No R&B singer has ever had a better understanding of rap music than R. Kelly, a perennial hit-maker who’s navigated every trend in contemporary R&B and hip-hop since the new jack swing days. On recent albums Kelly’s particularly immersed himself in rap music, which seems only appropriate since, like many rappers, he does his best work when he’s embattled. A cloud of sex scandals had left him on the defense mid-decade, but with his hip-hop novella turned cultural phenomenon “Trapped in the Closet,” Kelly tamed the perception of the singer as a sexual deviant by casting himself as a harmless oddball in on the joke. Kelly plays tonight in advance of his upcoming ninth album, Untitled. The album’s lead single, the Keyshia Cole-assisted sex-as-a-hit-song allegory “Number One,” has been a mainstay of urban radio this fall.
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