Viewpoint: The Best Defense ...

How R. Kelly made us forget about that child-sex scandal

Most of what you need to know about R. Kelly's music can be learned from his 1995 hit You Remind Me of Something: "You remind me of my Jeep, I wanna ride it/ Something like my sound, I wanna pump it/ Girl you look just like my cars, I wanna wax it." Kelly likes cars. Kelly likes sex. Kelly likes writing stupefyingly obvious metaphors in which cars stand in for sex. Even people with no understanding of pop music can grasp Kelly's commercial appeal.

The standard R. Kelly song creates the impression that he's just a horny guy with a smooth voice...

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