Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967), best known by the stage name R. Kelly, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and record producer. Debuting in 1992 with the group Public Announcement, Kelly went solo in 1993 for a successful solo career starting with the album, 12 Play. Kelly is known for a collection of hit singles including "Bump n' Grind", "I Believe I Can Fly", "Gotham City", "Ignition", "If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time", "The World's Greatest", and the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet."

Kelly has also produced and performed in many tracks by other R&B and hip-hop artists. In 1994, Kelly produced and wrote the debut album of R&B singer Aaliyah. Kelly has sung the hooks for many notable hip-hop songs, such as "Lovin' You Tonight" by The Notorious B.I.G., "We Thuggin'" by Fat Joe, "Gigolo" by Nick Cannon, and "Go Getta" by Young Jeezy, and has collaborated for two albums with Jay-Z.

In 1996, Kelly released one of his most successful singles with "I Believe I Can Fly", an inspirational song originally released on the soundtrack for the film Space Jam. "I Believe I Can Fly" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the UK Charts for three weeks and won three Grammy Awards in 1997. Rolling Stone magazine named it as the 408th of its top 500 songs of all time. For the film Batman & Robin, Kelly recorded the top ten single "Gotham City".

Kelly released double album R. in 1998. It yielded the popular singles "I'm Your Angel" (featuring Celine Dion), "Half on a Baby" and "When a Woman's Fed Up." In 2003, the RIAA certified R. eight times multi-platinum. In 1998, Kelly wrote and produced the debut album of his new female artist Sparkle, which was released on his Rockland label, distributed through Interscope. The album went platinum due to the success of the first single, "Be Careful," a duet featuring Kelly and Sparkle. Kelly also found success with soundtracks such as "Gotham City" from "Batman & Robin", and "The World's Greatest" from Ali. In 1999, Kelly wrote and produced, along with Wyclef Jean, the majority of the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence movie Life. Kelly composed ten songs on the soundtrack, while Jean composed five. Kelly also contributed two songs, "Bad Man" and "Up and Outta Here," to the updated Samuel L. Jackson movie Shaft. In 2000, Kelly released TP-2.com, which yielded the hits "I Wish" and the remix to "Fiesta," which featured Jay-Z. Because of the success of that song and another Kelly/Jay-Z collaboration, "Guilty 'Til Proven Innocent," from Jay-Z's Dynasty album, it was announced in early 2002 that the duo would collaborate on a joint album and tour entitled The Best of Both Worlds. Due to controversy surrounding Kelly at the time, however, there was little promotion for the album when it was finally released and Kelly instead refocused his attention on his solo work as both a recording artist and producer.

During late 2001 and early 2002, Kelly began working on the follow up to his album TP-2.com, titled Loveland which was named after a dream he had where he felt love in a world that was so full of hate. The album was scheduled to be released in November 2002, but as with Best of Both Worlds before it, heavy bootlegging led to its being delayed. The singer then retooled the entire album; titled Chocolate Factory, it featured several of the bootlegged tracks, and many have cropped up elsewhere, as noted below. It also came as a six-track bonus disc with the initial pressings of Chocolate Factory. (Bootlegged tracks are listed in this footnote.

In early 2003, Chocolate Factory became a runaway success for Kelly, selling over three million copies due to the success of singles such as "Ignition," "Snake" and "Step in the Name of Love." "Snake," incidentally, became the basis of the dancehall reggae riddim known as Baghdad. Later that year Kelly followed that success by releasing his first, and long overdue, greatest hits collection The R in R&B Collection Volume 1, the album as well as a dvd collection. In 2004, Kelly released the ambitious two-disc set Happy People/U Saved Me, with the first disc including feel-good, stepping-inspired tracks, while focusing on gospel and inspirational material on the second disc. That same year, Kelly performed The Star-Spangled Banner during the introduction of the world championship boxing fight between Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor. His performance, which included a line of dancers doing the "stepping" routine and a prerecorded instrumental track set to the sound of "Happy People," was met with a mixed reaction. In October 2004, Kelly reunited with Jay-Z to do a follow-up to their Best of Both Worlds album shortly after announcing a tour to coincide with the project after the duo performed together during Jay-Z's "farewell" concert at Madison Square Garden a year before. The duo's Unfinished Business album was released and peaked at number one on the Billboard chart.