Given Pitchfork’s recent decision to recognize “Ignition (Remix)” as one of the greatest songs of the decade, I thought I’d re-post this entry from a few months back:
R. Kelly’s legal troubles – as well as the success of his magnum opus, “Trapped in the Closet” – tend to obscure his brilliant early work. But before TP3, there was Chocolate Factory. And before “Trapped,” there was “Ignition (Remix)”:
More Kelly-philia: my second favorite bad R. Kelly sex jam has to be “Sex in the Kitchen.” My favorite bad R. Kelly lyric is probably “I be drillin’ these chicks like Major Payne” – which captures the coveted double crown of objectifying women and referencing an awful movie.
Enjoy your weekend.
Not to nitpick, but Ignition (and the remix) aren’t really his early work. “Bump and Grind” is from like 1993.Report
I don’t think that reference is even correct. Wasn’t the plot of Major Payne that he was an Army Special Ops guy who was teaching little kids at a boarding school? It wasn’t even an all-girls boarding school, either.
R. Kelly fail. Still funny, though.Report
What, no mention of “You Remind Me of A Jeep?” Because every woman wants to remind R. Kelly…of a Jeep.Report
As someone who was 12 in 1996, I still – after all the madness since – associate Kelly with “I Believe I Can Fly” (and other bad movie themes like Batman & Robin’s “Gotham City”).
As for the P2K list, I was surpised at how much of this music a) I already have and b) how conventional most of the top choices are. Aside from R. Kelly, the only surprise in the top 20 was that they picked “Losing My Edge” as the best LCD Soundsystem song, apparently for similar reasons.Report
Scratch that last one, I was reading the numbering wrong. In which case, my point is even stronger. Rolling Stone could have made this list.Report
Top concert experiences of my life definitely includes seeing Bonnie Prince Billy slaughter Ignition about five years ago, at a hippie commune outside Athens (Georgia), in a torrential downpour. Oldham really brought out the pathos in the song. Which isn’t to imply that R. Kelly doesn’t.Report