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 Step Into R.Kelly's Chocolate Factory Jan 09, 2010
2003 was a very interesting year in contemporary R&B and hip-hop. OutKast dropped Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below,Alice Keys came with her The Diary of Alicia Keys and than along came R.Kelly again,for the seventh time to us after the non release of his previous album amid a turbulant time. His reputation had taken a tremendous nose dive so he decided to go with reminding the music world why he was so revered. R.Kelly without question stands as a modern variation of the R&B/soul/funk artist as a link between the sacred and the profane. So as a writer he already had a concept to work with. But at this point too,with new jack swing long gone as well as hip-hop/R&B and neo soul starting to sound repetative R came to the conclusion that the best way to go was to follow his own muse and showcase some stronger musical rootedness in his sound. The result was a collection of songs that have the same kind of stylistic and emotional breadth as the classic R&B/funk artists of the mid to late 70's channeled through modern ideoms and productin techniques. The title track gets the ball rolling with a great jazzy funk groove with the bass/guitar line of Donnie Lyle really stealing the show musically. "Step In The Name Of Love",as well as dealing with the same musical territory not only emphasized the classic call and response "dance instruction" dance/soul lyric tag but even comes with a remix later on in the album that very correctly thanks the talented Lyle for his instrumental contributions. It's gratifying to see a contemporary R&B artist giving so much props to a musician and realizing how much his presense inhances his own. This album is not abundant in uptempo tunes but the ones that are here are powerful and diverse in flavor,built on rhythms AND beats and again providing a wide spectrum of sound. "Dream Girl" is another song I could listen to again and again with the jazzy descending chords and moog bass riffs out of the Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock school along with a pinch of Kelly's own hip-hop inspired flavor."You Knock Me Out" and "Who's That",featuring Fat Joe on some call and response raps brings the latin flavor into the sound where "Shake" brings Big Tigger in for the reggaeton influence. Ron "Mr.Biggs" Isley shows up for "Showdown",not actually the Isley Bros classic but rather a 7+ slow funk splatter where Kelly and Isley duke it out over the same lady in a parallel western gunman/modern pimp style narrative complete with partly spoken interludes from both between and around the song. "Ignition" is the most similar to Kelly's earlier tunes but now he and his lady are actually "doing it" in a jeep now rather than her being compared to one: big difference to me. The slower songs "Heart Of A Woman","I'll Never Leave","Forever","Been Around The World" and "Imagine That" are all very much in the bedroom tradition of slow jam funk grooves but there's no irony lost as Kelly both celebrates female virtue one moment and using women to only his advantage the next. It's on these songs his connection to the R&B tradition of humane and the profane co-existing is felt the most fully. R.Kelly really put himself on the right musical track on this album and it stands as one of the great soul and funk statements of the 21'st century thus far.
Chocolate Heaven Sep 09, 2009
I am in Chocolate Heaven! My CD came right away and in the condition described.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Cogna Apr 30, 2009
Rall. Pichau, pichau. Cogna fiber rasta murden. Calatráqueo randalishi mirmicaro Sotoponcio. Agrara ekklaba tumura.
Sei di fillin humbulache ö Polio tonoporo u, al tag nachana nach alabanca.
mistralapu Pinchu, örnofolio hur tomonolio Pocno. Freca.
Sitedo prenelio. Urtubunchu.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 When R Kelly was king part 5 Feb 13, 2009
In the midst of personal troubles in his life(pending statutory rape charges), R Kelly did what any R&B singer would do in his position: make a damn good album. Chocolate Factory is the last of the great R Kelly we knew and even as the last album of quality he made, it blows any of these albums made by these new jacks in the game out of the water.
Step In The Name Of Love as well as the remix are sure to get people in to the Stepping mood. Ignition and its remix were certified party starters. Heart Of A Woman, I'll Never Leave, Forever More, You Made Me Love You are vintage R Kelly slow jams. His duet with Ja Rule(Been Around The World) is pretty good as R Kelly sounds off to all his detractors. Big Tigger drops a decent verse on the hot club record Snake.
There are a few songs I could do without. Imagine That is kind of boring and Showdown is more of the R Kelly/Mr. Biggs saga that has been clubbed to death the last couple of albums. Other than that this album is great.
Chocolate Factory is the last of the R Kelly we knew before he lost his mind and decided to cater to the teenagers like that is all his fanbase consists of. There are many of good tracks to be found on here and Chocolate Factory is also more rotational than his last three albums. If you have his first five then call it quits after Chocolate Factory. Because it all goes downhill after this album. *Sigh*
Standouts: STEP IN THE NAME OF LOVE(original and remix), HEART OF A WOMAN, I'LL NEVER LEAVE, FOREVER, IGNITION(original and remix), FOREVER MORE and SNAKE.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 not very pleased Jan 09, 2009
I am not very pleased with the company I dealt with for this product. It took me almost a month to get this product.
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