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Yes, please!

Here's mixtape maestro on the "Make it Rain" remix featuring R. Kelly: "Sure, it's not as lyrically WTF as we would've liked (though we do like the 'got motherfuckers bootleggin' the shit I ain't even wrote yet' line), but as an event that seemed destined to happen anyway it doesn't disappoint too much, leaving us hoping that it's only the beginning of another long-running R. Kelly Jumps On Everybody's Record Remix-fest." Here's to hoping!

It's been in my head, too!

Will Oldham (a fan of R Kelly) has a great interview with R Kelly up in Interview Magazine. Says Kells:

So I ... started working on Love Letter, and the next thing you know, "When a Woman Loves" came out and I was like, "What?" I was like, "Wow!" You know, my music comes to me like that. It talks to me. It just teases me sometimes. For two days that's all I heard in my head [sings]: "When a woman loves..."

Love Letter came out sufficiently late in 2010 that it didn't make my favorites of 2010. But it would've, easily, had I listened to it more.

And "When a Woman Loves"? Easily in my top 10 of the year.

Will Oldham and R. Kelly

I almost skipped the profile of Will Oldham in last week's New Yorker, mostly because I kept confusing him with Todd Oldham (I know, I'm dumb).

But so anyway, what got me interested was when I saw this while scanning the article:

And he played a police officer in "Trapped in the Closet," the multipart comic opera by the R. & B. singer R. Kelly, who is one of Oldham's favorites. [1]

And so, of course, I ended up reading the whole article. I'm easy: I might even read a New Yorker theatre review if it mentioned R. Kelly.

[1] The episode in question, by the way, was number 15, from the second series of episodes (also known as the episodes that really disappointed me).

Some Links

IFC is showing a new chapter from Trapped in the Closet every day until August 21, with R. Kelly providing bits of commentary. Today: chapter 13.

From 2003, a fantastic Believer interview with ?uestlove of the Roots. This makes me smile: "I have this ritual of buying Straight Out the Jungle a billion times, acting like it’s the first time again." (via Idolator)

"Messing with the same girl..."

Since I am, as ever, a pawn of the music bloggers, I read this list of the 25 hip-hop albums of all time, and then, I bought Digable Planets' Blowout Comb the next chance I got. And it's so great.

OMG twist! R Kelly, the M Night Shyamalan of R&B? Watch "Same Girl", R Kelly feat. Usher. Watch the ending!

If I weren't a fan of the Dirty Projectors, I might think that the concept of their new album--a reinterpretation of Black Flag's Damaged, made without listening to the original album, recorded on a four-track that Dave Longstreth picked up mid-inspiration at the local music shop (apparently), but with merely a 25-year-old memory of said album and its songs & lyrics--that concept, well, I might find it a bit pretentious. And I'm not going to say that it isn't, but I am going to say that I loved e.g. The Getty Address enough to give it the benefit of the doubt. (Listen to "No More".)

"Let me remind you that I am the king of R&B..."

2007 is really shaping up to be the year of R. Kelly, isn't it? He's just been everywhere this year, and it's only March!

Here are a couple of tracks, either from late 2006 or 2007, all of which are pretty great. Everyone should listen to them.

• Ciara, "Promise" featuring R. Kelly
• Swizz Beatz, "It's Me Bitches" featuring Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Jadakiss
• Young Jeezy, "Go Getta" featuring R. Kelly
• R. Kelly, "I'm a Flirt" featuring T.I. & T. Pain

"And then things get a little more interesting..."

Since this blog is basically a chronicle of the (presumably) embarrassing thoughts that go through my head, here's the latest:

R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-12) is the best album [1] of 2005.

I remember, a couple of months ago, watching R. Kelly perform one of the tracks in a one-man show on the VMAs, and just being completely mesmerized, watching him act out all of the parts on stage. It was incredible. That's the feeling that the music induces in you—it's really hypnotic, and yet at the same time it's really, really fucking funny. "Rufus!" "Kathy!" etc. And it's so smooth.

So tonight, after listening to the album all day on repeat, I put it on at Foo Bar [2], and I've got to say, I received some pretty negative comments! Maybe I should've expected it: putting on 12 R. Kelly songs in a row might overwhelm a casual listener. Or maybe people at the office just don't like R. Kelly. And yeah, it's not like we have the ultimate sound system for playing music at Foo Bar, and so it all turned out rather bass-heavy.

But seriously, these are some awesomely good jams. And the story is just so ridiculous, and just keeps getting more ridiculous as it goes on, and you just want to laugh. But it gives me the chills, all the same, for some reason.

[1] Well, "album," since I guess it's actually a DVD. R. Kelly makes things so confusing!

[2] Our weekly office social, basically, where we sit around, talk, gossip, etc, and relax. It's fun.