R. Kelly: "Loveland" и "Chocolate Factory" – история двух альбомов

the R. Kelly album

The album was originally intended to release in 2002 by the name of "Loveland"; this album was scrapped amid bootlegging. Loveland, which had a significantly different tracklisting, was to feature the original "Step in the Name of Love", his 2001 single "The World's Greatest", and various other songs, including a ten minute opera remix of his 1996 hit I Believe I Can Fly. Although first run copies of Chocolate Factory included a bonus disc called Loveland, it is different than the bootleg as it is abridged and features mostly different, unleaked songs. Upon the initial leaks, The New York Times described Loveland as "one of fall's most promising albums" and noted that despite poor audio quality, "much of the music is great". Loveland, in its bootlegged form, is described as containing gospel, romantic 70s inspired soul, opera, and contemporary R&B.

Chocolate Factory comprises slow jams and upbeat club tracks, and many of its songs draw on classic soul music with call and response choruses and harmonies inspired by the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder. Kelly's vocals veer between singing and rapping. Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times writes that he "pack[s] his verses full of words, then improvise[s] a tricky vocal line around a simple tune."

Chocolate Factory received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 65, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Sterling Clover of The Village Voice noted the album's "quantity and consistency of sonic presence" and praised Kelly's performance with respect to his songs' structures, stating "Kelly has sussed how to ground himself in tight rhythmic bass and a solid backup chorus, refiguring them into layered and discontinuous sheets of sound". Rolling Stones Anthony DeCurtis cited Chocolate Factory as "among the best work of his career" and went on to write " as a singer, songwriter and producer, he's at the top of his game." Q wrote that "as ever, [the album's] songs veer between the nigglingly infectious and cliched slush." Dan Leroy of Yahoo! Music's felt that "Kelly’s hot blooded horniness is an integral part of his persona; he can hardly back away from the risque R&B that’s made him what he is, despite the underage sex scandal that dogs him". On Kelly's performance, Leroy concluded by writing:

blockquote|In the end, though, it’s R’s musical genius that pulls his bare butt out of this fire. Channeling greats from Gaye to Wonder, his stripped down bangers bang harder, his ballads have more gospel bluster, and he sings with the desperation of a loveman who knows the cops are waiting at his bedroom door. Keith Harris of The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) wrote that by the album's release, Kelly had "apparently learned from Michael Jackson's publicity mistakes, because the new Kelly was less haunted, if no less horny. The hit 'Ignition (Remix)' was his warmest pick up joint to date, and set the tone for the new record—and maybe a new stage in his career". he dismissed the recognition received by the album as critics having reevaluated Kelly's "manifestly skillful, manifestly simplistic" body of work more for its news value amid the performer's child pornography charges. For Christgau, Chocolate Factory had "bum rushed the populace with woman friendly rhetoric—pledges of devotion and other idealistic fancies, individualized sexual flattery, and an abject token in which Kelly not only ranks female 'backbone' above male 'bullshit' but allows as how said bullshit may be why women smoke cigarettes and snap off on their kids." He went on to dismiss "Showdown", "Snake", and "Who's That" as a "Kelly vs. Isley cuckolding contest", an "Orientalist sex fantasy", and "some pimp and thug—how'd he put it?—bullshit", respectively. While finding the remix of "Step in the Name of Love" to be "hugely engaging", Christgau pointed out how "cavalier" or "stupid" it is for Kelly to declare himself "the pied piper of r&b" given the title's "pedophilic implications".

The album was included in Rolling Stones 50 Best Albums of 2003. Chocolate Factory was ranked in several "End of Year" lists, including Blender magazine's 2003 Albums of the Year List at number 12 and The Village Voices Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll at number 44. Three New York Times staff writers included it on their top ten lists for 2003. Chocolate Factory was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, and "Step in the Name of Love" was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Rhapsody named it the second best R&B album of the first decade of the 21st century. Billboard magazine ranked Chocolate Factory at number 169 on its list of the Top 200 Albums of the Decade.

Chocolate Factory was first released by Jive Records on February 17, 2003, in the United Kingdom, Other hits released from Chocolate Factory included "Snake" featuring Big Tigger, peaking at number 16, and the classic soul inspired "stepper's anthem", "Step in the Name of Love", peaking at number 9. The album's packaging design is very similar to the design of Parliament's Chocolate City album. On May 19, 2003, the album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments in excess of two million copies in the United States. Chocolate Factory has also been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments in excess of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It has sold over three million copies worldwide.

All songs written, produced, and arranged by R. Kelly.