From raunch to religion: singer's talk of Jesus has rocked R&B world - rhythm-and-blues singer R. Kelly

I used to be flying in sin--now I'm flying in Jesus." With those 12 words, R. Kelly set off a barnstorm of activity, talk and rumors that reverberated from the Chicago projects to the penthouse suites in New York City.

How could R. Kelly--the Prince of Pillowtalk, the new King of R&B and the hottest artist in the '90s, the man whose music was so sexually explicit that it was banned in korea and Singapore--be flying in Jesus?

The R&B music world reeled, while the fans of his bump-and-grind music wondered whether this was the beginning of the end of the R. Kelly they had come to know. Would the man who routinely partied and womanized, who went bare-chest and dropped his pants during his concerts to the delight of thousands of screaming women, trade in his multimillion-dollar raunch for religion, his lucrative sex talk for talk of salvation, his seductive fast life for a more spiritual existence, maybe as a gospel singer?

Had R. Kelly gone and gotten saved?

What R. (short for Robert) Kelly will eventually do, only God knows. But one thing is for sure: the 29-year old singer/songwriter has managed to cause one of the biggest stirs ever by a musician who's considering making the change from secular to nonsecular music, perhaps even bigger than Al Green's switch to gospel in the late '70s and Little Richard's move to the ministry some 20 years earlier.

"He is definitely the biggest R&B star of the period," says Nelson George, music critic and author of the book Seduced, which tells the story of an R&B artist who dabbles in gospel music. "I don't know what triggered R. Kelly to say the things that he did, whether it was one particular event like it was for Al Green, who said God spoke to him one morning, or whether it was many things. But whatever it was, his decision will be watched closely."

R. Kelly's bombshell came in his hometown of Chicago recently when he made a surprise appearance at a Kirk Franklin concert. The 27-year-old Franklin, who is arguably the most popular young gospel singer today and who has been Kelly's longtime spiritual mentor, introduced Kelly to an enthusiastic ovation from the thousands of gospel music fans. "The brother's heart really motivated me," Franklin said. "He called me a few months ago and said, `Kirk, you know I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I really want to get some things in my life right with the Lord.'"

Dressed in a conservative suit and without his trademark black sunglasses, Kelly walked onstage, took the microphone and began to speak. "It's been a long time coming, but here I am," said a visibly shaken Kelly, who reportedly was seen at another Franklin concert m Chicago in 1994 getting "happy," raising his hands and praising the Lord. "It amazes me when I look back eight months ago cars, women, money, the media. I had everyone's attention. Some may think it's a gimmick, but I tell you, here stands a broken man. Every day I seem to be falling in love with the Lord. I've come to find out that whatever it is you want, it's in the Lord."

To that, Franklin, on tour just months after a near-fatal accidental fall threatened to end his skyrocketing career, said: "Robert doesn't have to do a gospel album to please God. But his subject will have to grow. His dialogue is gonna have to change. God can give him songs to do about real relationships. Why does everything have to be `Stick it, lick it, screw it?'"

But it's that X-rated formula that has earned R. Kelly three consecutive multimillion-selling albums. His past songs--like his No. 1 cuts, "Sex Me," "Your Body's Calling," "Bump `N' Grind," and "You Remind Me of Something," which compares women to a Jeep--wreak with sexually explicit lyrics. Kelly's cutting-edge songwriting ability also has made him the most-sought-after songwriter and producer by top artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Toni Braxton.

Kelly has said: "Sex doesn't control me. Take away the sexy bump and grind, and you can easily put in gospel lyrics." But no matter what the 6-foot-3 sex symbol says, if he does decide to sing gospel, it would be a major career change. Some doubt Kelly could survive in the less lucrative world of gospel music. He lives a flamboyant lifestyle and recently purchased a multimillion-dollar Chicago home, complete with an indoor basketball court, dance studio and 1,500-gallon sharkfilled aquarium. While other artists have made the transition from R&B to gospel, few have been successful and perhaps none has attempted the change during the peak of his career. "It's not necessarily career suicide," Nelson George says. "He could do both gospel and R&B, or he could simply write love songs with less explicit language. It wouldn't be suicidal to his career unless he gets really negative and renounces everything he's done. It's a matter of degree. It will all depend on whether he plans to sing true gospel, true R&B or that funny thing in the middle."

A look at Kelly's latest album reveals even he may not know exactly what he wants to do. The self-titled album opens with a preachy call-and-response number called "The Sermon," in which he uses religious passages to tell his critics to stop trying to dissect his life. "Before you pass judgment on me, pass judgment on yourself," he says in the song.