R. Kelly: his exciting mansion and his controversial mix of shock and salvation

Ebony, July, 1996 by Kevin Chappell

HIS shaved head shines as brightly as the well-polished baby-grand piano he hunkers behind. Peering over his trademark black shades at the throng of skimpily dressed women and smooth-talking men, R. Kelly begins to finger a few notes on the keyboard.

It's 4 a.m.--the creeping hour of the morning. Family friends, fans and one magazine writer have waited in a Chicago hotel ballroom since midnight to catch a glimpse of the local boy turned rising star, whose soulful voice and musical talents have taken him from the Chicago projects to a magnificent mansion Oil the city's ritzy Near North Side. Kelly has just finished his third sold-out concert, where he left no doubt that he is the reigning "Prince of Pillowtalk," gyrating, moaning and talking about love and lovemaking throughout most of his performance. With his concert audience in the mood, Kelly threw the exclusive after-party, everyone thought, as a climactic end to a passionate night.

Everyone was wrong. As Kelly begins to play the piano, his choice of songs shocks the party-seeker-s and may explain why the unpredictable 28-year-old has captured the imagination of fans, music critics and superstars like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Quincy Jones. In this decidedly unreligious hour, Kelly belts out a gospel tune.

"I have to step back and look at this thing like it sho' 'nuff is," he later says about the parties, the fast times and the new-found fortune and fame that have transformed his life and are a constant threat to consume his spirit. "With the gospel, I'm not just trying to entertain. At my age, I'm going through things within myself; thinking about what I want to do in the future; what I'm doing now in my life and in my career. I look at what I'm doing on-stage as taking a step more toward God, because if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be here. The more I live, I'm starting to realize that more and more every day."

Kelly also realizes that as a result, he sometimes comes across to people, who are not used to mixing salvation with sex, as the most confused artist in the music industry. Alter all, the same man who boasts that he has popularized the art of "bumping and grinding" so much that "even the Statue of Liberty" has partaken in the erotic act, also talks extensively on songs and in concerts about religion and making it to heaven to be with his mother; Joann Kelly, who died of cancer in 1993.

But R. (short for Robert) Kelly says he is not confused. It's a smooth balance of the secular and the sacred, he says, that has not only made his first two albums chart-toppers and his self-entitled third album a No. 1 debuter on the R&B charts, but it also has made his life meaningful. "When my mom passed, she went to Heaven. I truly believe that," Kelly says. "The only way I'm going to see her again is if I make it to Heaven....But at the same time, I realize that there's nothing wrong with a little bumping and grinding. None of us would be here if it wasn't for that."

His latest album not only includes many suggestive songs like the No. 1 single "Down Low (Nobody Has To Know)," which features Ronald and Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, but also includes songs like "Trade in My Life," a passionate gospel-like tune dedicated to his mother that features the Kirk Franklin Choir. Kelly wrote all of the songs and played most of the instruments on the album.

His most recent effort follows two successful releases: his 1991 platinum debut Born Into the 90's and his 1993 multi-platinum second album 12 Play, which included the smash hit "Bump and Grind," a song that bumped Whitney Houston's hit remake, "I Will Always Love You," from the top spot and went on to become the longest-running No. 1 R&B single in more than 30 years. As a result, the 12 Play album camped-out on the charts for more than 100 weeks and was still on the charts when Kelly released his new album.

A perfectionist, Kelly says he strives for the best in everything including his home, a breathtaking mansion on Chicago's exclusive Near North side. Converted from a church, the multimillion dollar home was painstakingly renovated last year by one of the city's top architectural firms, Restrepo Group Inc. The home, in which he lives about one week out of every month, has an indoor basketball court (with its own sound system) an indoor pool, a dance studio and a 1,500-gallon shark-filled aquarium that is built into the wall. The wall aquarium, an idea Kelly got from a James Bond movie, also was home to several stingrays, until they were eaten by the sharks.

The great room includes a wall-hugging stairway that rises 27 feet and overlooks a grand piano, home theater system and marble chess board, which is embedded in the floor. "I went looking for it. I saw some things. It was perfect for me. I wanted to redo it," he says, "When I'm not on the road. I'm at home most of the time."

The centerpiece of his home, Kelly says, is the kids' room. Although he says he doesn't have children and has never been married (contrary to the rumors that, in 1994, he married then 16-year-old singer Aaliyah), Kelly says he likes to spend time in the room, which is furnished with television sets and a wall mural of him interacting with several cartoon characters.