R. Kelly
"Chocolate Factory"
2003

reviewed by mim3@mim.org, March 2003

This music is so peaceful and mellow, it will be in Disney theme parks and old folks homes if it is not already. His message to his fans in the CD jacket is "when you see me, hug a thug!"

Amazon.com is right when it says: "Chocolate Factory takes scrupulous pains to show an idealized high-minded face of love, eschewing his usual steamy cocktail of raunchy lust and replacing it with a sweet, winsome romanticism."

The second song "Forever" is about a guy getting married and saying over and over again "forever" and "marry me." "Forever More" is pretty much a ditto. "I'll Never Leave" is a little different, but with the same idea. Since this album will sell well as did the previous R Kelly albums, it's tempting to say it's all two sides of the same coin. R Kelly used to be the "bad boy" and now he's ready to "settle down"--what a tired old story. If R Kelly had just done this album and then moved on to more social and political topics, we would have applauded.

His best shot comes in "Heart of a Woman," where he sings "oh I love I love y'all are so tough y'all put up with so much that's why I love the word 'woman.'" He tries to explain why he appreciates wimmin: "Sometimes I think that we're the reason why y'all be stressing out and smoking cigarettes. Ummmm yes I do and sometimes I think that we're the reason y'all be snapping off on your kids and having fits." Lyrics like those are the reason some people are pointing to "Heart of Woman" as especially making up with the gender he has made so much money abusing. At least the lyrics point to lifestyle connections between men and wimmin, but it's not enough to support this album.

"Step in the Name of Love" is more romance culture obsession. "My whole world goes around, because you spin me." We also have "Dream Girl": "So amazing, unbelievable, miraculous woman you are. Incredible, unforgettable, you're the world's greatest by far. Sensational, so lovable, my Cinderella you are."

We at MIM believe there is a revolution in gender relations that needs to happen. That's why we are not happy with pop music for glorifying romance so much. While we support "forever monogamy," we don't support entire albums just being about the romantic couple in society. Ultimately the music focuses on two people, not society as a whole; hence pop culture with a romantic focus is anti-social and pre-political. In both his raunchy videos and this album, the focus is the same and it's anti-social. 500 years ago, music like this would have been revolutionary or at least progressive. Maybe in some parts of the world it still is--namely wherever arranged marriage still dominates. In the imperialist countries, and internal semi-colonies, if artists do not want to say anything social about romance culture, let them talk about something else, anything else--with the possible exception of cars, which is another overdone subject.

After listening to all this sleepy music, I can see how someone wants to watch a video of someone urinating on someone else. The lyrics are tired, very tired and the music is soothing to non-existent. MIM is seeking to come to power to lead society out of exactly this sort of rut that Kelly's life seems to typify right now.

Kelly released this album on February 18th, at a perfect time in Kelly's life, when he needs to project a new image. On the other hand, it occurred at exactly the wrong time for the species--with the war on Iraq going on. Releasing new mellow music urging obsession with one's romance partner just does not address what's going on today. With almost 90% of white men supporting the U.$. war (more in the countryside, less in the cities), we need strong male characters to voice direct discontent with the war-making system. Instead, R. Kelly released a song called "A Soldier's Heart" in support of U.$. troops in Afghanistan in April 2002 and re-released it for the Iraq invasion. It's the usual about a soldier's patriotism and courage, but MIM says it does not take a lot of courage to call in bombers overhead every time you run into serious opposition or to shoot a gun a longer distance than the enemy's, because the enemy's can't reach you. As for patriotic, in the American Revolution, patriotic meant fighting like Iraqis do, not like Amerikkkans do now. It meant fighting against colonialism. That's what the American Revolution was all about. The proceeds of Kelly's war-mongering song go to Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" foundation to support families of troops.

Source:
http://www.eurweb.com/articles/headlines/04022003/headlines937404022003.cfm

R Kelly and the dialectics of "triple oppression" in MIM Notes October 1, 2002

On June 5th, police arrested Hip Hop star R. Kelly for child pornography. The prosecution claims that he had sex with a 14 year-old girl in a videotape. On August 28th, there was a report that the performer "Truth Hurts" nonetheless decided to release a single with Kelly, who continues to be wildly popular. For MIM, this case and others involving the treatment of Black wimmin raise important analytical questions.

Kelly's attorney says the womyn in the tape was not underage. Since then critics have turned to the act of a Black man urinating on a Black womyn in the tape as indicative of abuse.

Unfortunately MIM has to report that urinating is all the fashion in Western pornography and we find it difficult to pin much meaning on this particular act of the pornography, especially vis-a-vis Black men to Black wimmin's relations. All we can say is that capitalism has to come up with new and novel ways to titillate the audience and keep sex fresh or the customer does not pay.

That is to say Black people are not sealed off from the rest of the Western culture, and it is not correct to think they will not demonstrate the decadence of imperialist culture before successful revolution. Ewuare Osayande of the San Francisco Bay View wrote at length on the right issues. We agree with him when he said, "Those who want to quash critique are often those who in some way profit from this problematic state. They reap profits by either making money from it or by keeping their own oppressive dirt from being exposed."(1) Knowing Blacks are part of a profit-making and decadent imperialist culture is a large part, maybe most of the story. Yet the question remains, why people buy the videos that Kelly is selling. From our scientific viewpoint, it is not enough to say the culture is rotten. Yes the culture is rotten. It is rotten in a particular way. People have money and some free time. They could choose to do something else, but instead they buy the Kelly videotape, which is on every street corner according to Osayande. The question comes up, why should Blacks oppose Black men's making porno money, if white men make it that way. That's what Kelly's supporters are saying. Obviously within a capitalist context, there is no fair rebuttal to Kelly's supporters on this point. We have to be for socialism before we have the right to criticize Kelly or pornographers in general. Otherwise, our criticism of our artists like Kelly will be meaningless. Indeed, if we seek to win over a section of the Black bourgeoisie for revolution, there may need to be concessions to the Black bourgeoisie in particular, the Black pornographers at the expense of the white ones.

For a long time, the question of whether rap is more misogynist than other music forms has existed. Much rap refers to Black wimmin as "whores" and "bitches" by habit. Considering that we are not in socialism yet, MIM is ambivalent about this point too, because though it may be different the white man's rock is also solidly misogynist. Rappers just have their distinctive way of making money. One thing we can address however is the question of the psychology of Black wimmin. We have to get away from questions like why do Black wimmin put up with their Black men. It's not a self-esteem problem. There are a lot of feelings of betrayal and abandonment out there, but it would be wrong to leave the question at that level of psychology and culture, because psychology will never point to a solution. People getting caught up in their feelings are going to end up going for fascism. The fact is that Black wimmin are now more likely to go through college than Black men. According to the New York Times in August, a "study found that in 2000 there were 791,600 black men in jail or prison and 603,032 enrolled in colleges or universities. By contrast, the study said that in 1980 there were 143,000 black men in jail or prison but 463,700 enrolled in colleges or universities."(2) The New York Times also reported that the rise between 1980 and 2000 was three times faster than the rise in Black men going to college. MIM would say that in fact Black men in prison are more gender oppressed than Black wimmin outside the prisons. The white man is gender oppressing Black men. It is wrong to call this issue one of "triple oppression" (class, gender and race/nation) and then refer only to wimmin outside the prison walls. It's not that simple.

In response to the Black labor aristocracy and capitalists that say those Blacks should be in prison, this is where we say the Black labor aristocracy is too liable to the white man's propaganda. Other countries manage to do without that rate of imprisonment. There is no reason for Black people to put up with it. No country in the world imprisons people at the rate that Amerikkkans imprison Blacks, so Amerikkkans better be learning something about other cultures and systems and stop making excuses for imprisonment rates not seen since Stalin in war time. This is how the Black people will benefit from the dictatorship of the proletariat of the oppressed nations' proletariat coming to the united $tates--addressing problems instead of putting everyone in prison. In addition, Black men have a lower life expectancy than Black wimmin. This all adds up to one thing: a shortage of available Black men for heterosexual Black wimmin. As it stands, Black men are also more likely to seek white wimmin than white men are to seek Black wimmin, so at least in practice there is no balancing occurring in inter-racial gender relations either.

This shortage of Black men is a material fact affecting Black gender relations. It is part of the very definition of the gender relations. Cultural and psychological explanations will end up in self-blame. No matter how good the rap song lyrics or the revolutionary will of the people, there is going to be hurt until we address the underlying causes.

Notes:
1. http://www.sfbayview.com/061902/sexist061902.html
2. Fox Butterfield, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/28/national/28PRIS.html

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