¶
Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast. I'm DJ Sir Daniel.
And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government as Johnnie Ray Kornegay the third. And real quick, Sir Daniel, I want to send love and a shout out to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated. Today is our founder's day, 111 years. So shout out to all the brothers of Sigma. Love y'all and we hear sir. Daniel. This is our first public live of 2025 We did a live but it was a private one last.
Oh, yes. Yes. You like wait a
minute.
We was
live
last week No, but you're absolutely correct. Um, yes, this is our first live and because we are the the podcast dropping the needle on black music history, you know, we You know Gotta keep shout. We gotta a shout out to, to the Divine. So shout out to you and your brothers. Yes. Um, it was nothing but blue and white all on my timeline today. Yes. So I was like, it gotta be, it gotta be Founder's Day for the brothers . And um, also before we get started, um, we want to give, to send Massive love.
Yes. And um, and just prayers to the people in Los Angeles. Right now, who are, you know, fighting for their lives, basically making sure
¶ Welcome and Shout out to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc.
that they evacuate, um, if they have to evacuate because of those ongoing fires, I heard something very important today that needed to be said, um, a lot of us who are outside of Los Angeles looking in might believe that it. These fires are only affecting rich people.
That is not
true. That's not the case. There are a lot of people who are low income, middle income, middle class, um, who are just being disenfranchised as we speak. So I think we need to, you know, turn up the empathy.
Absolutely. I think it's really every time there is A natural disaster. Literally my reflex is if a person is poor, what do they do? Like when they need to evacuate, like, how do they evacuate? If you are an individual that does not have a mode of transportation and they're like, you need to leave your area and you need to go somewhere. Like, where do you go?
And this is where, when we talk about, um, Public resources and all of that that this is why voting is really important like we have to be able to do it Because this is devastating. I have seen so many images Um, we've seen video i've actually talked to
¶ Empathy for Los Angeles
people so i've reached out to some of our people Um to make sure that they were good now that was yesterday. I got to check in with people today Yeah, because it's a day by day thing. And so Listen empathy turn up the empathy because I can't imagine So Daniel, I literally was like, I've never seen anything like this before. I can't imagine what I would do in this situation.
Yeah. Same, same over here. Um, also thinking about us here in Georgia, you know, we're keeping our fingers crossed here in Georgia. Cause mother nature is about is doing her big one right now. Yes. All across the nation. And, um, yeah, just everybody just be safe. And, um, And keep in contact with your loved ones, whether they're on the East Coast or the West Coast. And just, you know, key points we wanted to show our love to you guys and just make sure that you're doing good.
And just, of course, letting us know if we need to amplify a signal for you, if you need help. Let us know and we'll do what we can to, on our end, as far as our resources to help amplify the word.
Yeah. So definitely want to send, um, we just put that up from Mark McPherson. Shout out to Mark. Thank you so much for, for joining us, Mark, um, as always. And Mark was just saying, um, the fire has impacted his family. Uh, a cousin lost her home and a husband and a, and another doesn't know if his home is still there.
Yeah.
My goodness.
That see, those are the types of things that, We just don't think about, we don't think about those things and until they happen to you. Yep. So what we like to do here, you know, at Queue Points, um, you know, maybe this, you're not listening to this while we're broadcasting live, but you're listening to this at another time and it's giving you some, some joy. That's cause that's what we want to do.
So we, J. Ray and I, you know, we get, sometimes we don't eat these topics literally just fall into our laps.
Yes.
Because a lot of people, you know, you got to love social media for this. A lot of people have a lot of hot takes. I mean really hot takes and let's see. Let's start. Do we want to start off with the tweet? Let's
let's start with it. Let's start with the tweet. This is so you saw this. Sir, Daniel, I have a question. Well, first of all, we're going to read the tweet And so Daniel, please what is this tweet? And what was your first thought when you read it because you shared it with me and I was like,
huh? so apparently, um Sade x goddess on december 29th Had an epiphany That r kelly wrote michael jackson's you were not alone and she went to x and tweeted it. Yes You So Mr. WizArab10 responded, quote tweeted, um, Sade, quote tweeted her and said, There is no better writer in the history of American music than R. Kelly. And of course, that set off quite the sandstorm of, you know, Tweets, replies, clapbacks, um, videos, it just, it went viral.
¶ Hot Takes on Social Media
Of course, as you can see down there, that, that tweet alone has gotten what?
What is this right here? 3. 1 million views.
That just to let you, that just lets you know how polarizing R. Kelly. Is even when we're not talking about the, you know, the behaviors that landed him in prison, you know, people are making these hot takes about him being the best American songwriter ever. And then to top it all. On top of all of that, you know, Teedra Moses has been in the news. She's, you know, her tiny, since her tiny desk, she's been popping up on
¶ R. Kelly's Controversial Legacy
interviews and whatnot, and she made a stop at the R&B Money podcast. She did podcast, uh, with tank and, um, I forget the other hosts, but she made a comment regarding R Kelly that set Twitter on fire as well. And I believe we have a clip of that.
We do have a clip of that. Adore you by Prince. Greatest Sex, R. Kelly. What a song! You can close your eyes and see everything he's saying. I was so angry when I heard that song. How did you get to anger? Because in my mind, I was always competing against him, even though I wasn't at that time. Space yet. And I was like, he's still so much better. The honest here inside my what do you say here on inside this bed of mine? I see ceiling fans and you on top of me.
If you close your eyes, you can see it. Everything's in inside these walls. There was well a Capricorn top 5 RB songs.
Huh? So I believe okay. So Jay Ray, what is your reaction to that? And I'll let you know how come back to you.
Um, so I think two things can be true at the same time.
Mm hmm.
Um, As someone who has liked a lot of R. Kelly songs over the years, right? Um, I, I rebuke myself for, for liking R Kelly for longer than I should have. And I think I've talked about that on this show, right? I think two things can be true at the same time. I, um, I, I, I do not think that R Kelly is the greatest American songwriter. The reason why, by the way, I hovered over Sir Dixon's name is because I was like, is this person like a troll?
And then I'm like, Oh, he has like 500 and he has like half a million followers. So he's not a troll. Right. So I Tiedra and tank are not off with the greatest sex, especially when you like jump into like lyrics like that. And you're like, yeah, like that is. Well crafted and interesting and I can see all the things and I get where they're coming from. I don't think it was worth. I don't think all of the vitriol that Tidra got. After that was worth it.
I also don't think Teidra's responses were worth it either stuff. Many things can be true at the same time. Like, I feel like there's a lot of mess to go around. There's some mess with how she responded. There's some mess with the fact that we're talking about R Kelly and having to, at this point, and I feel like we have to do this reckon with his legacy, which is huge and vast.
Um, And the fact that I think people be crazy on Twitter when they say stuff like he's the greatest songwriter I don't think that that's true, but I don't necessarily I don't think t dra and tank are wrong But I do think some of the tweets that t dra made were wrong. It's a lot going on with it. It's a lot
Yeah, I think so Basically, I think that Tidra became the target of a lot of women specifically became the target because a lot of women feel like what happened in the R. Kelly situation as a woman, you should be as bothered and troubled by, um, The things that happen to these other young women and that you as a woman should have want nothing to do with this and then speaking out and still calling his name and giving him, you know, accolades about his talents is somehow
cheapening and lessening the, um, what happened to these people, the victims, the people that had these experiences. And so. Yes, I think all of that people, sometimes it does, it just takes one person to become a target and to become a focal point for all of those thoughts that people have. And so that day just happened to be Teedra Moses. And now they've been whacking tank about, cause tank, this ain't the first time tank is, has been called R Kelly's name on their podcast.
And they've been whacking the people who've been whacking tank about that for a while too. So it's like, there's just, so then it makes me think. Like, okay, is it worth it? Is R. Kelly's music that good to be calling out his name constantly and to risk, you know, the vitriol of the public coming down on you? So that's a question that popped up in my mind. And then when I got to thinking about it, I started thinking, Oh, I think.
I understand why R Kelly's music still has a chokehold on black people.
But let us have it. The DJ. So Daniel, we need a, we need a sound for this. DJ. So Daniel theory,
you know, guys, I have, I have a theory. I have thoughts. Okay. So It's threefold. So I believe R Kelly, I believe. I believe I can fly. R Kelly came along at a very specific time. And he was able to master the R& B bad boy trope with a mix of sensitivity and sensuality. I believe. He came at the right time.
He came on the coat on the coattails of Jodeci and Bobby Brown and I'll be sure and he took that trope of bad boy and just turn it up like he he turned it up bit by bit just to see how much we could take and and and the public was loving it. You know, women specifically, women specifically loved what R Kelly was giving, what he presented, what he rep, what he was presenting to them physically, you know, he's at that time.
Um, you know, male R& B singers really had to, not only did you have to sound good, you had to look good. So you know, he had the body. He was, um, he had at every chance he could, you know, give you like somebody who may or may not have been in prison at one point, you know, and was giving you.
¶ The Impact of R. Kelly's Music
Kind of, I just got out of prison fashions, but I'm, I'm singing to you at the same time and I want to make you feel safe and I'm, I'm going to sex you up and down and all around and just make you feel, you feel really good. So he met, but he was able to do other songs where he was able to, you know, sprinkle sensitivity in there and, you know, I want to, you know, make you feel like he's about to cry and, and we ate that, excuse me, we ate that stuff up. We ate it up. Women ate it up.
And so he endeared himself to the public using that bad boy trope and fusing it with sensitivity. Second part. The black community, we have continuously had this back and forth conversation or this back and forth about The idea of masculinity and how it should look and be performed. And R. Kelly just happened to come along and fulfill that and be like, Hey, that's something I can point to. That's what a real man does.
I can feel by proxy, I can talk to my woman through R Kelly and exhibit maleness, masculineness, and, you know, take you down just by singing and take you down with these lyrics and, you know, You know, that's something that we held on to, you know, that's a good black man. That's a, you know, he's a sensual black man. We, he's our, he's our generations, Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye all rolled into one and, you know, and he looked like a man, man, you know?
So. And those are things that the black community is constantly grasping for. Sure. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are constantly grasping for it, we are constantly pointing to examples to show what is, and now more than ever, what is not considered masculine or manly in the community. And so that, so that, those things keep us in a chokehold, kept, R. Kelly kept us in a chokehold. And last but not least. Jay Ray, R. Kelly's music is directly associated with good times and nostalgia.
Yes. Point
blank period.
Yeah.
There's no, like, if you're a certain age, I believe I Can Fly was sung at your, at your high school graduation. It was sung at your kindergarten graduation. Yes, it was. Okay, yeah, he did what all singers do when they want to make people cry and feel emotions He brings out a black choir To sing behind him and sing. I believe I can fly Um same thing with you are not alone.
Yeah You know, those are, those are things that we hold on to that meant something to us that are, um, that was sung at our baptism. You are not alone because I'm walking, you know, um, Jesus is walking with me. R Kelly made me feel that and let's not, we popping, popping bottles in the club and having fun and, you know, grinding on each other to the, to the remix. And this is the remix to ignition. It was a, it was a good time. Those were like the gold.
They refer to that as the golden era for a reason. Yeah, it was some good times. I R Kelly was just coming out of every speaker and we just cannot let that go.
You are absolutely correct. I think the other layer to it as well. In addition to all of those three things is that R Kelly. And I think because of.
¶ Debating R. Kelly's Songwriting
Some of his own limitations, right? And, and, and in the way that he, um, you know, his education and all of those things communicated to people was in kind of a way that there was no ambiguity about what R. Kelly was talking about, right? So when we think about Some of the R& B music is so funny, like how it took us years to figure out that they was talking about like, Oh, they're talking about like, I know that's what you are.
My Starship was about until you got, you started to understand nuance. You started to understand like, Oh, this is a euphemism for this other thing, right? Because as you grow, you get more education and you realize how to communicate with some nuance. You know what I mean? R Kelly didn't do nuance.
No. Not at all. You
just didn't do. And I will tell you, I will tell you when I, um, as a former R Kelly fan, I'm going to keep repeating that because I want to be clear that I made a choice. Oh, in the early two thousands, really, um, to not be an R Kelly fan. Right. So just like I stepped in the name of love, unfortunately, just like with the best of us, you couldn't avoid it. It was a feel good song, but whatever, I digress.
The thing that was so dope to me in the nineties, when R Kelly, when in particular, when 12 play came out. Was how unfiltered it was. So I was a kid, right? I wanted somebody to say they doing the thing that they doing, right? That was edgy and cool to me at the time, right? Um, it was like, Prince unfiltered, you know what I'm saying? Cause Prince, it was like Prince, whereas, you know, Prince was, Prince was a songwriter, right? So he could write with nuance.
He could also be unfiltered, right? But that wasn't the lane. You know what I mean? Whereas I felt like R. Kelly was like saying the thing. And that was really cool to me at the time. Why is that important? I think that is important because We're now at a place where I wish we had more nuance. Like, I wish, I wish that folks read more. I wish that there were more words used. I wish that folks could learn like new vocabulary words from music. We not there anymore.
I think that R. Kelly didn't force us to think about it too hard. We felt he allowed us to just feel it and experience it. Those are very valid. Right. Sure. I also would like to be engaged up here. R. Kelly, to the point, it was feel good. You felt it here. You felt it in your groin. You felt it wherever you was going feeling. It wasn't necessarily that you had to think about it. You was just feeling it. And I, and I think.
That is also a thing that made folks love the music that he was making at the time. Um, and is also a thing. It's the, it's the, it's the good and the bad of it. I think people saw that That he was able to do this right now. Not keep not even recognizing that he had all these other talents to write. So it wasn't just, you know, the lyrics.
It was like the music and the composition and all those other things, which were natural talents for him, but I think that everybody saw that and was like, I want to do that. That's great. I want to do that. It kind of left the other stuff alone and I'm like, yeah, that was cool. But this other thing is cool too. Like everything don't got to sound like 12 play or the R. Kelly album. I remember Sir Daniel and I'm going to stop in a minute, but I remember when.
You remind me of something came out I thought that song was riveting that dude was literally singing y'all They this is who the brother said was the greatest American songwriter that dude literally wrote the lyrics you remind me of my Jeep
¶ Nostalgia and R. Kelly's Influence
Something like my bank accounts I want to spend it. What, what, what's happening?
And let's not forget the, the yodeling at the end,
right?
The yodeling we sometimes when the, when the young people, um, Make fun of us and talk about y'all are, we are cri uh, uh, talk about our criticism of their music today. And they point out certain things. That's what they think. That's moment that they point out. And I'm just like, you got us there. Yeah,
we, you got us. We did that.
He yodel. Yeah, you got us there. You right, you right. That was, that was crazy. You sounded crazy back then. And to it's, I think you are, you're onto something here. It's like, there is, there's room. There's room, there's definitely room for the un, the unserious. There's room for camp. That's it really is. I, I think there, I really think we need more campiness. Mm-hmm . We need more camp in you love camp. Our culture. Uh oh. I love camp.
And, and I think there's, there should be room for that only because. I think we are leaning more on the more destructive things that, whatever, for whatever reason, people are finding solace and finding, you know, Amusement in the things that are destructive, um, to not only to ourselves, but to each other. Um, but yes, I, you're right.
We don't have to think hard when it comes to listening to a, uh, uh, R Kelly song and the sons of R Kelly that have come along and the grand, the grandsons that he have now that don't even sing. They, they do this melodic stuff, but they're all, they're all part of his lineage of saying things. And then, you know, it's funny when we had that conversation with, um, Leo, for our girl Leo. And I think she's over, she's over on,
yeah, she's over there on IG. What's up
Leo? You know, we had that conversation about women's, um, Reactions getting less and less, um, anti whatever the women becoming more acclimated to the way a lot of the singers and rappers were talking to them and even finding joy. In the music, you know, we had a whole episode about that and it's got to be said, you know, I think that the more we get things and we accept them, the less abrasive they may sound and the less crazy they may sound.
But, you know, if you came up in a time like we did where We can tell a distinct difference when things change.
Yeah,
it still kind of raises an eyebrow and then looking back. We're like Was he really the greatest songwriter and we're going to stay on that because that's what the topic is That's what the topic is is like does he was he really the greatest songwriter because now what he was good at What that is That rascal was good at, was good at making songs that the radio, that radio programmers had no problem putting into heavy rotation.
J. Ray, right here, right now, back in 2005, I remember when the program director that out at the radio station that I was working at told us, and I was producing a show called Loving Relationships with Joyce Letell on V103. Our program director came to us and said, Hey guys, you know, it would be a great idea. And this is when somebody's, um, They're not telling you what to do,
but they're telling you what to do,
but they're, they're suggesting, suggesting really heavily that you guys do a show and string all the episodes of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet and do a whole love and relationships. Show around trapped in the closet, and I was like what sure okay? We can do that But it was it was literally a no brainer the phone lines were lit up all night people had all kinds of things to say It was It, he,
¶ Trapped in the Closet Phenomenon
he did his, R Kelly did his big one with that because it got people talking. It got people trying to guess what was going to happen next. The songs, each one was less than a, if I can remember was less than a minute and 30 seconds. Which is, which is again is to his point is genius because it keeps people wanting to hear more and then for radio that was absolutely, that was a gold mine for radio because it keeps people tuning in. So that's what his genius is.
He's good at getting us horny, good at getting us, you know, turned up. And, um, and we're nosy. So, of course, we want to hear, you know, want to hear what the, uh, what's going to happen next when he opens up the closet.
So, okay, y'all let us know. Drop it in the chat. If you want to join us, we are planning to watch trapped in the closet. I've never seen. Any of them except of except if i've caught a clip, but it's been very few and far between Literally r kelly does not trend in my algorithm really so I don't really see a lot of r kelly stuff But so i've never seen them. So sir.
Daniel and I are probably going to get together And we want to invite you and for those of y'all that came to our live show Let them know how crunk it is when you come and hang out with Queue Points Outside of here because we really get to we really get to talk mess Um, but I want to watch the trapped in the closet with sir Daniel and we might as well invite all of y'all because y'all will want to watch it too We should all watch it together like a family. I want to see trapped in the closet
I see Shaniqua in the chat on IG. Shaniqua and I were working at the, um, at HMV Record Store during the height of R. Kelly's superpowers. So we saw plenty of those CDs walking out of the store because he, I don't know, he, I really believe whatever magic is associated with the mythology of the, um, the Pied Piper.
Him him linking himself to that mythology of the Pied Piper was Was very smart on his point on his part because he really did that there was just something and this could be said about cult leaders You know, there was something that was very Magnetic about him and the things that he was doing that people just ate up
I think I think okay. So this is the perfect timing to talk about the pop music formula. Yes, I think this is the perfect timing. So I'm actually going to pull in there was a study that came out this year. Hold on. I'm gonna put the screen share back up. There was a study that came out this year. This is not the study.
¶ Upcoming Event: Trapped in the Closet Watch Party
This is scientific scientific American did kind of a recap of it. So I'm gonna read a couple of pieces of this 'cause I think it's really important. So, when comparing today's hit tunes with the top 40 of the past decades, strong opinions are never in short supply. Every generation seems to lament its successors, musical tastes, and listening, listening habits, right? We, we get into the habit of doing that. What it's saying though is new research suggests.
Popular music has indeed undergone some measurable and significant shifts over the past 50 years, with popular song lyrics becoming simpler, And more repetitive, according to a study published on Thursday in Scientific Reports. Here's a quick quote. There's more rhyming lines and also more chorus, says the study's senior author, Eva Zangarelli, a computer scientist at Austria's University of Innsbruck. We basically found that lyrics have gotten easier to comprehend.
This trend observed across five of the most popular English language music genres, including rap rock R& B and country since 1970 hints at how shifts
¶ R. Kelly's Magnetic Persona and Pop Music Formula
in music listening habits Platforms and production may be shaping pop culture. Here's why I wanted to mention this Because that's the thing that R. Kelly figured out. Yes,
so Sir,
sir, Daniel and I before as we were kind of preparing for this show Um Um pulled the lyrics to you are not alone, which I always thought was just like a beautiful song and then i'm like Oh, this song only has like two two verses like the song is all verse. That's it It's like some lyrics, but the lyrics are real pedestrian. Like there's like a verse. Let me pull up. I'm pulling it up. Please do you are not alone.
We are going to read the lyrics to you are not alone together and you will understand exactly what we're talking about here.
Program directors all that what they're looking for is there they they need what we're talking about that era. What was attractive to a program director is whether the song was going to keep people tuned into their radio station. Um, for the amount of time that the song was on so that they could sell you stuff after the song was played. Yep, and then and then they will program it so it can be played again long enough so you can stay.
And listen to, for the song to be played again so they can sell you more stuff. That's why it's called programming. And so the music had to fit into that in order for them to sell more stuff, they had to have so short enough to play put in rotation so they can have more commercials put in to sell you stuff.
¶ Analyzing 'You Are Not Alone' Lyrics
And so, as we see here, go ahead with the, I'm going to
just, I want people to understand. All right. So. This is You Are Not Alone. When you go through and you read the lyrics, I'm just going to read the first verse. Another day has gone. I'm still all alone. How could this be? You are not here with me. You never said goodbye. Someone tell me why did you have to go and leave my world so cold? And then, We go and we slip into the, the, the, the, uh, the chorus every day. I sit and ask myself how they love sip away.
Something whispers in my ears and says, you are not alone. And then we go through the, you're a lot alone, lone, lone. Then we have. A verse which makes sense. We got a second verse. Okay, cool So then we do a little bit of that.
¶ The Evolution of Pop Music and Songwriting
All right, that's the second verse I'm not gonna read it all the way through Okay, then we hop back into that chorus, right? Then we're gonna give you a little A little bit we're gonna give you like a vamp then we're gonna hop right back into that chorus, right? And we just ride that course out for the rest of the song, right? Now
michael jackson do what michael jackson michael jackson
does right now This is not i'm not saying that this is unlike other songs that other songs don't have similar structures That's not what i'm saying. What i'm saying is r kelly very early figured out that I only need to give them a little bit. I need to give them a I don't need to overthink these verses I need to make them. I need to make them clear and concise Give them some hot vamps and a great hook and a great chorus. And we're going to ride that thing out four minutes.
And less than that, and shout out to Shaniqua to, um, bringing up Mariah Carey and her 5 words. Yes. I love a good Mariah Carey, 5 word. I love the fact that she could put, she could fit incessantly. Into a song lyric, I'm all for it, but even Mariah Carey, you know, she, she's going to give you a thoughtful lyric, but all artists after a while, they figured out, Oh, we've got to, in order for our songs to make it. To um, to airplay, we've gotta, we've gotta um, make it concise.
We've gotta dumb it down a little bit and even take out bridges. And that's what a lot of people are complaining about now is that songs don't have bridges anymore.
I want a bridge! Listen, we need to campaign. Queue Points has always been campaigning for the bridge. Bring back the bridge. We want to understand the song. We need time to get into this thing. So baby, I need you to bridge me and to tell me what we need to know.
That's why here at Queue Points, we always speak Michelle Williams, the black Michelle Williams. We always speak her name because she is the queen of bridge. You know, Beyonce
was in the studio. Michelle, Go in and do your thing. Go and handle
that. Go and handle that for me.
Okay, but I do want to, the beauty, I'm so glad you mentioned Mariah. We also, Laura Hill put the word reciprocity into a song.
Reciprocity. Stop it now.
Stop it. I'm just I'm just That's a five syllable word
that you
have to
sing real quick. Jay Ray are we haven't chatted with our buddy in a long time, but Daryl. Darryl is in the chat on Instagram. We gotta shout out our friend Darryl. We, we are praying for you out there on the West Coast. I hope you're all good. I saw you post earlier that you're good and I want to make sure that you're still staying good out there. And we, you know, we're thinking about you and the whole West and the whole Los Angeles in this moment.
Yes. So y'all and you know, it's so funny. So Instagram is over here. So I can't even read like what's happening I see y'all is popping over on IG But yes, and I see it. Everybody is like yo to the bridge bring bridges back We playing with these people by not giving them a bridge so that we can really get into these songs. Okay and so R. Kelly back to R. Kelly is Has R. Kelly proven himself over the years to be Um, he's a good crafter of songs. You know what I'm saying?
It's undeniable like you can't even undeny that we are not talking about R Kelly the person and all that other stuff that we absolutely disagree with. We have been very clear about where we stand on that stuff with him as a songwriter. We get it. We get that. Is he the greatest American songwriter ahead of a head of like Smokey Robinson ahead of? I. There are so many I cut carol king a pair There are so many songwriters
so many and I think Yes. Okay. So here's the thing. We understand that people get on x or twitter And they talk greasy they hot takes or call hot takes just for that Sometimes you just throw it out there just to get people riled up and this and the that twitter user did just that With his 3. 5 million views on this one tweet But I think, so here's a question.
If R. Kelly never got into trouble or never, or his, um, antics never got brought into the light, do you think in a few years, J. Ray, that we could have possibly seen R. Kelly inducted into like a Kennedy Honors as a, um, American songwriter,
¶ The Controversy of R. Kelly's Legacy
like alongside the likes of Carole King and, you know, Aretha Franklin and, and those people?
I, I don't actually, I don't, I don't, and not because I think he, those spaces, I think you have to have more cachet in white world. Not to say that white people didn't love R. Kelly too, because white people definitely did. You can't sell as many records as he did. And I have white people loving you too. But I do think Our Kelly was much more of a black famous star and he would have gotten whatever accolades in black culture that we would have given him at the highest level.
Our Kelly would have definitely gotten those awards. I don't think you can write the lyrics that are make the songs that are Kelly made. I don't think you can make like an ignition and get like a Kennedy honor.
This is not going to happen, right? Yeah, I mean,
correct me if I'm wrong, y'all. Let me know in the chat, like IG. I mean, can. Can you, can you
do your, yes, you all there in the IG chat, all, all of the chats. Can you see R. Kelly if he hadn't, if all of that stuff had not come into the, into the light. Could R. Kelly have been inducted into like the Kennedy honors as a American of the great, one of the greatest American songwriters.
Now to your point, Jay Ray, I do think he was knocking on becoming white people famous when he did, when he made a duet with That duet with, um, Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga, and I'm going to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed that song.
What was it? Do what you want to my body. Do what you want with my body.
Which in retrospect, you know. It's a
whole mess.
It's a whole mess. But I, listen. That thing I used to that I used to bump that that R. Kelly and Lady Gaga something serious I even made my own my own mashup. Did you? did. I
want to hear your mashup of do what you want
Is do what you want the the acapella? Well, I made I did filtered out my own acapella and um And partnered it with the, the yin yang twins whisper.
That is an appropriate combination.
Oh, yes, absolutely.
So check this. Look at the, look at the chat. Let's talk about what the people are saying. Yeah. Yeah. No. So the people are like, nah, son.
Yeah, it looks like a big, a big fat. No. So I don't know. Maybe it's just the people that watch that watch and listen to this podcast. So they're just like, not going to happen. Or there are, but there's a segment. We cannot ignore that segment of the community that is not letting go. Of R Kelly. It's like that picture of black Jesus and JFK in every black home in the sixties and seventies. Some black people just aren't going to let it go.
They are not going to let, let go of that picture of Martin Jay, JFK and black Jesus in their home. They're just not going to let it go. Despite everything that has come to light.
I think we are far enough removed from. R. Kelly's imprisonment. That folks. I think these are all personal decisions. You know what? This is a personal decisions. Jay Ray has long decided to not be an R Kelly fan. So I don't got I don't got nothing. I'm always weird. When an R Kelly song that was the R Kelly and Jay Fiesta came on and on the radio the other day and I'm like, oh, we're playing songs with R Kelly in it. Now, is that what we're doing? I don't like it.
And I think, you know, I'm one of those DJs where I'm not, I'm just going to be controversial to be controversial. I am going to put on this R Kelly song and I dare one of y'all to come say something to me. That's not that that's not my bag. I there's plenty of music around that. I can play old and new. in a set. I don't have to make that a part of my repertoire. Why? Because it just has an ick factor to it to me.
You said something earlier that I think is really important. People have to decide what hills they want to like make their thing. This R. Kelly thing is not worth it to me. First of all, The despicable things that that man has done.
¶ Community Reactions and Final Thoughts
I don't even want that type of energy, even though I don't know. No R Kelly. I never met. No R Kelly. I don't want that kind of energy. Nowhere near me, even though it's just coming through the speaker. I don't want none of it. I don't want none of it near me. And so I do think. That people get to make choices about we decided to have this conversation because we were very confused about somebody saying that R. Kelly was the greatest American songwriter. I mean ever ever that's wild.
That is a wild statement to make. That's the reason why we wanted to have this discussion. I if it was not this conversation, if we do, if we did not see that tweet, we probably wouldn't be talking about R. Kelly.
Yeah, so Nick, Nick fresh, just use the, uh, a quote on the timeline saying called, um, the people that are keeping like R Kelly alive, like, is there still their theme?
Theme music are like the hotel uncles and he's, and this is a segment of, of black men that specifically feel like R. Kelly is a victim of a system trying to take him out systematically because he is a black man and R. Kelly was about to buy Jive Records and he wasn't, well, he, but he, he's, he was, he, he's a victim of systematic racism, which is not. Which is not far. He's a victim of a very bad educational system. He's a victim of a lot of child abuse,
child abuse and assault and all
of those things. That man has been victimized throughout his whole life. And what and what do victims do? They tend to victimize other people. That's not always in R. Kelly's case. This is what happened. You're absolutely right.
Now, trying to Put him up on nail him to a cross and make him and make him the savior of R& B. You know, again, like Jay Ray said, if that's the hill you want to die on, if that's the, if that's the, the, the road to Calvary for you, that's what you want to carry on your back by all means do that. But I, but back to the topic, back to the topic, I
want to share something. This is the man That y'all want to raise up. This is him. Here's what he said. Here's what he said. You remind me of my Jeep. I want to ride it. Something like my sound. I want to pump it girl. You look just like my cars. I want to wax it. What? And something like my bank accounts. I want to spend it. And he repeated it. Okay. This, this is not worth it. It's not worth it. I don't
know. I don't know. I don't think this is, but I don't think this is an episode where we're definitively trying to say that R Kelly can't be the greatest American songwriter because clearly there's a lot of people who still ride for him. I'm saying that , but what we're saying over here, as for me and my house, as for me about house, it's not flying. No, that's the bull. That's cap. And that kids, what
they say, that's cat. That's the young people
say it's cap. That's not, that's cap. It's a skull. Scully. It's a hoodie. It's all of the things. It's not the truth over here, . So I don't know. Try again. Try
again.
I mean, you got, Oh, no, I don't. I almost brought up another name, but I don't want to go off into that tangent because he's definitely a son of R Kelly. And I'm not going to, I'm not going to bring that up. Do we
want, who? Who?
Maybe this should be like a, a paper. Should this be a Patriot conversation? I don't know what I'm now.
Oh, I mean, we could do that. Y'all want to come and hang out with us again. Well, apparently we got to have another conversation. I don't even know who's there. Daniel's about to mention. I do not know this
person was on the verge of being in trouble also, but that quietly went away. That's all I'm going to say.
Okay.
That accusation came and went and went quietly away.
Okay. Okay. These are, these are things more to come. So here's what y'all need to do. Here's what y'all need to do to stay up. You see what just happened? There's like a cliffhanger. So Please y'all. Thank y'all so much For I see the chat It is going crazy on ig and I love it Y'all thank y'all so much for rocking with us. We appreciate it. It is a new year um, if you Subscribe to Queue Points. You will notice that we do have new artwork.
Yeah, you know what? We got to post it on our IG. We got to
post it on our IG because we haven't done that yet, but we have a new artwork done by James Dillenbeck. Thank you so much, James, for that. And we're kicking off. You don't see we have a new look. We got a look. Here, you know, we doing some things, you know, moving and shaking So thank you all so much for just rocking with us We really appreciate it.
If you can see our faces or hear our voices, please subscribe wherever you are I want to do a quick shout out tree was over and I don't a tree what's happening You say a good evening and we want to make sure that we acknowledge you um over on youtube, but Thank you. Subscribe wherever you are. Visit our website at Queue Points. com. You can check out our blog. You can listen to all of our old episodes of Queue Points and you can shop our store at store. Queue Points. com. We love y'all.
We appreciate y'all.
We sure do. And Jay Ray, what do I say at the end of every episode? My, my eyes. And let me stop this life.
¶ Closing Remarks and Announcements
You have a choice. You can either pick up the needle or you can let the record play. I'm DJ Sir Daniel. My name is Jay Ray, y'all. And this is Queue Points podcast, dropping the needle on black music history. We will see you all in the next go round.