Truth is, for as much flack as Kelly gets for his carnality, people really don’t want him to throw in the, uh, sex towel. Like the similarly sequenced TP.3: Reloaded, Double Up is front loaded with the usual club-ready rap-collabs, but the rest of the record (give or take a few tracks) is on that usual smooth R&B tip. Those afraid the album wouldn’t have any R&B can rest assured. Doing rap collabs was working out so well for Kelly that he switched his direction, ditched Making Babies and brought in some hip-hoppers to work with. It started with a string of remixes he appeared on, the “I’m N Love (Wit a Stripper) (Remix)” (where Kells proposes to a stripper’s backside), the “Make It Rain (Remix)” (where he breaks down club-mathematics: “I order one bottle then I fuck with one model / Then I order more bottles / Now I got more models”) and then his collaborations with Snoop and Young Jeezy. Kelly has been on a ridiculous roll the past year. It’s too bad he didn’t make it, but I guess he has the rest of his career to make serious concept albums. Fact is, it doesn’t really matter if Kelly is guilty or not because he does make some damn good music.ĭouble Up was originally going to be Making Babies, a nine-track long (each track named after a different month of pregnancy) album to be played in that most intimate of moments. But Kelly’s oft-compared forefather, Marvin Gaye, was in the same situation, and look at how people speak of him today. His track record is pretty firm evidence that the dude has no problem gettin’ with underage girls (Aaliyah anyone?) and might possibly be, if his act isn’t just a persona, a serious sex addict. “Separate the man from the music” has been the mantra of even the most devoted Kells fans, which is interesting because it’s actually an admission that, yeah, he’s probably guilty. Both camps are equally vocal and both have equally valid points. It’s also divided his fans and detractors into even more polarized camps: those who think Kelly is the greatest artist of his generation and those who think he’s a lascivious soon-to-be-convicted-if-there’s-any-justice-in-the-world, pedophile.
But if anything, the long suffering child pornography suit has only served to push the man to new limits. Dude’s pushing 40 and lest we forget, dude is still an alleged-felon. Kelly really shouldn’t be making albums like this anymore.
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