R&B has built a career on whispering lusty nothings in girls’ ears, it’s him.

Sure, that kind of devil-may-care promiscuity launched quite a few rumors about R. Kelly’s real-life sexuality: That he married a then-teenage Aaliyah in the mid-’90s; that he had created a sex tape with a 14-year-old; that his house was full of child pornography when police searched it in 2002. …

But when he finally went to trial in 2008, he was cleared of all charges - and if you expected him to change his music, at all, because of that whole ordeal, then you’re in for absolutely no surprises.

After all, this is the man who created “Trapped in the Closet,” a lengthy, 22-part hip-hopera about infidelity, manipulation, deceit and little people (”Now pause the movie / ‘Cause what I’m about to say to y’all is so damn twisted / Not only is there a man in his cabinet/ But the man is a midget! / Midget! Midget! Midget!”).

And at times, it’s not entirely clear whether “Untitled” is as tongue-in-cheek as “Trapped in the Closet” just had to be.

For example, typical fare, like “Crazy,” which features Auto-Tune and lyrics about how R. Kelly is rich enough to cover his large bar tab of Hennessy and Bacardi and hot enough to get girls who are “hot like a poster,” and “Exit,” which sounds a bit like “Ignition (Remix),” in which R. Kelly praises his own prowess in bed (”I could give sex seminars”) and encourages girls to use the stripper pole in his house, just sound like run-of-the-mill R. Kelly.

So maybe you can’t really teach an old dog new tricks - but R. Kelly does get originality points for saying things that are so absurd that you can’t help chuckling. For example, there’s “Echo,” in which R. Kelly assures his current booty call that he’s “called your boss / And he knows you’re not coming in today / Sex in the morning / Sex all day,” and then encourages her to sound “like you’re screaming from a mountain peak” - i.e., yodel during sex.

Couple that with a few other sure radio hits, like the slow-burning first single “Number 1″ featuring Keri Hilson (although the line “Having sex with you / Is like making hits,” again raises questions about R. Kelly’s self-awareness level) and the annoyingly catchy “Supaman High,” and some moments of “Untitled” aren’t totally boring.

For the most part, though, listening to “Untitled” will make you yearn for those promised future chapters of “Trapped in the Closet” - can that be next on R. Kelly’s to-do list?

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 3:00 am and is filed under Rhythm & blues (R&B) . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.