Robert Sylvester Kelly is a Grammy Award-winning R&B artist/producer from Chicago, Illinois. He originally broke into the music scene nationally with his former group The Public Announcement. After leaving his group a year after their album release, R Kelly would go on to achieve immense career success including 3 Grammy’s for his single from the Space Jam soundtrack, “I Believe I Can Fly”. That same song would also be voted #406 in the Top 500 Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. He has also produced tracks for several platinum recording artists such as Janet and Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers, Nas, Celine Dion, and Jay-Z along with helping to spawn several artists’ careers such as Aaliyah, Changing Faces, and Sparkle. It’s estimated he’s sold over 50 million albums worldwide. His latest LP is titled Double Up and it is his 12th LP to date.

I love reviewing music and an artist like R Kelly signifies exactly why. The same man that made audio sewage with Trapped In the Closet is also the same cat that made the beautiful opus, I Believe I Can Fly. R Kelly has so much as admitted to his creative bipolar-ism in his previous releases with the albums R. and Happy People/U Saved Me. The good thing with Double Up is he lets you know immediately where this album is going. The opening track is an intro called “The Champ” featuring Kelly claiming his spot among the greatest of all-time and calling out his detractors with a boxing theme. It’s about a minute and a half of music that does nothing for the album, but I suppose it gave Mr. Kelly an opportunity to let a few people know where they stand.

Following is the title track featuring Snoop Dogg. Robert describes a sexual occasion with two young ladies, hence he’s “doubling up”. The beat is good. Typical for a R&B track w/ a rap feature. Snoop raps a forgettable sixteen (can anyone recite a Snoop verse from the past 7 years?). That track is followed by “Tryin’ To Get A Number” featuring Nelly. Nelly does what he does best and R provides a “snap music” style beat. This song track screams “radio ready”.

As you manuever from track to track it becomes obvious why R Kelly is the self-proclaimed “Pied Piper of R&B”; the man makes AWESOME beats. He also has a wonderful voice. It’s not until you listen to what he’s actually saying that you disagree, laugh in disbelief, or become completely repulsed and turn your computer/mp3 player off. For me “The Zoo” helped me reach that point. I don’t really know what to say about this particular song other than offer some excerpted phrases from the lyrics; “we’re like two monkeys baby”, “I’m your sex-asaurus baby”, “hoppin’ like two kangaroos”, “making love like we were two hedon animals”. Of course, none of that would be right without authentic monkey calls and a Tarzan yell.

As appalling and lacking as Double Up is in content it’s actually pretty good musically. R Kelly is truly a timeless musician with a range of talent. If you ignore parts of the lyrics, Leave Your Number is smooth and relaxing. Same Girl with Usher is entertaining and even Freaky in the Club and the repulsive The Zoo offer a little ear candy. The true problem lies in the fact that you can’t truly celebrate the lives of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre with Rise Up right after a song called Sex Planet. Quite honestly, it minimizes R Kelly’s effort and, even more importantly, it marginalizes the impact of what happened at Virginia Tech for everyone who listens to this album.

If you’re someone who doesn’t take things too serious and you just like to listen to hot tracks then this is a pretty good album. Quite honestly, R Kelly produces great tracks and he has great vocal ability. Even The Zoo, can be taken for the comic relief that it can be portrayed as. Still, Robert Kelly is too gifted to “slum” his ability. I understand that you make music “for the hood”. Last time I checked, people from the hood enjoy quality music that isn’t chocked full of sex, cursing, and dehumanization. Besides, haven’t you been in courtrooms over your sexual experiences? Maybe you outta go back to making music for cartoon movies.

I give this album a C- rating overall. I understand R Kelly doesn’t make Christian music but I know in my heart he can create an LP with much more texture than this. Callaborate less with Nelly and T-Pain and get with Stokley from Mint Condition, Dwele, Common, Prince, Musiq…somebody that’ll keep you away from making crap like this.