100 Reasons Why "Ignition - Remix" Is So Damned Great

GAH OMG totally just noticed the amazing piano bits in this song. It is so laid-back and wonderful and accentuates everything so perfectly. Shit this song just got like three times better.

what the hell is going on in the MJ videos?

Ignition (Remix) is possibly my favourite song of all time. Wrote a piece about it/trapped in the closet for my university's magazine. S#pretty good:

R KELLY – MISUNDERSTOOD GENIUS

We all have topics of conversation that repeatedly come up after a few drinks. Mine include Motown (“Oh God, music will never get better than this!”), the work of Shane Meadows (“He just seems really down to earth, top bloke, having a pint with him would be rad!”) and, predominately, trying to persuade people that R. Kelly is a genius rather than a slightly grubby R’n’B star.

Earlier in the decade Kelly was accused to recording himself having sex with an underage girl. Not just regular sex though, oh no. The video allegedly showed him urinating on her. This is possibly why my argument rarely wins people over. Even though he was found guilty on all 14 charges it is hard to erase the case from the memory. And of course we must remember that back in 1994 he married the sadly deceased singer Aaliyah. When she was fifteen. And R had known her since she was twelve. However, I feel that as hard as it can be to do so, we have to separate the personal life from the material the artist produces. People still love Annie Hall and Chinatown regardless of the directors predilections, right?

Whatever you think about his music, it’s impossible to deny the fact that Robert Sylvester Kelly is one of the most fascinating characters in music today. He has managed to ride the waves of controversy that have dogged his career and still remains one of the biggest selling artists in America today. One of the most interesting things about him professionally is his willingness to reveal so much about himself. I remember reading an interview with him in Q magazine a few years back when he discussed the trouble he has in living with the R. Kelly persona that he has created. He said that sometimes he didn’t want to be this sex-loving, club-hopping star bur wanted to ‘just be Robert, the God loving family man (Kelly has three children from his marriage which dissolved at the start of the year). His songs mainly come in two flavours: the upfront sex fueled club banger and the introspective, almost embarrassingly open quiet ones. It’s the former category that appeals to me; if we take it that 95% of all pop music is, and always has been, about sex, then R. is the undisputed king of pop (as we live in the post-Jackson age someone has to take the title). No one writes about sex like he does. This is a man who has songs called ‘Sex Planet’, ‘Good Sex’ and ‘Bangin’ the Headboard;’, a man who sings lines like ‘Girl, I got you so wet it’s like a rainforest/Like Jurassic Park except I’m your sex-a-saurus baby’. You sense that this is a man who does not find sex shameful in any way; rather he is someone who embraces and celebrates everything about his own sexuality. I can’t think of another singer who would holler the line ‘We’re like two gorillas in the jungle baby makin’ love’ in such a matter of fact, un-ironic way.

When I raise the Kelly topic I’m often accused of having an ‘ironic’ liking of him. This is a concept that I don’t fully understand as I don’t subscribe to the notion of guilty pleasures. Irony, in this sense, is something that we use to create a sense of distance between something that we like but feel like we shouldn’t. We feel above the subject, as if our liking of it validates it somehow. There is nothing ‘ironic’ about my love of what is Kelly’s undoubted masterpiece, Ignition (Remix). The song, like so many others in his vast back catalogue, is about going out, having fun and, eventually, having sex. It is, and I have to admit at this point that I’m prone to hyperbole, one of the most joyful three minutes of music ever made. Ignition sounds like every good memory you have of nights out with friends condensed into one blissful sequence that doesn’t end with a hangover. From the moment Kelly intones that he ‘doesn’t usually do this…’ to the moment the vocal drops out and an almost celestial synth line waltzes in and out of the mix, it is a paean to joy. It’s also the last great song to hit the number one spot in the charts (though, in fairness, Yeah! By Usher comes close). Ignition (Remix) cemented Kelly’s position as master of the intro. His other great intro comes from the 1994 smash Bump n’ Grind, when he tells the girl he’s wooing that whilst his ‘mind is telling him no’ his body, his body ‘is telling me yes!’. The conviction in his delivery is almost frightening.

If I haven’t converted the person listening to me by droning on and on about Ignition (Remix) then I play the trump card: Trapped in the Closet, his 22 part hip-hopera. Trapped can easily be viewed as an absurd, pointless, repetitive mess that cannot sustain its narrative for long enough to make it watchable. This is, frankly, a load of rubbish. Trapped in the Closet is one of the defining pop-culture artifacts of the decade. It is in fact a lovingly crafted piece of drama that manages to be incredibly amusing whilst being knowingly silly. It is to Kelly’s credit that this knowingness does not become irritating at any point.

The plot is far too labyrinthine to be turned into a pithy synopsis, but essentially it deals with issues of fidelity, homosexuality, identity and masculinity. Set it in Spain, swap Kelly for Javier Bardem and you’ve got a Pedro Almdovar film. Incidentally, Trapped… shares Almodovar’s fetishization of the telephone. The characters sing-talk their way through a series of hilariously convulted and bizarre situations that involve gay couples, wife swapping and midget strippers. It’s the sheer oddness of the piece that makes it such compulsive vieiwing. Admittedly, some moments when seen in isolation, such as the infamous moment where it’s revealed that there is a man in the cupboard and that man is a midget, which seem laughably bad, but when viewed in order these moments of utter strangeness become oddly plausible.

At several points R. Kelly, who plays the central character Sylvester and several others (including an old drunk and ‘Pimp Lucious’ whose name tells you all you need to know about the character) interjects and comments on the events. This breaking of the fourth wall is obviously a reference to dramatist Bertolt Brecht’s alienation techniques as well as Austrian director Michael Haneke’s classic 1997 film Funny Games. These interjections exemplify the blurring of fiction and reality within the piece that make it so great. The characters are constantly trying to ascertain what exactly has happened to the other characters and work out possible outcomes. There’s even an utterly abstract commentary section wherein R Kelly is sat in a chair pretending to watch the episodes whilst he talks about them as if they were real. He goes on to claim that people often ask him if it’s based on his own experiences and he says that whilst it isn’t it ‘takes a few chapters from real life,’ a statement that makes me realize how mundane my own life is.

Homosexuality is a theme not often explored in the world of ‘urban’ music and it is admirable that Kelly makes two gay characters, Rufus (a pastor) and Chuck (a deacon) two of his main characters. They are not presented as camp but as two ‘normal’ men who fell in love with each other but have to keep this love secret because society would not, they feel, accept it. The fact that both men work for the church adds an interesting frisson to the relationship.

Ok, enough theorizing. The main reason why I love Trapped in the Closet so much is because it’s laugh out loud funny. There are too many good moments to mention but personal highlights include: Sylvester stopping his wife from having sex with because he’s got a cramp in his leg, the rhyming of ‘Rufus and Chuck’ with ‘what the fuck’ (I should mention that the swearing in the piece is absolutely exquisite; every ‘fuck’ and ‘motherfucker’ is a work of art) and the midget literally crapping himself in terror.

Trapped in the Closet is the work of a man who, seemingly, does not care what people think of him. It is an irresistible hour and a half that confirms R. Kelly’s place as one of the most important pop-culture figures working today. Just try not to think about I Believe I Can Fly.

JOSH BAINES

'Even though he was found guilty on all 14 charges it is hard to erase the case from the memory'
^unfortunate typo

oops!

just me or is there a touch of autotune on "mama, ROLLIN that body"

sorta wish it wasn't there but eh whatcha gon do

Nice article Dwight Yorke!

http://aussiered.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/yorke.jpg?w=280&h=430

that was a lot better than a university

er fuck, my finger slipped

post should say: "that was a lot better than a university magazine article entitled 'R.Kelly: Misunderstood Genius' has any right to be"

i can never hear the hanging chord in this btw

it's just an extra measure - it comes right before the chorus - you sorta think the chorus should kick in sooner than it actually does and it leaves you hangin for a second

Thanks, LRN. I think?

xxp I can't hear it either!!

Yeah, it's not really a hanging chord. As Tracer says it's that little bit before the chorus where you hear R say "yeah, c'mon". It delays the chorus coming in slightly, making for false anticipation and breaking from the 4/4 tradition. It's very clever actually, and was what drew me to the song in the first place.

Are you talking about when he says "that's why they say it on the radio" bit? the extra measure?

At several points R. Kelly, who plays the central character Sylvester and several others (including an old drunk and ‘Pimp Lucious’ whose name tells you all you need to know about the character) interjects and comments on the events. This breaking of the fourth wall is obviously a reference to dramatist Bertolt Brecht’s alienation techniques as well as Austrian director Michael Haneke’s classic 1997 film Funny Games

I would wager money that R. Kelly has no idea that Brecht and Haneke exist.

Or I guess it's half a measure depending on how you count the BPM

ignition (single, not remix):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MJYZLjc8JQ

Pies Pies Pies: I was trying to be funny. I liked the idea of Kells watching Funny Games. S'not meant to be a wholly serious piece.

haha okay that does make me feel better because that section, esp. in the context of the rest of the piece, was really making me go o_O

why are ignition and ignition remix on different sides on the vinyl version?

of the album or the single?

album

any threads on "Sex me" and its remix? cuz that shiz is badarse.

Guys, I should listen to R. Kelly more. What album should I get first?

TP-2.com or chocolate factory?

from the 00s era, def choc factory & happy people/u saved me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld5aW0C5iWk

RUNNIN HER HANDS THROUGH MY FRO
BOUNCIN ON 24S
WHILE THEY SAY ON THE RADIO

RUNNIN HER HANDS THROUGH MY FRO
BOUNCIN ON 24S

this is indisputably one of the best rhymes ever

I'M LIKE SO WHAT I'M DRUNK

367. How the outro serves as a summarizing conclusion to the rest of the song.

http://open.spotify.com/album/1f0S7pJCiCC6reYPB7Ypzo

SMOOTH JAZZ COVERS OF KELLS' GREATEST HITS!

it's unbelievable to me that a human being actually wrote this song -- it's such an accepted and perfect american monument that it's easy to forget that it had to be formulated in r. kelly's head and worked on and perfect and honed and all that. at this point it just exists as something that... represents us that it's almost like it was here before we all were. it's like the statue of liberty or something.

anyway

368. how guttural yet clear and pristine he sings "mama roooollin that body" -- he hits such a perfect balance that it's the only line i refuse to sing along to because he just sings it too perfectly that i don't want to deny myself the opportunity of hearing it again

it's unbelievable to me that a human being actually wrote this song -- it's such an accepted and perfect american monument that it's easy to forget that it had to be formulated in r. kelly's head and worked on and perfect and honed and all that. at this point it just exists as something that... represents us that it's almost like it was here before we all were. it's like the statue of liberty or something.

― hitler runoff (J0rdan S.), Thursday, March 11, 2010 2:26 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is crazy talk, the whole song is so much more a natural extension of the artist's catalog/persona than it is a universal standard singular hit song

i mean "I Believe I Can Fly" fits your description way more

well... i think it's both a universal standard hit song & and an extension of kelly's catalog -- i wasn't trying to imply that it was an outlier or anything -- it's just so perfectly constructed to me that it's almost inhuman

uh oh – auteur theory at work!

ha

369. I've always felt like it sounded like a 70s soul song, but for seven years it escaped me exactly just which one. Then it hit me, it sounds like "Let's Do It Again" by the Staple Singers!

370. Who are from Chicago. Just like R. Kelly. And it was written and produced by Curtis Mayfield, also a Chicagoan. I was in Chicago for a week or two last summer, and both those songs feel exactly like Chicago during the summer.

371. Back to the dancehall inflection on "Mama ROLLIN that body". He really drives the point home with the even more affected "LISTEN NOW!" that follows in the background, as if to remove any ambiguity that he knows exactly what he's doing.

372
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzxwnz7q4cQ

http://www.avclub.com/articles/young-the-giant-covers-ignition-remix,71123/

^not one of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAwNp5i-TuI

this is, i think, at least a little offensive to ppl that use ASL ("look at how they ~talk~") but g-d i lol'd ok

Released 10 years ago today.

I can't even believe that. Am I just getting old, or has the entirety of post 2000 time blurred together into one big indigestible mass?