Double Up is R. Kelly’s 13th album (not counting the unreleased Loveland) and easily his most interesting. Perhaps not his best; but definitely his most interesting.

Double Up comes at an interesting point in Kelly’s life and career. Five years ago this month, Kelly was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of having sex with a minor. Those charges would later be reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts, and seven counts of producing child pornography. Kelly still faces 14 of the charges. Five years, three albums, two world-tours and uncounted award show appearances later Kelly has yet to answer those charges in a court of law.

Or on wax.

This is part of what makes Double Up so interesting. Of course, entertainers have faced legal trouble before. In hip hop, the norm is for the accused to lay low for a minute, then emerge triumphantly with a “Not Guilty” song or interview that rallies the fans. With the exception of Jay-Z’s Guilty Until Proven Innocent (2000) Kelly has done neither; he’s showed no signs of slowing down or of being even vaguely aware of the charges that stand against him. In fact, Kelly actually has a song about being incarcerated. Best Friend is a classic R. Kelly ballad with Keyshia Cole (think: Sparkle) and Polow Da Don playing out a twisted tale of loyalty and suspicion.

Except for (maybe) the Swizz Beatz laced intro The Champ,, Kelly doesn’t make the slightest reference to his real life drama. Instead, he capitalizes on the hyper-sexual persona that he’s developed over the years. For the most part, the innovator who brought us Bump-n-Grind, Feelin on Yo Booty and Sex Weed sticks to the script.

Conceptually, Double Up has some question marks. The catchy title track featuring Snoop Dogg clears up the meaning of “doubling up”, but lacks any real party feel. Sex Planet is just plain wack… sounds like a corny parody of a slow jam: “Girl I promise this’ll be painless/we’ll take a trip to Uranus…” The Zoo is an unfortunate metaphor comparing love-making to all sorts of exotic wildlife.. “I got you so wet, it’s like a rainforest…like Jurassic Park except I’m your sex-a-saurus. ” Songs like this make it hard to argue that R hasn’t completely lost his mind. Oh, and Sweet Tooth and Rollin Up are pure filler. Real Talk is real comedy and Leave Your Name is even funnier.

The bright side is that Kelly does a great job of leveraging his industry clout to generate some pretty decent guest appearances. Trying to Get a Number is basically a singing contest between Kells and Nelly, Get Dirty has Chamillionaire getting, rather than riding dirty. Ludacris and Kid Rock help Kells capitalize on hip hop’s current infatuation with…well rock stars, on Rock Star. Plus, there’s appearances by T.I., T-Pain, and Usher. Counting the Keyshia Cole, Swizz and Snoop cameos already mentioned brings the number of platinum artists on this album to 11. Continued on page 2 »