Thread: "Isn't Kelly the only artist that does everything himself? with ver little outside he

I was just thinking about R. Kelly's albums and thought "Isn't Kelly the only artist that does everything himself? with very little outside help?"

I can't think of another artist that does that - as often as R.. Can anyone name an artist who does the writing, production and arranging themselves? Sometimes you see on the back of albums all written by said artist *accept where noted so its not the same.

Stevie Wonder? Prince?

Although it may say he produced all the songs, it doesn't mean literally. He's still the producer but he has his production staff like any other artist to help put everything together; such as his musical director Donnie Lyle for example. But my statement doesn't discount that he does produce,songwrite and arrange.

he writes, arranges and Produces donnie lyles is his assitant and I'm sure has been a co Producer on a few things here and there.

Ronald Isley spoke on being in the studio with kellz on a 106 and park when Body Kiss was about to drop and said Kellz has his team and they cut. he said Kellz is like a Genius at putting chracters,etc.. together.

nobody ever does everything alone because it takes a team, but there are alot of artists who have done what R.kelly does.

Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Rick James, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bootsy Collins, Michael Henderson, Ray Parker Jr, Roger Troutman, Barry white,Michael Jackson on a few tracks did everything but all the instruments. thing is if you can play the piano, drums or Program you can manipulate keyboards and create your sound into it being more than what it is.

when R.Kelly first came out he was pushed as a One Man Band,but he had session musicians on his projects, but He kept the creative tag and it is a known fact he likes having that tag, though he gave up alot of creative control from TP3, Double Up and especially Untitled.

and of course on the best of Both worlds and unfinished business.


still Kellz is a really Good Piano player, Programs beats, gets down on Bass and I know he knows some chords on Guitar.

of course with vocals he knows harmony and conducting.

but he has his team and of course the record company brass green lights what stays and what goes.

I agree w/ the comments above about Kellz having a team...what i will say is it seems Kellz is the only R&B artists out now that writes, produces, and arranges his own work...I Could b wrong but off the top of my head i can't think of any other R&B artists out right now who does most of the work behind creating an album...

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Originally Posted by smiller2
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Although it may say he produced all the songs, it doesn't mean literally. He's still the producer but he has his production staff like any other artist to help put everything together; such as his musical director Donnie Lyle for example. But my statement doesn't discount that he does produce,songwrite and arrange.

It does mean literally.

R. Kelly's only assistance is co-mixers and an audio engineer/programmer. Basically, people who control the sequencers, computer programming and mixing console under R. Kelly's supervision. Most of the time Kellz has 2 to 5 mixers who switch shifts around the clock just in case he wants to work on something at any given time. They remain planted in the studio behind the computer and place or delete parts of songs he records. Kellz runs back and forth from behind the mixer console, computer and booth. I think Donnie Lyles comes in the picture when it comes to the instrumentation and that's basically once the tracks are almost done. But if you look on the credits Kellz does the mixing and engineering, as well. He basically does everything with little to no assistance.

BTW, hiring assistance is no different from a film producer or director hiring crew members to set-up the cameras and lighting to their liking.

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Originally Posted by mistermaxxx
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he writes, arranges and Produces donnie lyles is his assitant and I'm sure has been a co Producer on a few things here and there.

Ronald Isley spoke on being in the studio with kellz on a 106 and park when Body Kiss was about to drop and said Kellz has his team and they cut. he said Kellz is like a Genius at putting chracters,etc.. together.

nobody ever does everything alone because it takes a team, but there are alot of artists who have done what R.kelly does.

Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Rick James, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bootsy Collins, Michael Henderson, Ray Parker Jr, Roger Troutman, Barry white,Michael Jackson on a few tracks did everything but all the instruments. thing is if you can play the piano, drums or Program you can manipulate keyboards and create your sound into it being more than what it is.

when R.Kelly first came out he was pushed as a One Man Band,but he had session musicians on his projects, but He kept the creative tag and it is a known fact he likes having that tag, though he gave up alot of creative control from TP3, Double Up and especially Untitled.

and of course on the best of Both worlds and unfinished business.


still Kellz is a really Good Piano player, Programs beats, gets down on Bass and I know he knows some chords on Guitar.

of course with vocals he knows harmony and conducting.

but he has his team and of course the record company brass green lights what stays and what goes.

He never gave up creative control but he became more willing to let more producers into his world.

He still had the "producer/writer/arranger" tag on all of those albums. The problem with those projects is that he hired way too many people to chime in their work. Especially, with the Untitled album and we know how that turned out. In a way, it makes you wonder if he questioned his own ability to solely produce and write albums again.

Love Letter is like a reawakening. He realized that he needed to do things solely again and to re-brand his sound and name.

wow very good points from everybody. I agree about him not giving up control vs letting other producers "shine" on an R. Kelly album. but the latter is why I DONT think he questioned his ability. I highly doubt the talent that is R. Kelly would question his ability as a triple threat. but yea I was thinking about this the other day watching that youtube video of those two dudes (producers lol) that were happy to work with Kelly on a track. but I think T-Pain does his own writing & production if i'm not mistaken. though not of the same caliber obviously.