R. Kelly

Robert Kelly recorded with Public Announcement before the solo album 12 Play appeared through Jive in 1993. The self-titled R. Kelly followed in 1995, then the double album R. in 1998. If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time belongs to the latter record, using a broad, deliberately old-fashioned ballad setting.

TP-2.COM arrived in 2000. I Wish and The Storm Is Over Now show its contrasting emotional settings: personal reflection on one side, a more openly uplifting arrangement on the other. The World’s Greatest followed on the soundtrack to Ali, carrying the expansive vocal approach into a film-associated single.

Chocolate Factory, released in 2003, includes Ignition (Remix). The record’s economy is striking beside the larger ballads: the rhythm leaves the phrasing exposed, and the chorus works through repetition and small changes of emphasis. It is a useful example of how much a pop arrangement can achieve with a limited set of parts.

Kelly’s history also includes federal convictions for serious sexual offences. In June 2022 he received a 30-year federal prison sentence in New York following his racketeering and Mann Act convictions. In February 2023 a Chicago federal court sentenced him to 20 years following convictions involving the sexual exploitation of children, with one year ordered to run consecutively to the New York sentence.

Those findings are part of any responsible account of the artist. The recording history remains a matter of record; a biography that describes it also needs to acknowledge the crimes and the people harmed.