For Myself & Others: What a Difference Two Years Can Make
By Bomani Jones
Jay-Z and R. Kelly are on tour, and a new album is waiting in the wings.This just two years after a video of a man alleged to be R. Kelly with an underage girl after a sexual act hit street corners and Web sites alike, resulting in a serious case of PR cooties for the R. Amidst the fallout, the highly anticipated Jay-Z/Kelly tour was canceled, Jay-Z was Photoshopped out of a Vibe cover the two were slated to appear on, and Def Jam ceased all promotion of their LP, ‘Best of Both Worlds.’
So what’s changed since then?
Nothing, really.
Sure, Kelly’s restyled himself as the patron saint of the steppin’ crowd, cranking out cuts for playing right before last call. He’s also released a double album, ‘Happy People/You Saved Me,’ that strays from his trademark bold sexuality. However, Kelly still seems poised to do some time for a despicable crime.
Jay-Z, on the other hand, released ‘The Black Album’ last fall to signal his “retirement.” But in the months since he has become more of a news item than when he was “working.” He may return under an alias (S. Carter), but it’s the same cat. Or he may even preside over the Def Jam empire.
Since the Kelly story first broke, many have chosen to reserve judgment, preferring to give that responsibility to God, a jury, and/or Wendy Williams. Most, however, can absolutely find problems with the thought of a grown man sleeping with a high-school girl. Perhaps it’s not anyone’s business what Kelly does in his free time, but it’s impossible to throw ‘12 Play’ in the deck without considering what was on his mind at the time of recording.
A realization of the discomfort caused by such a perception may have prompted Kelly’s current metamorphosis, a reinvention that has yielded a kind of smooth old head. I’m not sure if this makes him more or less disturbing, though. The new image makes him seem more his age — 35, but some have guessed him to be grayer than that — than his previous profile. Some of the edge is gone, so some may see him as less lascivious than before. But now, he seems like a grown man that might sleep with teenagers. At best, that’s six in one hand and a half-dozen in the other. At worst…well, is there much worse than what is on that tape?
But for all the discussions of subtle changes in Kelly’s image, do any of them change what derailed this tour two years ago? Is there any reason that the bad press Kelly got should be forgotten?
Of course not, though Kelly has figured out how to make audiences ignore those atrocious allegations -- by making hot music.
Say what you want, but ‘Chocolate Factory’ was off the chain. It may be his best album, and that’s a serious statement when one considers that ‘12 Play’ — for better or worse — changed R&B forever. ‘12 Play’ was to ’90s R&B what NWA’s ‘Efil4zaggin’ was to ’90s rap. Both were raunchy, mostly tasteless and brilliant. Unfortunately, both albums led the way for a bunch of sound-alikes that culled the bad from those records, ignoring that each was often dope in spite of those qualities, not because of them.
For example, ‘12 Play’ was dope enough to make listeners ignore that there’s actually a song ludicrously titled ‘I Like the Crotch On You.’ And ‘Chocolate Factory’ may be doper than that.
That’s good for those that bought the CD (something I would not and will not do). But most of all, that’s good for Kelly. It has given him total immunity and even allowed him to make a fool of himself by appearing in a video wearing a pink shirt and a matching Zorro mask (a strange new prop, especially considering the recent allegations). All that and he’s still hot enough to warrant sharing a tour billing with Jay-Z. Makes you wonder why the first Jigga/Kelly tour was canceled at all.
Nothing about his predicament has changed. Questions about his character have not elicited different answers than they did two years ago. But in those short two years the musical hierarchy has changed very little. Jay-Z is still the biggest star in hip-hop not named Eminem, and Kelly’s still the biggest star in R&B. Their tour will be smashingly successful, perhaps more than it would have been in 2002.
Perhaps the only thing that has changed significantly is the public. Why would the public be less sensitive to Kelly’s alleged crimes? Maybe we’ve underestimated the power of the pied piper.
My buddy Mark Anthony Neal predicted that R. would be forgiven and he used the blind eye many turned toward Marvin Gaye’s marriage to Janis Hunter as precedent. At the same time, there’s something far more disturbing about the allegations against Kelly. This is not to imply that marrying a child makes sleeping with one any better, but it’s much less shocking to be remembered for underage matrimony.
The reality is that people just don’t care about what Kelly may have done two years ago, but given that the tour’s been resurrected maybe we should be questioning how much they really cared in the first place.
October 22, 2004