R. Kelly

Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967) is an American former singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is credited with prolific commercial success in contemporary R&B, hip hop, and pop music recordings, earning nicknames such as "the King of R&B", "the King of Pop-Soul", and "the Pied Piper of R&B". In 2021 and 2022, Kelly was convicted of multiple charges of child sexual abuse, and was sentenced to 31 years in prison, effectively ending his career. In 2025, Billboard ranked him 9th on their list of the "Best R&B Artists of All Time".

Born on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Kelly began performing in the subway under the Chicago "L" tracks, and regularly busked at the "L" stop on the Red Line's Jackson station in the Loop. During his recording career, Kelly released 18 studio albums which yielded a number of hit singles, including "I Believe I Can Fly", "Bump N' Grind", "Your Body's Callin'", "Fiesta (Remix)", "Ignition (Remix)", "Step in the Name of Love (Remix)", "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time", "The World's Greatest", "I'm a Flirt (Remix)", and the hip hopera Trapped in the Closet. In 1998, he won three Grammy Awards for "I Believe I Can Fly".

Alongside his recording career, Kelly's songwriting and production work was credited on albums by Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, Janet Jackson, Chris Brown, Aaliyah, Usher, Ciara, Toni Braxton, Luther Vandross, and Mary J. Blige. Kelly received a Grammy Award nomination for his contributions to Jackson's 1995 single, "You Are Not Alone", which earned a Guinness World Record as the first song to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the chart's history. Kelly's 1998 collaboration with Dion, "I'm Your Angel", did so once more.

Kelly sold over 75 million albums and singles worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and the most successful R&B male artist of the 1990s. The Recording Industry Association of Ame