Background to his career…

Born in the south side of Chicago, Illinois. Kelly was the third of four children. He was almost

brought up by his mother alone as his dad was absent for the majority of his childhood. He first

started singing at the age of eight at his local church in Chicago where he lived on 63 rd street.

His breakthrough came when he appeared on a talent show named “Big Break”. He went on to

win the grand prize of $100,000. He then went on to release a track called “Why you wanna play

me” with Tavdash Records. In 1991 Kelly was signed by Jive Records and formed another group

called Public Announcement. In 1992 Kelly and Public Announcement released their first big

Album, “Born into the 90’s”. Kelly toured for the first time with Public Announcement in the late

stages of 1992.

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Early Solo Career

Early Solo Career

Kelly’s debut album “12 Play” was released in 1993 and soon had a great success with the artist’s first number one hit, “Bump’n’Grind”, this topped the Billboard charts for 12 weeks. He worked with acts such as Janet Jackson, LL Cool J and Xscape. He also worked with

Aaliyah in a track named “Age ain’t nothing but a number”. This sparked controversy amongst fans and rumours started spreading about the two artists. As Aaliyah was still only 15 this brought bad media attacks towards Kelly. He admits to been influenced by

Marvin Gaye.

Image that was constructed for the artist…

In 1996 Kelly released his most successful single with “I believe I can fly” an inspirational song

released on the soundtrack for the film space jam. In his early songs, his image and attitude

were constructed to give him a unique style. He initially came across as a young talent with

enthusiasm towards any type of music he performed. He performed both rap songs and slow

inspirational songs. This is proven in such songs as “I Believe I Can Fly”, “If I Could Turn” and

“The World’s Greatest” which we have chosen to do. He is constructed as a clean-cut solo artist

considering as the genre he works in. Most of his early songs, people could relate to. With both

the lyrics and the video. Such as in the song “If I Could Turn”.

How has his image developed over his career…

His image changed as his career moved on. He changed from the clean cut artist that performed

slow tempo songs with inspiring lyrics, and moved into the R&B genre. He released a series of

R&B songs including, “Ignition”, “Same Girl” and “Wonderful”. His whole image changed after a

scandal involving including a 14 year old girl. After this he released a series of albums to try and

get his career back on track and re-establish his clean cut image. He worked with other artists in

the R&B and Hip Hop genre such as T.I., Nelly and T-Pain. He also released a single that was

exclusive to North America that was written in tribute to the Virginia Tech massacre.

His career started with him being given a clean image where he was originally a church choir

singer. He released a series of slow songs than had an influence on people and was regarded

highly by many people in the music industry. His career took a downward spiral when he was

accused of paedophilia, but has since been cleared of all accusations and has a clean slate. His

career and life back on track.

What is his current image..

Since he has been cleared of all of his charges and allegations, he has been able to get his

career back on track. He has released a number of songs that have been successful, with the

most recent being “Number 1 ft. Keri Hilson”. He has confirmed his taking part in a Tour of Africa

and has said in interviews that he cannot wait for the opportunity to perform in front of his African

fans, of which he admits to being some of the best fans in the World. He has publicly stated

through song lyrics and interviews that he has no time for his “haters”, he also has a ruthless

attitude towards all of his critics. Although he does show love to his fans across the world

publicly.

Since being cleared of all his charges, he has cleaned up his act slightly, but still has a bad

reputation amongst a lot of the music industry despite this.

Music VideosHe sells himself as a popular stereotypical Hip Hop star living the dream. With girls, cars and

“bling”. He often appears as a clean cut character in his music videos, whereas other artists in

the hip-hop genre promote themselves as having money, but also having a ruthless attitude and

have a “do what they want” attitude.

For promotional purposes most of his videos are focused on his characteristics and profile. It

shows his performance during the videos, which can show his passion for the music he sings.

His videos have shown change with the songs that they represent, for instance in the “If I Could

Turn” there was a number of slow cuts, as the song was a slow, inspirational song that people

could relate to. The scenes in the video are more varied compared to his later work, which

worked with a Hip-Hop style. They are normally set in party locations, with conventions that are

generally used in Hip-Hop music videos.