"When A Woman's Fed Up"
R. Kelly
Composed by R. Kelly
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To instantly link to all the awards, citations and other references to R. Kelly on the Southern Soul website, go to "Kelly, R." in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
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Author's Forward: October 1, 2008
Whatever you think of R. Kelly's personal character or his legal travails (and I have taken a lot of heat for largely ignoring them), the man is (or was) a musical genius and he had a function in whetting the appetite of soul music lovers for the Southern Soul we know and love today.
But like Erykah Badu, R. Kelly has become less and less relevant to Southern Soul music. Unlike the late nineties and early 00's, when you could often hear a traditional R&B song by R. Kelly on chitlin' circuit-style stations, you no longer hear R. Kelly. That's because he's gone over entirely into the hiphop scene, and his music (again, like Badu's) is almost impenetrably unmelodic, un-swinging and overblown.
The young, supposedly-hip people who buy into this music you can't dance to apparently buy enough records to sway the artists away from tuneful, danceable, verse-and-chorus songwriting.
What's most ironic about the situation is that many of the artists who came out of the hiphop side of R&B in the R. Kelly mold over the last decade--Sir Charles Jones, T. K. Soul, Bigg Robb, Mr. Sam, Simeo and others--have actually crashed through the barriers and become in varying degrees fixtures on the Southern Soul scene.
Consequently, R. Kelly is now a historical footnote in the re-emergence of Southern Soul music--no longer an active or even semi-active player.
It's a shame--I don't know what else to say. Because I truly believe Southern Soul music is far superior to anything contemporary hiphop is producing. When I listen to the latest Kelly or Badu product, I just shake my head and wonder why people can't see that the "emperor" is not wearing any clothes.
--Daddy B. Nice
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Listen to R. Kelly singing "When A Woman's Fed Up" on YouTube.
--Daddy B. Nice
About R. Kelly
R. Kelly was born Steven Williams in 1969 in Chicago. Along with his band, Public Announcement, his professional debut was the LP Born Into The 90's (Jive) in 1992. It was an overnight success, and Kelly followed it with a second effort (12 Play, Jive 1993) that sold an astounding five million copies, making him a millionaire and celebrity by the age of 23.
Singles and CD's followed at regular intervals with Goldfinger-like success. (R. sold seven million copies.) Kelly perennially ranked at or near the top of "Billboard's" annual Top R&B solo artist and producer charts.
Legal woes slowed down his output in the late 90's and early 00's, and also expedited a gradual shift away from hiphop (i.e. Jay-Z's and Kelly's dance jam, "Fiesta") toward more traditional soul.
Kelly also continues to produce, write and arrange work for other artists, most notably Syleena Johnson's Southern Soul classic, "Guess What."
R. Kelly Discography:
1992 Born into the '90s (Jive)
1993 12 Play (Jive)
1995 R. Kelly (Jive)
1998 R. (Jive)
2000 TP-2.Com (Jive)
2002 The Best of Both Worlds (Jive/Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
2003 Chocolate Factory (Jive)
2004 Happy People/U Saved Me (Jive/Zomba)
2004 Unfinished Business (Def Jam)
2005 TP.3 Reloaded (Jive)
2007 Double Up (Jive/Zomba)
2008 12 Play: 4th Quarter (Jive)
Song's Transcendent Moment
"You can cry a river,
'Til an ocean starts to flow,
But she will always remember,
She was a woman scorned.
And if you ever get her back,
It'll never be the same."
Tidbits
Strangers to R. Kelly music who sample Daddy B. Nice's five-star recommended song, "Step In The Name Of the Love (Remix)" from the Chocolate Factory album, should be sure to sample the "remix" version, and not just the regular version of the song, which precedes it on the album. There is a world of difference between the two.
If You Liked. . . You'll Love
If you loved Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman," you'll undoubtedly like R. Kelly's "When A Woman's Fed Up."
Honorary "B" Side
"You Made Me Love You"
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