They're saying my show is too sexual, too long," R&B singer-songwriter R. Kelly stated well into his two-hour orgy of self-indulgence Saturday at the Oracle Arena. "I can't help it if I wrote so many hits."
The 40-year-old Chicagoan had just completed singing T-Pain's "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)," which he didn't write, though he contributed to a remixed version. Kelly had confessed to being hoarse earlier in the show - and thanked the decidedly adult, less-than-half-capacity crowd for helping him out by singing along - but his tenor pipes nevertheless were strong and remarkably pliant as he delivered the song while seated, a scantily clad dancer giving him a lap dance as he wailed.
The singer, who wore a white T-shirt throughout most of the performance, his head covered by a white do-rag, served up several dozen of his self-penned hits from the past 15 years, from early favorites such as "Sex Me" and "Bump n' Grind" to the recent "I'm a Flirt," along with some album tracks that didn't chart because their content was too graphic for radio play, even in bleeped versions. Some were given abbreviated renditions that ended abruptly with fireworks explosions. Others were stretched out or strung together into medleys. Oddly, he didn't perform his biggest crossover hit, 1996's "I Believe I Can Fly."
He did, however, include a snippet of that inspirational anthem from the "Space Jam" soundtrack in a montage of videos that played on large screens above the stage during a set and costume change. "I Believe I Can Fly" was the tamest of the bunch. The others showed just how far Kelly has gone during his prolific career in pushing the sex envelope on recordings and videos. Hip-hop artists such as Too and Luther Campbell may have preceded him, but R&B fans have Kelly to thank for making explicit sexual content common in R&B, even in love ballads.
Kelly, who has yet to come to trial on 14 child pornography charges from 2002 based on a videotape that allegedly shows him having sex with a 14-year-old girl, also used the screens for a close-up of his mouth during "Sweet Tooth," a ballad about oral sex from his current Double Up CD. Between each phrase, his tongue protruded from between his teeth.
Other segments of the show were downright strange. There was a jungle scene in which the vocalist was captured by six women dancers in leopard-skin bikinis, who writhed around him as he sang "Slow Wind (Wind for Me)." Kelly himself wore a leopard jacket for the scene. Later, he reemerged in a white zoot suit, not to sing, but to conduct an invisible, prerecorded orchestra with a fluorescent baton in the opening strains of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Even the musical highlight of the concert - a medley of the Marvin Gaye-inspired songs "Step in the Name of Love" and "Happy People" sung by Kelly to the throbbing four-on-the-floor house beat of his backing quartet - was given an odd twist as he threw portions of such oldies as Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," Frankie Beverly's "Joy and Pain" and themes from the '70s sitcoms "Welcome Back, Kotter" and "Good Times" into the mix.
Although his recordings are still strong sellers - Double Up, released in May, has sold more than a million copies - some stops along his current tour have drawn only half-full houses. The sex-tape charges and other scandals have no doubt damaged his career, although he continues to proclaim himself "King of R&B." In an interview earlier this year with Hip-Hop Soul magazine, he compared himself to Muhammad Ali, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley and Martin Luther King Jr. And in Oakland, he wore a boxer's robe with "The Champ" logo as he and his entourage made their grand entrance down the arena's center aisle and onto the stage. Buoyed by a super-human ego, Kelly appears to be an unstoppable force, though the show could stand some serious editing.
If a muddy sound mix detracted from Kelly's performance, it sabotaged an earlier 30-minute set by Keyshia Cole. This should have been a triumphant homecoming for the Oakland-bred soul singer, who last week concluded the second season of her hit BET reality show "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is" and saw her second CD, "Just Like You," pass the million-seller mark. Sadly, the 26-year-old Atlanta vocalist's powerful alto pipes were nearly drowned out by her four-man band on such up-tempo selections as "Shoulda Let You Go" and "Let It Go." She was more audible on ballads, yet for all the raw, melisma-dripping intensity of numbers like "Love" and Rose Royce's "I'm Goin' Down," her voice was badly distorted by too much treble and echo.
Source: SFGate.com
The 40-year-old Chicagoan had just completed singing T-Pain's "I'm N Luv (Wit a Stripper)," which he didn't write, though he contributed to a remixed version. Kelly had confessed to being hoarse earlier in the show - and thanked the decidedly adult, less-than-half-capacity crowd for helping him out by singing along - but his tenor pipes nevertheless were strong and remarkably pliant as he delivered the song while seated, a scantily clad dancer giving him a lap dance as he wailed.
The singer, who wore a white T-shirt throughout most of the performance, his head covered by a white do-rag, served up several dozen of his self-penned hits from the past 15 years, from early favorites such as "Sex Me" and "Bump n' Grind" to the recent "I'm a Flirt," along with some album tracks that didn't chart because their content was too graphic for radio play, even in bleeped versions. Some were given abbreviated renditions that ended abruptly with fireworks explosions. Others were stretched out or strung together into medleys. Oddly, he didn't perform his biggest crossover hit, 1996's "I Believe I Can Fly."
He did, however, include a snippet of that inspirational anthem from the "Space Jam" soundtrack in a montage of videos that played on large screens above the stage during a set and costume change. "I Believe I Can Fly" was the tamest of the bunch. The others showed just how far Kelly has gone during his prolific career in pushing the sex envelope on recordings and videos. Hip-hop artists such as Too and Luther Campbell may have preceded him, but R&B fans have Kelly to thank for making explicit sexual content common in R&B, even in love ballads.
Kelly, who has yet to come to trial on 14 child pornography charges from 2002 based on a videotape that allegedly shows him having sex with a 14-year-old girl, also used the screens for a close-up of his mouth during "Sweet Tooth," a ballad about oral sex from his current Double Up CD. Between each phrase, his tongue protruded from between his teeth.
Other segments of the show were downright strange. There was a jungle scene in which the vocalist was captured by six women dancers in leopard-skin bikinis, who writhed around him as he sang "Slow Wind (Wind for Me)." Kelly himself wore a leopard jacket for the scene. Later, he reemerged in a white zoot suit, not to sing, but to conduct an invisible, prerecorded orchestra with a fluorescent baton in the opening strains of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Even the musical highlight of the concert - a medley of the Marvin Gaye-inspired songs "Step in the Name of Love" and "Happy People" sung by Kelly to the throbbing four-on-the-floor house beat of his backing quartet - was given an odd twist as he threw portions of such oldies as Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," Frankie Beverly's "Joy and Pain" and themes from the '70s sitcoms "Welcome Back, Kotter" and "Good Times" into the mix.
Although his recordings are still strong sellers - Double Up, released in May, has sold more than a million copies - some stops along his current tour have drawn only half-full houses. The sex-tape charges and other scandals have no doubt damaged his career, although he continues to proclaim himself "King of R&B." In an interview earlier this year with Hip-Hop Soul magazine, he compared himself to Muhammad Ali, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley and Martin Luther King Jr. And in Oakland, he wore a boxer's robe with "The Champ" logo as he and his entourage made their grand entrance down the arena's center aisle and onto the stage. Buoyed by a super-human ego, Kelly appears to be an unstoppable force, though the show could stand some serious editing.
If a muddy sound mix detracted from Kelly's performance, it sabotaged an earlier 30-minute set by Keyshia Cole. This should have been a triumphant homecoming for the Oakland-bred soul singer, who last week concluded the second season of her hit BET reality show "Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is" and saw her second CD, "Just Like You," pass the million-seller mark. Sadly, the 26-year-old Atlanta vocalist's powerful alto pipes were nearly drowned out by her four-man band on such up-tempo selections as "Shoulda Let You Go" and "Let It Go." She was more audible on ballads, yet for all the raw, melisma-dripping intensity of numbers like "Love" and Rose Royce's "I'm Goin' Down," her voice was badly distorted by too much treble and echo.
Source: SFGate.com
