R. KELLY •
CHOCOLATE FACTORY

There’s this scene in the movie “Baby Boy” where Ving Rhames’ character slow dances in a dim hallway with himself. Ving turns and tells Tyrese, playing a twenty-something, that this is old folk’s music, the good music. I’ve always wondered what a guy from the inner-city will be slow dancing to in twenty years. Enter R. Kelly.
Kelly has found a way to invoke the ghosts of soul past without driving away the urban music listener – a feat that the “neo-soul” scene has struggled with for some time. On “Chocolate…” he delves deeper into the past while still staying present. He pulls out a good ‘Off The Wall’-era Michael Jackson song (“Dream Girl”), and coos in Prince-like ecstasy over a Prince-like guitar solo on “Imagine That.” But most interestingly, on songs like “You Knock Me Out,” he puts on Marvin Gaye’s dancing best – a man he’s been having more similarities with over the past year.
At the same time, Kelly hasn’t left his ghetto roots on songs like the good times romp “Ignition (Remix)” and his somewhat overblown episode with Ronald Isley (again) on “Showdown.” This isn’t a perfect album, but it probably will be playing in a dim hallway
somewhere a generation from now, and sometimes that’s the most important thing.

Kenny Lattimore & Chante Moore
Things That Lovers Do

You have to root for the underdog. In a time where hard beats, tales of thug passion and the ‘neo-Prince’ funk of The Neptunes have flooded R&B, true to form crooners like Kenny Lattimore and Chante Moore get lost in the under-tow.
Where to go in limbo? Well, into each other’s arms of course. Lattimore and wife Moore decided to record a duet album loaded with covers, which earns them bravery points from the outset. There are some interesting choices like Keith Sweat’s “Make it Last Forever,” and Lionel Ritchie’s “Still,” which both work, but the couple should’ve known they’d have to pull out all the stops to remake Ashford & Simpson’s “You’re All I Need To Get By,” but unfortunately they didn’t.
Going through this album you realize that these covers of these strong soul songs create a little problem: they emphasize just how listless and tossed-off the two original Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis songs really are. But that doesn’t matter because I believe Lattimore and Moore, which is what makes these underdogs safe bets. On a song like “With You I’m Born Again”, it doesn’t sound like a tale of devotion to me: it sounds like a couple holding onto each other and weathering the storm.