Image via Complex Original
This week, R. Kelly's newest album Black Panties finally hit stores. It's been twenty years now since he dropped his debut album, 12 Play. In that time, we've learned a lot about the guy. Based on most everything you hear, he a very different type of person. He is, for starters, more expressive of his interest in sex than most other people. We have heard about allegations that have been made against that wish we had not heard about: sex with minors, child pornography. But he has never been convicted of those crimes. So basically, the only things that we can be absolutely sure of is that he was born and raised in Chicago, he likes leather, and he is a musical genius, the writer of songs like "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Down Low" and "Ignition (Remix)" and "Trapped in the Closet."
As far as "But what is R. Kelly really like?" though, that's one of the great mysteries of contemporary music. He is an enigma. But most everyone who knows R. Kelly, or who has even met him, comes away with a memorable anecdote. Some of them are funny, some of them are disturbing. But all of these, at least, are publishable. Here are 9 Crazy Stories About R. Kelly.
RELATED: I Watched R. Kelly Propose to the P***y
RELATED: The Most Ridiculous Lyrics from R. Kelly's Black Panties
RELATED: R. Kelly Has A Black Panties Hotline Because Of Course He Does
Fat Joe talks about R. Kelly's boxing
R. Kelly and Fat Joe have been friends for years. The two worked together on 2001's "We Thuggin'" 2005's "So Hot," the "Make It Rain (Remix)" and have maintained a close relationship throughout the years.
While promoting his album The Darkside, Joe told a story about how, in 2010, Kelly told him he had gotten into boxing. Joe said he didn't believe him. So Kelly pulled out a tape showing him fighting in a underground "fight club" in Chicago. It opened with R. Kelly entering the ring like a real boxer to his song "World's Greatest." And then he actually threw hands, knocking a guy out with one punch.
"The dude swings, R. Kelly ducks, catch him—BOOM!" said Fat Joe. "I was like yo, he's a murderer! This nigga R. Kelly was not swinging regular. He was swinging to kill."
After that, Joe said, Kelly fought a guy who was "cock diesel" and "the biggest dude he ever seen in his life." And that Kelly knocked him through the ropes.
Trackmasters record Best of Both Worlds with R. Kelly in one night
One of 2002's most anticipated albums was Jay Z and R. Kelly's collaboration project, Best of Both Worlds. Toke and Pone, the duo Trackmasters, shared details on the making of the album with Complex last year and explained how the album was troubled from the start.
For starters, Tone told us that he lied to both Jay and Kelly—telling each one that the other had come up with the idea to do a joint album. It proved impossible to get the two stars in the studio at the same time, so they recorded their parts separately. And R. Kelly recorded the majority of his contributions for the album in just one night.
"Rob was going on a cruise to like Africa or some crazy shit," Tone said. "I was like, 'You can't be gone. I gotta finish this record.'"
Tone said that R. Kelly wrote and recorded lyrics and choruses for nine tracks in one night. They took those nine songs and added the three completed songs they already had and wrapped the album. (Not bad for an album that sold 285,000 copies its first week in stores.)
Tone of Trackmasters talks about R. Kelly on the Best of Both Worlds tour
But that's not even the best story Tone told us. According to Tone, during the famously ill-fated Best of Both Worlds tour, on one particularly bad night in Detroit, Kelly took out his frustrations on an unlucky sound engineer.
"There was a night when they were in Detroit and the sound was fucked up. R. Kelly jumps off the stage, runs to the sound booth, and punches the guy in the face," said Tone. "During the show! It was fucked up. There was nothing I could do but watch."
Michael K. Williams shares his experience with R. Kelly at McDonald's & at Trapped in The Closet wrap parties
In an interview with Vulture, actor Michael K. Williams tells a story of a late-night trip to a Chicago McDonald's, where he discovered R. Kelly, singing his 2004 hit, "Happy People" and partying with a packed room filled with McDonald's customers.
"I've heard stories where he will shut down that Mcdonald's and have a private party," Williams said, "and go behind the register and cook the burgers himself."
BJ The Chicago Kid meets R. Kelly
When BJ The Chicago Kid spoke to Complex about his influences and mentors, he talked about meeting R. Kelly. It was around the turn of the century, and Kelly was a wearing zebra stripes.
"My first time seeing R. Kelly in Chicago, he had a white-and-black, zebra du-rag on, a white wife beater, some basketball shorts, and some white Air Force Ones, mid-top, with all of the laces out. That's how you know he was living at the studio. He was so comfortable, it was like his house shoes."
(I guess maybe that's not that crazy. Wait a minute, "white-and-black, zebra du-rag?" R. Kelly? Yeah, that's crazy.)
Aziz Ansari meets R. Kelly
Aziz Ansari told a story about going to an R. Kelly concert with his friend Jason in his 2010 special Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening—and, amazingly, being invited, by Kelly himself, to a nightclub for an afterparty. According to Ansari, at the club, R. Kelly started a lapdance contest for himself, having multiple women dance and straddle him in his chair. After each one finished, he would taunt the next contestant, singing, "Who can top that shit?"
Until one topped them all.
"Third woman comes on stage with humongous breasts, whips them out, slaps the first three rows, grabs R. Kelly's head and just goes 'Aaah!'" Ansari said, gesturing the "motorboat" move. "And then R. Kelly pops out his head and goes [sings] 'Woaaah. Ain't nobody going to top that shit. I'm out.'"
R. Kelly attributes The Notebook to the decision to divorce his wife
In his 2012 autobiography, R. Kelly wrote that seeing the movie Ryan Gosling movie The Notebook led him to divorce his wife, Andrea Lee Kelly. Apparently, the romantic story of lifelong love, watching a man and woman who loved each other die together, brought him to the realization that what he had with his wife wasn't up to par. Grand gestures be damned.
"I was also crying because I remembered a Valentine's Day," R. Kelly wrote. "When a helicopter dropped a rainfall of roses—that had come and gone... My marriage had ended. And there was nothing I could do to bring it back."
R. Kelly talks about his experience as a part-time stripper
In his autobiography, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, R. Kelly writes about his days working part-time as a stripper. His uniform consisted of a Darth Vader mask, a robe, and "little patent leather drawers." The money as a stripper was great, apparently, but as he wrote, the male-stripper industry "was controlled by big-time thugs who weren't about to put up with some freelance kid dressed up as Darth Vader cutting into their profit." So he didn't last long.
R. Kelly's brother, Carey, alleged that R. Kelly asked him to perjure himself.
Between 2002 and 2008, R. Kelly was embroiled in very serious legal situation: accused of multiple charges including child pornography. The prosecution was in possession of a videotape supposedly showing Kelly involved in sexual acts with minors. Kelly maintains he is not the man in the video.
In 2006, R.'s brother Carey put out a video of himself alleging that R. tried to bribe him to come forward and plead guilty to the terrible charges. To say that he was the person in the video.
According to MTV News, there had already been a rumor saying it was Carey in the video when the tape was initially leaked, but no evidence to support that. Carey says that R. Kelly brought up the idea when they were in a hot tub (presumably to make sure he wasn't wearing a wire), offering him $50,000, a record deal and a house to plead guilty.
"My brother wanted me to do some shit pertaining to this case that would leave me behind bars with a record deal," Carey said. "It doesn't make sense, so I turned it down.... Since I couldn't lie for him in a court of law, we're back to beefing again, and we ain't brothers no more."