teamed up to record an entire album together. The Best Of Both Worlds was heavily hyped and even more heavily bootlegged, but problems of a much more serious nature arose in February 2002, when the Chicago Sun-Times reported that it had been given a videotape showing Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. When the scandal broke, other reports surfaced that Kelly had settled a civil suit in 1998 involving a sexual relationship with a then-underage girl, and that he was in the process of settling another suit brought by an Epic Records intern making similar allegations. Copies of the tape in question were sold as bootlegs and on the Internet, and while there was some question as to whether the man was really Kelly, and whether the girl really was underage, Kelly's past history seemed to lend credence to the charge. Some radio stations dropped him from their play lists, and anti-Kelly protests were staged in Chicago. Meanwhile, The Best Of Both Worlds entered the charts at number two, but sold disappointingly; some blamed the scandal, others the extensive pre-release bootlegging, although the generally unfavorable reviews suggested that the record's overall quality might also have been to blame.

Following the initial sex-tape scandal, Kelly was dogged by numerous civil suits, including one from a girl who alleged that during her relationship with Kelly (which occurred while she was underage), she had become pregnant and gotten an abortion at the singer's urging. A variety of other sex videos purporting to feature Kelly appeared as bootlegs, and a onetime Kelly protégée, a singer called Sparkle, stepped forward to identify the girl on the original tape as her then-14-year-old niece. In June, Chicago police officially charged Kelly with 21 counts of child pornography-related offenses, all related to the original tape. Kelly pleaded not guilty and released a new song, "Heaven, I Need a Hug," which got extensive airplay for a brief period.

Meanwhile, work on his next album, Loveland, stalled amid more heavy bootlegging. Kelly eventually scrapped some of the most pirated tracks, recorded some new songs, and reassembled the album as Chocolate Factory (which was slated to include a bonus disc with some of the deleted material). Released in advance of the album, lead single "Ignition" shot to number one on the R&B charts in late 2002. Chocolate Factory itself was released in early 2003, and followed in 2004 by Happy People/U Saved Me. Surprisingly, despite reports of a feud with Jay-Z, later in 2004 another album was released from The Best Of Both Worlds sessions. Weeks before his child pornography trial the following year, TP.3 Reloaded was released, featuring the first five chapters of his soapy "Trapped in the Closet" saga. Double Up followed (in 2007), but not before a remix collection titled Remix City, Vol. 1. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Steve Huey

Official Sites: R. Kelly & MySpace