7 posts tagged “r kelly”
IFC is showing a new chapter from Trapped in the Closet every day until August 21, with R. Kelly providing bits of commentary. Today: chapter 13.
From 2003, a fantastic Believer interview with ?uestlove of the Roots. This makes me smile: "I have this ritual of buying Straight Out the Jungle a billion times, acting like it’s the first time again." (via Idolator)
Like Anil, I am so, so excited about the upcoming release of the new chapters of Trapped in the Closet. Back in November 2005, I posted about chapters 1-12 and called the collection the best album of 2005, which--despite the fact that it's not really an album proper, I guess--I still stand by.
It's incredible, and listening to a couple of chapters on the way to work this morning brought me back to hearing it for the first time in 2005.
And so yes, I was thrilled--thrilled!--to see this teaser trailer for the new chapters.
Since I am, as ever, a pawn of the music bloggers, I read this list of the 25 hip-hop albums of all time, and then, I bought Digable Planets' Blowout Comb the next chance I got. And it's so great.
OMG twist! R Kelly, the M Night Shyamalan of R&B? Watch "Same Girl", R Kelly feat. Usher. Watch the ending!
If I weren't a fan of the Dirty Projectors, I might think that the concept of their new album--a reinterpretation of Black Flag's Damaged, made without listening to the original album, recorded on a four-track that Dave Longstreth picked up mid-inspiration at the local music shop (apparently), but with merely a 25-year-old memory of said album and its songs & lyrics--that concept, well, I might find it a bit pretentious. And I'm not going to say that it isn't, but I am going to say that I loved e.g. The Getty Address enough to give it the benefit of the doubt. (Listen to "No More".)
This commercial (from Ford Europe) almost made me cry this morning! Baby animals in the womb? So cute! (via Very Short List)
Two other books I've read recently (in addition to...): Plenty, which I bought on a warm spring day at the farmer's market when I was particularly inspired by the idea of eating locally; and Busting Vegas, which is another Ben Mezrich book about smart young people in over their heads (c.f. Bringing Down the House, Ugly Americans). Both were okay, but overall felt a little bit empty for me--honestly, though, I think this is my newfound bias towards fiction talking.
R. Kelly. Double Up. On Vox. Best ad evar!
Yesterday, I found a wonderful Of Montreal show captured online. Today, I listened to it, and loved "Du Og Meg," which despite my love for this year's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? I hadn't heard (it's from Icons, Abstract Thee, a special-edition EP that was previously to this month sold only on tour, I guess?). It's a lovely, heart-on-the-sleeve pop song that reminds me of early Orange Juice, with all of the charm/giddiness/lovesickness that implies. Listen!
2007 is really shaping up to be the year of R. Kelly, isn't it? He's just been everywhere this year, and it's only March!
Here are a couple of tracks, either from late 2006 or 2007, all of which are pretty great. Everyone should listen to them.
A couple of things:
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As an addendum to last week's vox hunt--which I answered--another great love song, perhaps one of the greatest songs in forever: Prince's "Adore".
- The remix of Ciara's "Promise", featuring R. Kelly, is really very, very good: "Even though I'm Kells / and I've got all of these chicks chasing me".
- My favorite line from this last week's episode of The Office: Andy saying to Michael, "gonna go home, get my beer on, get my 'Lost' on".
- Ghostface's Fishscale, from last year, continues to offer up new favorites every couple of days, still, eight or however many months later. This week it's "Big Girl", with Ghostface doing his soulful thing over The Stylistics "You're a Big Girl Now".
- A fantastic post on The Tofu Hut about Amy Winehouse, whose "You Know I'm No Good" sounds so much better on Ghostface's More Fish, and whose "Back to Black" (the song, but also the album) is fantastic.
As part of some online magazine subscription service we recently received a two-month-old issue of Esquire, which contained their "Best Song in the World" [1] poll.
It's structured as an NCAA-style single-elimination [2], complete with brackets, &c. and contains 32 songs at the outer level, which filter down to 1 Best Song.
What it doesn't contain, however, are the actual best songs of the 21st century.
& they are: Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" and R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)". So I'm sorry to all of the people who've responded to the Esquire poll, but you voted for the wrong songs. You lose!
[1] "Best Song in the World" is a bit broad--what they're actually looking at is best song in the 21st century. And even then, that's rather broad, because it's really best single, and then, probably best single pre-selected from a group of very highly-selling singles in mainstream pop/rock/hip-hop.
[2] Sort of how both Mena & I imagined the Kentucky Derby.
