Release Date: Jul 5, 2005
Genre(s): Pop, R&B
Record label: Jive
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Given that the Jive Records press release compares the Chicago R&B tycoon to Beethoven ("The mark of a true artist is the willingness to experiment ... It's this kind of dedication that has given the world talents like Beethoven"), you can hardly blame them for sending out review copies of this album on old-school cassettes to prevent internet uploading. All of which is a pretty highfalutin way of announcing that the old tomcat has written some new songs.
Could anything be more artistically liberating than 30-plus charges of child pornography? R. Kelly probably doesn't think so. Since his 2002 indictment, he has become increasingly prolific, ambitious, and bold (i.e., bonkers). On 2004's mostly excellent Happy People/U Saved Me, he temporarily shed his sex-freak persona, yet he caught heat for the stage production used during a disastrous tour with Jay-Z.