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R Kelly: R. Kelly
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R. Kelly was born on January 8, 1968 and grew up in Chicago. Even though the odds were against Kelly as he grew up in the projects of Chicago, getting shot during a mugging and the guidance of his mother and a teacher helped Kelly stay away from gangs and turn to basketball and eventually music. In the mid-90s, R. Kelly rose out as a solo act into the limelight of R&B and pop radio with his smooth style and songwriting. At the turn of the decade, Kelly was making money performing his music to an audience - it was on the streets of Chicago, but the money was increasing. Kelly's big break came while he was singing at a friend's barbecue in front of other guests that included a representative from Jive Records. Soon Kelly signed with the record label.
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Experimenting with wicked riddims on "Reggae Bump Bump" and "Burn It Up," R. Kelly bold steps goes where few new millennium R&B dudes have taken their music. Teaming with the prince of dancehall Elephant Man on "Reggae Bump Bump," this unlikely duo is fresh as akee and salt fish in the morning. Conjuring the kind of bubble butt girl that ?will break the bed,? R. Kelly sounds quite at home in the reggae zone. On the other hand, the big beat of "Burn It Up," with its frantic drums and reggaeton rhythms, is destined to become a dancehall smash both on and off the island.
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Born Robert Sylvester Kelly in Chicago, R. Kelly was raised by his mother, Joann, a single parent struggling to make a living on the city's South Side. The date of his birth is uncertain. An article in Ebony published in June of 1997 referred to Kelly as a 29-year-old singer, but the Dallas Morning News had him turning 29 on January 8, 1998, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted his birth date as January 8, 1967. Perhaps Kelly became secretive about his age after the media began to romantically link him with much younger, teenaged females.
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Jay-Z eventually removed R. Kelly halfway through the tour, after a member of Jay-Z's entourage attacked R. Kelly with Mace or pepper spray. On April 25, 2006, it was confirmed that Jay-Z's younger cousin, Tyran (Ty-Ty) Smith confessed in a Manhattan Criminal Court to pepper-spraying R. Kelly and four of his bodyguards at Madison Square Garden in October 2004. Smith had been charged with assault, but was allowed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct for four days of community service. After the original incident, Jay-Z made Smith an executive of Def Jam Records. A Kelly rep said that Kelly's $16 million lawsuit against Jay-Z and Smith is close to a settlement. Kelly ... launched a $75 million lawsuit against Jay-Z for removing him from the tour, which received a countersuit by Jay-Z which was thrown out by the judge.
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In December, R. Kelly was ordered to court after missing a prior hearing allegedly because of the Utah police, who stopped his tour bus for speeding. The date of that hearing--which was ... marked by R. having cell phone shots of him snapped by an amateur paparazzo who was awaiting a probation hearing--was the same day as an R. show in Minneapolis that had been canceled two days prior, and the fact that R. was within driving distance is making the promoter both suspicious and litigious. Now the promoter is claiming that Kelly never intended to play Minneapolis in the first place--it had already been rescheduled once--and he should be paid back the $120,000 that he laid out for the aborted gig. more
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By MrFrost of MOG Early yesterday, a new track from R. Kelly titled "I'm A Beast" hit the interwebs. The song is a half rapping, half singing hybrid in the vein of Real Talk. The song is very angry, and Kelly takes aim at unknown people who are jealous and try to bring him down.
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