my favourite R Kelly tracks - Spotify playlist

Joe writes: R Kelly was probably the best songwriter to emerge in the nineties, and a brilliant singer too, but no-one needs to hear an entire R Kelly album so here's a Spotify playlist of his best tracks:



My favourite R Kelly track that isn't on Spotify or iTunes is Bad Man. I wonder if it's missing because of its honest lyrical message? Anyway, it's on YouTube:

R Kelly - Genius

Is R Kelly a genius? No, but he has as good a claim on that word as any musician to have emerged in the nineties or since. His greatest hits album would be longer and better than other artist of his era. Genius isn't his best song but it is a great record, a typically bonkers lyric, and generally streets ahead of the competition.

Ellen & The Escapades - The World's Greatest - R Kelly cover as featured in the BBC's London 2012 Olympics coverage

Joe writes: I've recently become a fan of the transatlantic band Ellen & The Escapades after drinking a pint of  their branded bitter in my local pub (this is almost true). I really like Ellen's voice and they write proper songs. They also cover proper songs, such as R Kelly's The World's Greatest - their version featured in the BBC's Olympics coverage and no wonder, it's lovely.

Here's one of my favourites from their current album, called Without You:

And what about R Kelly? Bump 'n' Grind in 1994 to Ignition (Remix) in 2003 was one of the best runs of singles that anyone will ever release. So many songs and performances that were just streets ahead of any of his contemporaries. Here's his last great single Happy People, released in 2004. It didn't set the world on fire - perhaps people weren't ready for Robert to do his What's Goin' On thing, which is a shame as he did it so well.

Ignition (Remix) was the best single of the last decade

Joe writes: Steve Greenberg did a list of the 100 best singles of last decade. Steve has great taste and signed one of the singles of the '90s, MMMBop by Hanson. I agree with most of his '00s list - Ignition (Remix) by R Kelly was the single of the decade, narrowly pipping Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

I also discovered a couple of great tracks through Steve's list:

Baby Mama by Fantasia:



buy from Amazon

Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis:



buy from Amazon

Some singles of the decade that weren't in Steve's list:
* Dry Your Eyes by The Streets
* In My Place by Coldplay
* Chasing Cars and Run by Snow Patrol
* Where Is The Love? by Black Eyed Peas
* Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis
* Push The Button by Sugababes
* Dance Wiv Me and Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal
* Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon
* It Wasn't Me by Shaggy feat. RikRok