R. Kelly
Robert Kelly emerged in the early 1990s as one of contemporary R&B's most technically fluent singers and producers, threading gospel-schooled melisma through hip-hop-inflected grooves on albums like 12 Play and R.. His music, from tender ballads to explicitly carnal 'baby-makin'' records, shaped the sound of mainstream R&B for over a decade. Following decades of allegations, he was convicted in 2021 of federal racketeering and Mann Act violations and in 2022 of child sexual abuse material offenses, and sentenced to a combined 31 years in prison, effectively ending his career.
Kelly has said his mother played him records by Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder as a child, and singled out Hathaway specifically: 'A guy like Donny Hathaway had a focused, sexual texture in his voice that I always wanted in mine.'
listen forPlay Hathaway's gospel-charged 'Someday We'll All Be Free' next to Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly' — both stretch a plain, hymn-like melody into something close to a sermon, leaning on a full choir and a soaring, testifying vocal.
Kelly cited Marvin Gaye directly when describing his ambitions for his explicit 1993 debut: 'I had to make a baby-makin' album. If Marvin Gaye did it, I wanted to do it' — a direct reference to Gaye's own concept album Let's Get It On.
listen forPlay Gaye's 'Let's Get It On' next to Kelly's 'Your Body's Callin'' — both build a hushed, unhurried seduction record around a falsetto-adjacent vocal and a slow, deliberate groove.
Kelly's mother also played him Stevie Wonder records growing up, and Wonder's dense, one-man-band musicianship is an audible touchstone whenever Kelly reaches for a fuller, more orchestrated arrangement rather than a stripped-down groove.
listen forPlay Wonder's socially pointed, funk-driven 'Living for the City' next to Kelly's string-laden 'The World's Greatest' — both pile up layered instrumentation and a big, declarative vocal into something closer to a cinematic anthem than a radio single.