Q&A: R. Kelly Says Freaky ‘Black Panties’ LP Is An Ode To Public Sex, Strip Clubs

November 14, 2013 - 5:37 pm by Keith Murphy

Either R. Kelly is putting on his best chest-beating, I’m-the-baddest-man-on-the-planet façade or the R&B veteran is feeling epically confident about his upcoming December album release Black Panties. Or maybe Kelly is just mentally in a damn good place. The singer-songwriter-producer has been gleefully picking his spots as of late. One moment he’s hopping on a track with electro French rock band Phoenix (“Trying To Be Cool”) and then pulling off a high profile collaboration with Lady Gaga (“Do What U Want”), and the next he’s jumping on a raunchy Bruno Mars remix alongside resurrected song-and-dance man Pharrell (“Gorilla”).

Yep, these days it’s good to be Robert Sylvester Kelly. VIBE caught up with the singer to discuss, among other topics, the making of his most x-rated and cocksure effort to date, Black Panties, as well as his reinvention into an unlikely indie rock music festival savant. Buckle up. —Keith Murphy (@murphdogg29)

VIBE: You seemed to be going to another place in the recording studio. It was almost like you were being taken back to the Chicago PJ’s, taken back to playing in the L stations. It was almost as if people were not even there. Is that what goes through your mind when you are getting heavy into the music?
R. Kelly: Well, [people] are never really there when I perform. When I’m performing, I call that the homie ghost. I was just feeling it and it was getting to that point. It’s just like any preacher that preaches the word. When he starts to really feel what it is that he’s preaching about, he takes on that other spirit. I was just tapped in, man, because I’m loving the work that I’ve done. I’ve done all my homework and now it’s time to play.

One of the new songs “Leg Shaking,” which features Ludacris, has a very big, sweeping Michael Jackson feel to it. What were you trying to achieve with that record? Was the spirit of MJ in the room with you?
Absolutely. But what I was also trying to do with “Leg Shaking,” and the entire Black Panties, I want to represent the strip club with this album. But I don’t want to just represent it in its ratchetness. I want it to be ratchet, but classy. So “Leg Shaking” is that classic, ratchet, sexual song, if you will. But you got that little Michael Jackson feel on it. It mixes with the R. Kelly, and I think that’s what adds the classy feel to it, so it can be here forever.

There are certain parts of “Cookie” that are so over-the-top. I think, “This dude has jokes.” When you are writing some of these x-rated lyrics do you sit back and say, “This shit is crazy?”
Yeah, I do [laughs]. When I’m doing my music it’s like I’m sitting up there getting high off of it. I’m smoking it and I’m taking it in. I’m inhaling, I’m exhaling, and now I’m starting to feel some type of way. So with “Cookie” and all of the metaphors, even back to “You Remind Me Of My Jeep,” and lyrics like “Stick the key in the ignition…lick it in the middle…” The whole nine…but when you take those funny things and the metaphors, and mix them all together, and make it into a great melody, and it comes out like that, that’s the gift. Some people are talented and some people are gifted. I know how to take those little metaphors and mix them all up and then it comes out into a song. It’s no different than “Feeling On Your Booty.” It becomes somewhat comedic, but sexual.

Click the arrows above to continue reading.

The production on Black Panties sounds like you made an effort to say, “I want this album to sound as clean as possible. I want it to fill up a room and the drums to smack you in the head.” Who did you work with in terms of production and why did you adopt such a mammoth sound? It was mostly myself, but I worked with other producers…new and up-and-coming producers. What I wanted to do with this sound, man, I wanted it to be sex. 12 Play was more about the bedroom, but I wanted this sound to sound like sex in public. I want it out in the open…don’t give a fuck right now. We just going to go outside and make love and make babies. That’s what I wanted it to feel like—everybody from every street corner to every ‘hood and all around the world are going to hear this track because it’s banging! This is something you have to turn up, for real. Do you have a favorite track on Black Panties? My favorite track on Black Panties right now is the last one I just done, which is called “Fucking With The Lights On.” That’s the one for me right now. What is it about that track? Well, it’s sexy and out in the open. Not only that, you are being bold about it. If you are going to do it with the lights on, she must be bad. There’s no shame to it. She’s bad, you in shape, it’s like you can see everything. You ain’t got nothing to hide. You just open with it. And the melody…I love it. Have you shot a video for the first single with 2 Chainz (“My Story”)?

Have you shot a video for the first single with 2 Chainz (“My Story”)? No, but we did a viral video for right now because I’m going to tell you. “My Story” is the set-off of the album. It’s not necessarily to me or the company the single, but it sets the tone for the album. This is my story: money, cars, bad chicks and all of that. You put that out there to set that record straight and then you go into Black Panties. And anyone that knows me knows that I will come out with an “I Wish” or I’ll come out with “Heaven I Need A Hug” and then I’ll go into “Ignition.” This year, you’ve made it a point to perform at well known rock and alternative music festivals. I talked to you about this before when you said, “I can rock any crowd.” What has the reception been like? Were you shocked at how positively you were received? I wasn’t necessarily shocked when I did Bonnaroo and Pitchfork. I was a little nervous before I went out because I wanted to be accepted by all genres of people; all types of people…white, black, it doesn’t matter who it is. I want it to be universal. I want it to be the world, my music, whether it’s a sexual song, or “I Believe I Can Fly,” “Ignition” or whatever it is. But I was a little nervous because this was my first time in America rocking such a large white crowd. There was 70,000 people out there to see little old black me onstage [laughs]. I’m doing all these R&B joints like what’s going on? I’m from the Southside of Chicago. And before I even hit the stage there was all these people screaming, hands going side-to-side. Man, that let me know what something weird was going on. It’s time to just push this button and wake the world up. How did it make you feel to see 60,000 white kids out there mouthing every word? A lot of things go through my mind. To be from the Ida B. Wells, Jeffery Manor, Robert Taylor and all these [Chicago housing projects] and all of these parts of town, and to come out from out of that ‘hood—and I mean deep ‘hood—to come from there and have all these people no matter what color, no matter where they are from singing my music and my lyrics? It’s a breath. I didn’t have nothing to do when I was getting into this business, now I’m like the busiest man in the world. It’s crazy. But it’s a great feeling.

In This Story: