Untitled (R. Kelly album)
Encyclopedia
Untitled is the ninth studio album
by American R&B
recording artist R. Kelly
, released November 30, 2009 in the United Kingdom and December 1, 2009 in the United States, through Jive Records
and Sony Music
. It was entirely produced by R. Kelly and features prominently carnal lyrical themes. The album features guest appearances by The-Dream
, Tyrese
, and Robin Thicke
, among others.
It debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200
chart, selling 110,000 in its first week, making it his ninth top five album on that chart, and reached the top of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
chart, selling 344,000 copies in total domestically to date.
"Number One
", featured Keri Hilson
, peaked at number fifty-nine on the U.S. Billboard
Hot 100 and number seven on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
chart. The second and third singles from the album, "Religious
" and "Echo
," underquoted this success with peak positions of number 48 and 52 respectively on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, never making it to the official Hot 100.
Untitled received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 62, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and called it "a simple, concept-free, creatively unambitious R&B album". The A.V. Club
s Nathan Rabin gave the album a C+ rating and commented that it "feels generic". Chicago Tribune
writer Greg Kot
wrote that Kelly "massages simple (and sometimes simplistic) words into hooks through phrasing that is pliant, inventive, audacious, sometimes silly", commenting that "That ardor is framed by music that is everything his lyrics are not: subtle, ornate, at times downright refined. As a producer and arranger, he is meticulous with detail, orchestrating hand claps, finger snaps and drum machines to create just the right rhythm backdrop for an evening of 'wooo and weee'". However, Mikael Wood of Spin
complimented the album's "fresh raunch", noting "'Bangin' the Headboard' and 'Pregnant' (as in 'You make me wanna get you…') are bawdy even by Kelly's considerable standards". The album was nominated for a Grammy Award
for Best Contemporary R&B Album
, presented at the 53rd Grammy Awards
in 2011.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
recording artist R. Kelly
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly , better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play...
, released November 30, 2009 in the United Kingdom and December 1, 2009 in the United States, through Jive Records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
and Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
. It was entirely produced by R. Kelly and features prominently carnal lyrical themes. The album features guest appearances by The-Dream
The-Dream
Terius Youngdell Nash , better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. He is known for co-writing "Umbrella" for Rihanna and "Single Ladies " for Beyoncé, as well as for his three solo albums, Love Hate, Love vs...
, Tyrese
Tyrese
Tyrese Darnell Gibson , also known simply as Tyrese, is an American R&B singer, rapper, actor, author, former fashion model and MTV VJ. After releasing several albums, he transitioned into films, with lead roles in several Hollywood releases.-Early life:Gibson was born in Los Angeles, California,...
, and Robin Thicke
Robin Thicke
Robin Charles Thicke is an Award-winning American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and actor. Thicke's albums, which he previously released under the moniker Thicke, are noted for their feature of a predominantly R&B sound. Robin Thicke has penned hits for popular artists such as...
, among others.
It debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, selling 110,000 in its first week, making it his ninth top five album on that chart, and reached the top of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
chart, selling 344,000 copies in total domestically to date.
Background
The album was initially supposed to be released in 2008 under the name 12 Play: 4th Quarter however that version of the project leaked before release and so it was decided that the whole project should be re-recorded.Singles
The album lead singleLead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
"Number One
Number One (R. Kelly song)
"Number One" is the first single featuring Keri Hilson from American R&B singer R. Kelly's 2009 album, Untitled. The song was released digitally on July 28, 2009.-Music video:...
", featured Keri Hilson
Keri Hilson
Keri Lynn Hilson is an American R&B singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Hilson began her music career as a songwriter, penning tracks for several artists in the mid-2000s as part of the five-person production and songwriting team, The Clutch...
, peaked at number fifty-nine on the U.S. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100 and number seven on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
chart. The second and third singles from the album, "Religious
Religious (R. Kelly song)
"Religious" is the second single from American R&B singer R. Kelly's 2009 album, Untitled. The song was released on October 10, 2009, on R. Kelly's Youtube Channel. The single was confirmed in R. Kelly's Twitter.-Chart performance:...
" and "Echo
Echo (R. Kelly song)
"Echo" is the third official single from American R&B singer R. Kelly's 2009 album, Untitled.-Chart History:...
," underquoted this success with peak positions of number 48 and 52 respectively on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, never making it to the official Hot 100.
Reception
The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, selling 110,000 copies in its first week, marking his ninth top 5 album on the chart. As of March 27, 2010 the album has currently sold 334,000 copies.Untitled received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 62, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave it three-and-a-half out of five stars and called it "a simple, concept-free, creatively unambitious R&B album". The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
s Nathan Rabin gave the album a C+ rating and commented that it "feels generic". Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
writer Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
wrote that Kelly "massages simple (and sometimes simplistic) words into hooks through phrasing that is pliant, inventive, audacious, sometimes silly", commenting that "That ardor is framed by music that is everything his lyrics are not: subtle, ornate, at times downright refined. As a producer and arranger, he is meticulous with detail, orchestrating hand claps, finger snaps and drum machines to create just the right rhythm backdrop for an evening of 'wooo and weee'". However, Mikael Wood of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
complimented the album's "fresh raunch", noting "'Bangin' the Headboard' and 'Pregnant' (as in 'You make me wanna get you…') are bawdy even by Kelly's considerable standards". The album was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre...
, presented at the 53rd Grammy Awards
53rd Grammy Awards
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
in 2011.
Track listing
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| South African Albums Chart South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans... |
19 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
4 |
| U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
109 |
Release history
| Region | Date | Format | Label(s) | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | November 30, 2009 | Clean version | Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation.... |
88697599152 |
| United States | December 1, 2009 | Clean version | Jive Records Jive Records Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African... |
886973113721 |
| Explicit lyrics | 886973113622 |
External links
- Untitled at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- Album Review at About.comAbout.comAbout.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....