mixtape maestro (2.0)

It seems the people have spoken. R. Kelly might have gotten off scot-free from that forever-long child porn case, but post-trial, his dominance over urban playlists has come to a screeching halt with recent singles “Hairbraider” and “Skin” failing to muster up much chart love (despite both bearing the blueprint of becoming major hits). So what does a down-on-his-luck, one-time R&B kingpin do next? Attach himself, bootleg-style, to one of the most talked about records of the season and hope it reminds people why they adored nearly everything else he put out for well over a decade.

To Kells’ credit, he makes a better fit on the heavily Auto-Tune-shaded “Love Lockdown” than the less vocally talented Kanye (who still came off sounding underwhelming after releasing numerous track revisions), but R. also obliterates much of the original’s cool mystique in his efforts to turn “Lockdown” into a typical “R. Kelly song”. Shouting out a highlight of his old-school catalogue by dubbing this “a “version of ‘When A Man’s Fed Up’”, he needlessly fills in the lines of West’s vague laments of romance woe, spewing disdain towards a lover who just couldn’t get it right even after multiple attempts, while throwing in zany metaphors like “we used to be like a Vegas night on a winning streak” and, predictably, winding the narrative into a “picking up sexy chicks at the club” scenario.

If this version had came out first, it would be a little bit easier to get behind, but compared to West’s far-superior original (and the fact that most have already bypassed the now-passé “Lockdown” and begun indulging in the handful of other 808s & Heartbreaks leaks that have since flooded the blogosphere), this redux doesn’t really register has anything special beyond a single curioso listen.

Remember when Kells was starting R&B trends rather than tardily following them in a desperate attempt to stay relevant?

DL: “Love Lockdown (Remix)” (YFH)