R. Kelly

Latest Articles

The Big Hurt: Marky + Biebs, Sinéad's divorce; plus, Nelly, Jay-Z & Kanye, Slim Dunkin, and R. Kelly

Music news in brief
BIEBERWATCH! Last year, Paramount hinted at plans for a major JUSTIN BIEBER vehicle: some kind of basketball movie teaming our twink swag hunk with former teen throb "MARKY MARK" WAHLBERG.
By DAVID THORPE | January 11, 2012

The Big Hurt: Alex James's cheese, the Chili Peppers' video, Noel and Liam's suit, Nicole Scherzinger's Killer Love, Sammy Hagar's Chickenfoot III

Music news in brief
James is on the vanguard of a truly extraordinary future: now that cheese has been infused with the flavor of ketchup, it's only a matter of time before entire cheeseburgers — with beef, onions, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and all — are compressed into pre-sliced cheese singles so you can carry them around in your wallet.
By DAVID THORPE | August 31, 2011

The good Doctor is in (and out, and in ...)

Space invader
Let's just allow that Doctor Astronaut is a digital maestro, an enjoyable and entertaining wordsmith, a progressive barrier crasher.
By SAM PFEIFLE | June 08, 2011

Brooklyn’s Matt and Kim just want to have fun

Indie-pop frenzy
Brooklyn's Matt and Kim just want to have fun
By REYAN ALI | October 27, 2010

Matthew Dear | Black City

Ghostly International (2010)
This week, Matthew Dear is Matthew Dear.
By MICHAEL C. WALSH | August 18, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

New edition

Masspike Miles, Lisa Bello, and the little R&B scene that can
There’s no underground scene for pop-minded R&B. Not in Boston, and not really anyplace else.
By CHRIS FARAONE | December 09, 2009

Treat of Versailles

Phoenix please themselves — and you
It's been a good year: their relentlessly catchy Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2) — whisked into the public ear this year atop Cadillacs via ad-ready singles like "1901" and "Lisztomania" — is about to cause some year-end listomania of its own. Since its release, they've been circling the globe playing to a steadily swelling audience.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 02, 2009

Totally clips of the heart

Foraging with the Found Footage Festival’s Nick Prueher
Nick Prueher and fellow video crate digger Joe Pickett sift through untold hours of lunatic cable-access shows, home movies, and dubious self-help videos to pluck out breathtakingly bad gems for their touring Found Footage Festival.
By SHAULA CLARK | November 12, 2009

Review: Whitney Houston | I Look to You

Arista (2009)
It's tempting to wonder whether super-producer Clive Davis, in another of his music-biz machinations, arranged for Whitney Houston to whiff last week on Good Morning America , which is reported to have altered Houston's vocals for broadcast after she sounded hoarse during her Central Park mini-concert.
By MIKAEL WOOD | September 09, 2009

Britney Spears and Michael Jackson fight it out

Who's #1?
Cue up track six on the new Britney (Jive) and prepare yourself for the Technicolor disco flash-back of the year, swooning string section, chunky Nile Rodgers guitar riff, and all. The song's called "Anticipating," and it captures the most famous 19-year-old girl in the world at her guileless, sentimental best.
By SEAN RICHARDSON | June 30, 2009

Suite relief

Dirty Projectors' breakthrough has but one concept: Rule
For Longstreth, the pressure's been ratcheted up following the online leak a couple of months ago of Dirty Projectors' fifth LP, Bitte Orca (Domino) which is finally, officially out this week.
By MICHAEL ALAN GOLDBERG | June 10, 2009

The Big Hurt: Cohen back on stage, Dee back in Heaven, Kelly back on the market

Music news in brief
Rascal Flatts are coming out with a sixth album, and I still haven't caught up with the previous five!
By DAVID THORPE | January 20, 2009

Mirror ball

Fables of deconstruction
The stirring pop hits of the day can’t help but reflect the refracting cracked mirror of our nation’s increasingly emotion-laden psyche.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | September 08, 2008

The Big Hurt: More bad news in brief

DMX spits, Lou spills, Kelly leaks, Keane sucks
Police pulled over Snoop Dogg’s tour bus and — gasp! — smelled marijuana!
By DAVID THORPE | August 13, 2008

Vicious squircles

The Big Hurt: grave errors and virtual disappointments
Someone has made off with Ian Curtis's gravestone.
By DAVID THORPE | July 15, 2008

Please release me

The Big Hurt: The week in awful press releases
If you were looking for important, well-reported, or even marginally interesting music news, you probably wouldn’t be reading my column.
By DAVID THORPE | June 24, 2008

Lavigne squeaks; Winehouse freaks; Oasis leaks

The Big Hurt: music news in brief
Courtney Love and Avril Lavigne both have laryngitis this week. Explain that, Richard Dawkins.
By DAVID THORPE | May 22, 2008

Rick Ross

Trilla | Def Jam
It’s easy to hate on Rick Ross for his sub-standard flow and tired materialism.
By BEN WESTHOFF | March 25, 2008

The low end

The bassline house invasion
The British rave revolution of the late ’80s/early ’90s is accurately viewed as the source of the ever increasing number of dance genres in the UK.
By RICHARD BECK | February 26, 2008

Unauthorized!

Axl Rose, Albert Goldman, and the renegade art of rock biography
I think it may have been sometime in the 1970s that the term “unauthorized” became sort of cool.
By JAMES PARKER | May 26, 2009

Try, try again

The jackhammer comedy of The Whitest Kids U’ Know
When, not too long ago, I was belatedly introduced to the Whitest Kids U’ Know, I felt the same way I did when I first saw The Simpsons in 1991.
By ADAM REILLY | February 05, 2008

Can Britney rise again?

It’s tough to be a celebrity on the skids, but even a ‘ticking time-bomb’ can stage a convincing comeback
The first movie star was a woman named Florence Lawrence.
By SHARON STEEL | October 18, 2007

Explicitly yours

R. Kelly after the sex jokes
The easiest way out with R. Kelly — as with Bill Clinton or Paris Hilton — is sex jokes.
By RICHARD BECK | August 07, 2007

Shivaree

Tainted Love: Mating Calls and Fight Songs | Zoe
The singer’s devotion to devotion defines the material.
By MIKAEL WOOD | July 30, 2007

Spanish Dancer fever

Anthony Ferreira gets in touch with his inner disco
After debuting two years ago, Honeyhander made an immediate impact on the Providence rock scene with its dizzy brew of psychedelia and indie shoegazer.
By BOB GULLA | March 21, 2007

On the racks: September 26, 2006

Tori Amos, the Lemonheads, Janet Jackson
...plus Ludacris, Alan Jackson, and Scissor Sisters.
By MATT ASHARE | September 26, 2006

Heatseekers

The rise and triumph of Luny Tunes
When in 2002 Francisco "Luny" Saldana and Victor “Tunes” Cabrera left their jobs at a Harvard University cafeteria to make music full-time as Luny Tunes, the word “reggaetón” meant nothing to most English speakers. Listen to five Luny Tunes classics
By SIMON W. VOZICK-LEVINSON | July 25, 2006