But you can’t be a leader following the people. “I took some time to sit back and listen to what were doing,” he later explained of re-connecting with his inner-Dionysus. For a man that has survived gang violence and poverty growing up in the Windy City as well as career-threatening sex tape scandal, Black Panties is a chest-beating shot across the bow to his critics. Which explains why Kelly is boldly embracing today’s ratchet-or-bust brand of sounds. But when you are channeling Marvin Gaye and late ‘70s Philly soul, people are quick to bury you in the old school adult contemporary bin. Kelly has produced two rich, heart-stirring efforts (2010’s Love Letter and 2012’s Write Me Back) that found him tapping into the throwback ‘60s and 70’s R&B sounds first introduced to him by his beloved late mother. Never mind that over the last four years R. To hear him tell it, the music industry has counted him out.
But there is something else happening here. “I don’t want to leave a fingerprint because it’s about to be a murder,” Kelly boasts before he launches into the ballsy release. This is shockingly explicit stuff with pearl-clutching titles like “F-ckin’ With The Lights On,” “Show Ya Pussy” and “Girls Kissing Girls.” Actually, the man has never sounded more defiantly cocksure. The Chicago-born singer, songwriter, and producer is here to play tracks from his upcoming album Black Panties, a work that finds the soulful veteran returning to the raunchy, blush-inducing roots of his ‘90s work. On a lukewarm Saturday afternoon, the 46-year-old is in high spirits as he faces a packed, claustrophobic room of radio industry folks and journalists. He is gloriously in modern R&B king mode: colorful printed shirt, red leather pants, red sneakers, a gold backpack and cigar in hand.
Kelly walks into Atlanta’s Patchwerk Studios looking anything but inconspicuous.
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