Born in Chicago in 1967, R. Kelly is a popular American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer best known for his gospel-tinged vocals and highly sexualized lyrics. Lauded as the "King of R&B," Kelly won three Grammy Awards for his hit "I Believe I Can Fly," and has more Top 40 hits than any other male solo artist in the 1990s. His personal life has been imbued with controversial sex scandals, including child-pornography charges that were dropped.

QUOTES

"With my music, I want everyone to recognize me as ... a true writer—a person who is married to his work. I like to think I'm the weird scientist in the basement."

– R. Kelly

Early Life

Born Robert Sylvester Kelly on January 8, 1967, in Chicago, Illinois, singer-songwriter R. Kelly has enjoyed tremendous success on both the pop and R&B music charts. He has also made headlines with his legal woes. Kelly grew up in a Chicago house project, where he was raised by his single mother, and began singing in his church's choir as a young child.

One of five children, Kelly was later able to attend Kenwood Academy. There, he was persuaded by his music teacher, Lena McLin, that he truly had a gift for performing. "She's my second mother," Kelly later explained to Ebony magazine. "She took me under her wing in high school. She told me I would be a big star."

R&B star

After singing on the streets for a time, R. Kelly got his first big break in 1990, when he landed a recording contract with Jive Records. The following year, he released Born into the 90's with Public Announcement, his back-up group. The album quickly proved to be a hit, featuring two top R&B singles, "Honey Love" and "Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)." Just as quickly as his album shot to success, Kelly became known for his sexually charged lyrics.

In 1993, Kelly continued his meteoric rise with 12 Play, scoring his first No. 1 single on the pop charts with "Bump N' Grind." That same year, the singer-songwriter suffered a great personal loss: the death of his mother. He continued to live up to his nickname, "Prince of Pillowtalk," with the release of R. Kelly, but threw some of his gospel influences into the mix as well.

Lauded as the "King of R&B," Kelly showed that he could also be the "king of the ballad" with 1996's "I Believe I Can Fly." The song, which appeared on the soundtrack for the Michael Jordan movieSpace Jam, earned him three Grammy Awards in 1997. Kelly also contributed the song "Gotham City" to the Batman & Robin (1997) soundtrack.

In addition to creating his own music, Kelly worked with such artists as Gladys Knight, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, for whom Kelly penned the 1995 chart-topper "You Are Not Alone." Working as her producer, Kelly helped teenaged singer Aaliyah with her 1994 album, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number. The pair became romantically involved, despite Kelly being nearly 12 years her senior, and were even married briefly, but her family had the union dissolved. Aaliyah had lied on the marriage certificate, claiming to be 18 years old when was only 15. Not long after, in 1996, Kelly married dancer Andrea Lee. The couple had three children together before divorcing in 2009.

Kelly remained an impressive force in the world of R&B and pop music. His 1998 album, R., featuring a duet with Celine Dion entitled "I'm Your Angel," sold more than 7 million copies. He had other successful collaborations around this time, as well: He and Sean "Puffy" Combs made the charts with "Satisfy You" in 1999, and two years later,

Kelly joined with Jay-Z to create another Top 10 hit, "Fiesta."

Legal Troubles

In 2002, Kelly and Jay-Z released the collaborative album The Best of Both Worlds. However, the record was overshadowed by Kelly's alleged involvement in a sex scandal. A video reportedly showing Kelly having sex with an underage girl was given to a journalist, who turned the tape over to the police. Kelly claimed that he was innocent.

In June 2002, Kelly was charged with 21 counts of criminal acts related to child pornography in Illinois. He was charged again in Florida the following year on similar charges, but these were later dropped. Despite the scandal surrounding him, Kelly still enjoyed strong commercial success. His 2004 album Happy People/U Saved Me sold more than 2 million copies, and he introduced his famous related song series, Trapped in the Closet, on the record TP.3 Reloaded in 2005. Additionally, he remained a sought-after collaborator, working with Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule, among others.

Kelly was finally put on trial in May 2008. By this time, several of the charges against him had been dropped. Then, the young woman who allegedly appeared in the video refused to testify, and several of her family members stated that it was not her in the video. After several weeks of testimony, the jury concluded that Kelly was not guilty of all 14 counts against him.

Recent Projects

While no longer the leading star he once was, R. Kelly continues to create new music and perform live. He released Write Back to Me in 2012, which follows in the footsteps of stars like Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass. That same year, Kelly published an autobiography, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me. Kelly explained his reason for writing the book on his website, writing that he "felt it was time they met Robert, the mama's boy, Robert the brother, Robert the father and most of all Robert the person."

2013: Black Panties and collaborations

During 2013, R. Kelly has been continuing his "The Single Ladies Tour". He has also been performing at a variety of music festivals across North America, including Bonnarro, Pitchfork, and Macy's Music Festival. On June 30, 2013, R. Kelly performed live at BET Awards Show for the first time in many years, singing a medley of his hits as well as a snippet of his new track "My Story" featuring Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz. This was followed by news that Kelly was releasing the song as the lead single for his upcoming twelfth studio album Black Panties. The album itself was officially released on December 10, 2013. During this time, R. Kelly also collaborated with a variety of artists. He co-wrote and is featured on Lady Gaga's song "Do What U Want" from her 2013 album Artpop. R. Kelly performed his duet with Lady Gaga for the first time on Saturday Night Live on November 16, 2013. The two are also scheduled to perform the song live again at the 2013 American Music Awards. He also collaborated with Birdman and Lil Wayne on the Rich Gang album's second single and on Twista's first single on his new album "Dark Horse". Music videos have been produced for both singles. At midnight on November 17, R. Kelly and Justin Bieber debuted their first collaboration entitled "PYD".

R. Kelly was also featured on the soundtrack album of the film The Best Man Holiday with his song "Christmas, I'll Be Steppin'".On an interview with Global Grind on November 15, R. Kelly stated that he has a song that he is going to be servicing to Celine Dion and it could be their first song together after the number one single "I'm Your Angel" in 1998. He also confirmed that Trapped in the Closet is going toBroadway and that he's working on making movies and also more chapters for his Hip Hopera, telling his fans that they will see a lot going on for him in past two or three years and more. He is also working with singer Mariah Carey for her new upcoming album "The Art of Letting Go".

During the year he has been featured on a couple of remixes of well-known songs, for example: "Gorilla (G-Mix)" with Bruno Mars and Pharrell, "U.O.E.N.O." by Rocko, "Trying to Be Cool" with Phoenix, "Clean this House" by Gospel singer Isacc Carree, "Dirty Laundry" by Kelly Rowland, and "Representin" by Ludacris featuring himself and Fabolous.

2013–present: Future projects

In late 2013, R. Kelly announced with Rap-Up TV that he was planning to release the sequel to the album Black Panties for the summer of 2014. He also added that he is finishing up a Christmas album for late 2014 called "The 12 Nights Of Christmas".R. Kelly is also planning a tour withR&B singer Mary J. Blige called "The King & Queen Tour" before doing the Black Panties Tour later. He is also going to film and put out more Chapter of his infamous Hip Hopera Trapped in the Closet.

 R. Kelly has also been recording different songs with Celine Dion,

Mariah Carrey, Mary J. Blige and the rapper Scarface as a featured performer on tracks on each of their albums. He has only confirmed one collaboration for his upcoming Black Panties sequel, with pop singerJustin Bieber.

Stepping away from his music, R. Kelly is planning to make his debut as a film director and producer sometime during 2014 or 2015 and also plans on taking his musical Trapped in the Closet to Broadway.