12 Play

the take

R. Kelly was always one of those singers that I never really cared all too much for. Bro has released some great singles, but as a whole, I can kind of do without listening to any of his albums (if I take the albums I already listened to by him into consideration). One of such albums is Kelly's second album (and first solo since splitting from Public Announcement in 1993), "12 Play". This is one of those albums that lowkey grew off of me, especially in the time between I first listened circa 2007 and now. Now... the ballads and slower songs are still incredible. I mean, shit... as unfortunate as it is for me to say, these are really the highlights of "12 Play". Bedroom classics "Bump N' Grind" and "It Seems Like You're Ready", plus the two-parter "Sex Me" are really the true highlights on here, as R. Kelly showed he has impressive singing vocals throughout, though most lyrics come off as borderline cringe today. When it comes to the more rap-focused tracks ("Freak Dat Body", "Back to the Hood of Things"), R. Kelly should've sticked to singing. I get it, though. Rap was dominating the mainstream, and with New Jack Swing was basically in its last year in the R&B mainstream, R&B artists had to incorporate at least a rap verse in a song to add a certain edge to them. Nah, R. Kelly decided to have three songs dedicated to him showing off his lyricism skills (or lack thereof) and comes off as comical as hell. I've heard worse, but the world would've been better off without his "skills", if you can call it that. Some classic songs that I'm ashamed to admit to liking (but don't really play much anymore as much, by the way) are really the ones that made this album still be good to me. The rap performances are questionable, and the rest of the deep cuts are mostly good, but all of them are somewhat forgettable in the grand scheme of things. "12 Play" is good enough to at least acknowledge it, but not good enough to brag to the next person about, despite the circumstances.