Robert Sylvester Kelly, also known as R.Kelly, Kells, the Pied Piper of R'N'B and The King of R'N'B, was born in Chicago, Illinois on 8th January 1967. His talent was discovered by his music teacher from an early age and since then he is America's most successful R'N'B singer, songwriter and producer, those his career has plagued by a lot of controversy and lawsuit battles.

In 1993, R Kelly's debut his solo album 12 Play after leaving his group Public Announcement for singing the majority of their songs and becoming front man for the group whilst the others fell into the background, releasing hit single's within the New Jack Swing era such as Honey Love and She's got that Vibe. Kelly's first number one hit came in the shape of Bump and Grind followed by Sex me and Your Body is Callin'. A year after, he begun working as a producer with many artists such as The Isley Brothers, Janet Jackson and Changing Faces. But his most well established protg was the late Aaliyah.

Kelly and Aaliyah worked her debut album Age Aint Nothing but a Number for three years, during this time reports from the media suggest a loving relationship develop between the two of them and in 1994 they married. Soon after, their marriage was annulled due to Aaliyah allegedly lied about her age, being that she was only fifteen when they wed. They both denied the claims also denying their marriage. They parted ways and never spoke personally or for music purposes. In 1996, Kelly married Andrea Lee and together they had three children but their marriage soon descended into an abusive relationship, primarily from Kelly. Reports claim Andrea filed a restraining order again Kelly but later retracted it.

Just like Kelly did as a child living in the hood, he returned to his music to escape is personal life. I Believe I can Fly would be known as Kelly most successful single reaching no.2 in the billboard charts. Due to his success, he continued produced song for box office films like Batman (Gotham City) Shaft (Bad Man) and Ali (World's greatest). In 2000, he released his TP-2.com (twelve play 2) featuring hit singles I Wish and Fiesta remix. Kelly then collaborated with Jay-Z after the success of the Fiesta remix, Kelly and Jay-z came together again to record Guilty until proven innocent which featured on Jay-Z album dynasty. Some argue Kelly was proclaiming his innocence after reports alleged he recorded himself having sex with an underage child. In 2002, Kelly and Jay-Z collaborated again to bring out

The Best of Both Worlds, but due to child pornography charges, there was limited promotion and Kelly resumed his solo career.

In 2002, saw Kelly introduce the Chocolate factory to the world. Unfortunately, his work was on internet before he could officially release it. As a result, he remastered the Chocolate Factory re-releasing 6 bonus tracks, selling over six million copies worldwide. 2 years later, Kelly released Happy People/You Saved Me album, however this album did not impress his fans but not only that it was released during the summit of the child pornography claims. To add more insult to injury, Jay-z and R Kelly toured after the release of their 2nd album Unfinished Business, however the tour was cut short of constant rivalry between them and R Kelly was reportedly not turning up to gigs. Again Kelly returned to the studio, but this time putting a spin his creativity to release Trapped in the Closest Hip-Hopera on his 7th album TP-3 Reloaded. He made the first 5 episodes of Trapped in the Closest, and then due to its success, he continued to write and record seventeen more episodes.

His current album came in the shape of Double Up which has sold over 33 million records in the USA. Needless to say, Kelly came under more controversy when he remixed Bow Wow song I'm a Flirt which did not feature Bow Wow and fortunately for Kelly, the remix was more of a hit than the original.

Currently, R Kelly is awaiting trial on 21 counts of child pornography and if found guilty can face up to 15 years in prison. If not for this case and other disputes over the years, R Kelly could be one of the great sons of Hip Hop and R'N'B.

Simon Gangadeen.

www.Helium.com