The Club Is Open

R. Kelly featuring T.I. and T-Pain “I’m A Flirt (Remix)” – If you listen to R. Kelly’s new album Double Up (or really, most any mainstream rap or R&B record to be released in the past few years), it’s easy to get the impression that the singer is physically unable to leave “the club,” as though there’s some sort of snow globe dome keeping him stuck in that environment. He sounds like he’s having a great time — and why shouldn’t he, it’s a social situation in which he is constantly rewarded and his primacy is rarely threatened — but his obsession with that milieu makes the music seem hermetic and distanced from any other sort of culture. It’s escapism for the average listener, but a willful break from reality for an artist who refuses to acknowledge any aspect of the world aside from his own privilege. On the surface, it’s all bravado and cheer, but the relentless focus on the club and its mores highlights his isolation, which in turn nudges the audience towards wondering what it is in life that he’s avoiding. There’s a lot of fear buried deep beneath the glamor of Double Up.

Like most other R. Kelly singles that announce the fact that they are remixes both in their title and the lyrics, “I’m A Flirt (Remix)” is a winner. Its light, easy-going melody and bouncy, cutesy track is instantly ingratiating, but also serves to dilute the lyrics’ machismo. Kelly is essentially announcing his sexual dominance over anything within a ten mile radius. Though he sounds coy and light-hearted, the song is actually addressed to other men as a threat, a friendly warning, or a smiling invitation to being publicly cuckolded by “The King of R&B.” (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Elsewhere: More new “Oeuvreblogs” are popping up: Blursongs (Blur), One Imaginary Blog (The Cure), and Ten Thousand Lies (Nine Inch Nails).