"Happy People / U Saved Me" Album cover

The mark of a true artist is the willingness to experiment within one chosen medium. It's this kind of dedication to craft and change that has given the world blessed talents like Picasso, Marvin Gaye and Toni Morrison. Yet, in the postmodern era of soul music, the number of artists with the desire to go beyond the expected can be counted on one hand.

Without a doubt, R. Kelly (BMG-Zomba) leads the pack when it comes to rhythmic innovators.

Since his early days with Public Announcement and his first solo masterwork, 1993's "12 play", R. Kelly has proven that he is unafraid of challenging himself either on the mic or in the studio. Over the past decade, he's topped the charts with the now-classic "I believe I can fly", "Gotham City", I'm your Angel" (with Celine Dion), "If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time", "Down Low" and many, many more.

BMI's 2004 producer of the year, Kelly picked up a slew of awards this year including Billbord Songwriter of the year, BMI song of the year ("Ignition") and the Soul Train Awards for Best R&B/Soul Album (Chocolate factory) to name a few.

And now, R. Kelly is back with not one, but two CDs: "Happy People / U Saved Me", his eight albums and second double album. An ambitious project, the double set showcases two sides to R. Kelly and takes the listener on a journey from the wildness of Saturday night "stepping" (a dance craze) to content peacefulness of prayer on a Sunday morning. While straddling the thin line between party music and sacred soundtracks has been a part of the soul man dilemma since the days of Sam Cooke and Bobby Womack, R. Kelly has way of making both sonic experiences.

"Happy people" is the party disc - an entire CD of dance-centric tracks. He then switches gears on "U Saved Me", a true R&B disc which dives deeper into the spiritual sonic seas.

Like his previous efforts, "Happy People / u saved me" was embraces by music fans around the glob - it entered the US R&B/Hip-Hop album chart at number one, The US pop album chart at number two, was a top 10 hit in Germany and the Netherlands, and went to 30 in the UK, France, Sweden and Canada. Singles from both albums are burning up the charts.

R. Kelly has also had a superstar career as an urban song-writer/producer/multi-instrumentalist and is responsible for songs from Jay-Z, Puff Daddy, Michel Jackson, B2K, Cassidy -* the list goes on and on. In any given week, he is likely to have five or more songs on the US charts either as a recording artist or as a writer/producer. At press time, the tracks "So Sexy" and "So Sexy part 2" by Twista, "Wonderful" by Ja Rule and "Don't let Me Die" by Jay-Z were all climbing the US singles charts.

As usual, R. Kelly boldly goes where most soul stars fear to tread.

R. Kelly's web site
R. Kelly is represented by BMG-Zomba.

The article was taken from "The Bugle" (BMG Magazine) Autumn 2004 issue.