From his rumored marriage with then-teenaged Aaliyah to the "Down Low" epic video to his CBA career, it seems no year is complete without a truly weird R. Kelly moment. Case in point being the video for his new single, "I Wish." As he mourns his deceased mother, her name flashes in lights while Kelly bling-blings in front of a Bentley while pouring out Cristal.
In a way, it's quintessential Kelly; he does ballads better than anyone on the R&B market, but he doesn't plan on having his ghetto pass revoked. He sums it up in the aptly titled cut from "TP2.com," "R&B Thug": "All I need is my CD, bag of weed ... / Then I'm gonna stroke you up and down."
It's that sort of attitude that makes the sequel to 1993's "12 Play" alternately grating and satisfying. If the rhyming of "switcharoo" and "strip for you" doesn't at least make you laugh, then boy, are you in the wrong place.
"I Believe I Can Fly" was perhaps the biggest understatement of R. Kelly's career. He believes he can make the truly great R&B album we haven't heard since Prince stopped caring. His sprawling 1998 effort, "R.," dropped more hints that if anyone would be the genre's savior, it would be him.
"TP2.com" is a mostly Kelly-centric affair, and the spotlight treats him well. Understand this guy introduced us to lines such as, "You remind me of my car -- I wanna wax it." "TP2.com" offers more seductive (and funny) libido-drenched one-liners than 19 "Ladies' Man" skits. His baritone dialogues that start every other song are the best since the glory days of Boyz II Men, and you can detect a smirk in him when he says he trades "first class trips" for "first class hips." Anyone can say "baby, I love you," but Kelly's inconsistent yet always interesting loverman persona keeps him on Nas and Jay-Z's rolodex.
On his fifth album, R. understands the formula for longevity, often to a fault. To his credit, the majority of "TP2" is self-produced and goes for a more classic, perhaps too subdued sound. "Fiesta" and "Like A Real Freak" manage to rise above the usual salsafied cuts. But the requisite slow jams often lack the truly bizarre charm of "Bump And Grind" and instead recall the anonymous baby-come-back laments of a thousand R&B peons. Even a song as promisingly titled as "Feelin' On Yo Booty" falls a little, well, flat.
What salvages R. from the Jodeci recycling bin, though, is his understanding that the clash of secular and gospel gave birth to R&B in the first place. When he's at his most conflicted, the results are truly remarkable. "I Wish" is a moving meditation on death, success and false friends, and the remix ain't half bad either. In other spots he throws in the occasional church choir, and "The Storm Is Over Now" achieves a heavenly elegance.
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Often overlooked is the fact that practically no one writes better love-gone-wrong songs than the R-man. Delivered from a spurned lover's perspective, "A Woman's Threat" might as well be called "When A Woman's Fed Up Enough For Me To Write Another Song About It." But this time, R. speaks from the girl's side, giving a fresh twist on the typical "pack yo' stuff and go" ballad. "I Don't Mean It" is just as real, painfully dissecting the time when you probably shouldn't have said, "Your sister really is hotter than you."
An R. Kelly greatest hits collection seems inevitable, and it will be a classic. "TP2.com" is decidedly non-classic, not to mention about 20 minutes too long, but Kelly seems like the only R&B thug out there who can convince you to listen first.
Grade: B-
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