The 90's Billboard #1's Rate (1995-1999): We've come to the end of our road.

[phoenix123]

I loved that R Kelly / Celine duet.

 

[Denemarken]

R. Kelly has never really been a good songwriter, has he?

 

[soratami]

Now that that's out of the way, no women in the next at least ten eliminations please.

 

[Robsolete]

@londonrain, @ComeOnGloria, @WowWowWowWow, @Eric Generic, @Baby Clyde

(Actually - I don't know if they all are but it will certainly drive some conversation!)

Please don't exclude me from this narrative, I stan the good sis.

This is also the only R Kelly song that would ever get any score higher than 0 from me in any kind of rate. The power of Celine!

 

[A$AP Robbie]

R. Kelly has never really been a good songwriter, has he?

Some of the Aaliyah stuff is amazing even if it is tainted by him being him

 

[Aester]

I think he's actually a really talented songwriter (not counting "I'm Your Angel," which is corny garbage), but I can't muster up a lot of energy to defend him because, well...

 

[iheartpoptarts]

Some of the Aaliyah stuff is amazing even if it is tainted by him being him

I LOVE this song.

 

[A$AP Robbie]

I love Aaliyah, shame there’s not three or four of her songs in this

 

[ohnostalgia]

Celine has an entire thread of stans on this forum. And I gave her a 10, so there.

Unrelated to Celine stanning, but hearing Celine sing with an alleged child abuser was a sick trip because... Celine met her future husband when she was 12.

 

[WowWowWowWow]

@londonrain, @ComeOnGloria, @WowWowWowWow, @Eric Generic, @Baby Clyde

(Actually - I don't know if they all are but it will certainly drive some conversation!)

Well...... I'm not sure if I'd consider myself a true laminated card-carrying Celine stan, but I find zero faults with any of the following:

 

[MollieSwift21]

Excited this has started. Hard to rate I'm Your Angel because R Kelly is trash but I wasn't going to give Celine a zero.

 

[Sprockrooster]

Unrelated to Celine stanning, but hearing Celine sing with an alleged child abuser was a sick trip because... Celine met her future husband when she was 12.

I know little about her personal life, but I am assuming now he wasn't (close to) 12 years old?

 

[Mina]

I know little about her personal life, but I am assuming now he wasn't (close to) 12 years old?

She was 12 in 1980. He would have been 38 (he was about 26 years her senior), and he apparently took out a mortgage on his home to fund her career. He was still married to another person at the time, and married her in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 52. (I'm not sure when they became romantically involved with each other, though.)

 

[Sprockrooster]

She was 12 in 1980. He would have been 38 (he was about 26 years her senior), and he apparently took out a mortgage on his home to fund her career. He was still married to another person at the time, and married her in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 52. (I'm not sure when they became romantically involved with each other, though.)

Wow.

 

[berserkboi]

Since we have gone there - how did R.Kelly meet Aaliyah?

 

[londonrain]

There’s never been any hint that Celine got involved with her husband when she was underage. The fact that they got married when she was 26 as opposed to, say, the moment she turned 18 is telling.

Since we have gone there - how did R.Kelly meet Aaliyah?

R. Kelly actually met Aaliyah through her uncle, Barry Hankerson.

Hankerson managed R. Kelly for the next 10 years and executive produced his first four albums. From the start, though, there was a problem: Kelly was a gifted songwriter and producer, but he was also rumored to be a sexual predator.

How much did Hankerson know? It’s impossible to say. Still, if he had indeed heard or suspected anything—at least in 1991—it wasn’t enough to dissuade him from introducing Kelly to his 12-year-old niece, Aaliyah Haughton.

Hankerson served as executive producer on all of her albums; he managed her publishing and royalty deals; he surrounded her with some of the most talented musicians of the era. For her debut, he paired her with Kelly, who produced and wrote most of the songs on Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, released in 1994. The title track, written by Kelly, was a hit, but in retrospect, it was also a not-so-coded reference to their clandestine sexual relationship. Aaliyah was 14 when the song was released; Kelly was 27. On August 31, 1994, they were secretly married, with Aaliyah claiming to be 18 on the marriage certificate.

After Vibe published a story about Kelly in its December 1994/January 1995 issue and included a copy of the fraudulent certificate, the marriage went public; it was annulled shortly thereafter. Hankerson, reportedly furious, permanently separated Aaliyah from Kelly, but he didn’t cut his own business ties with him until years later, in 2000. Kelly, at the time the most popular R&B singer in the world, was too valuable.

 

[berserkboi]

There’s never been any hint that Celine got involved with her husband when she was underage. The fact that they got married when she was 26 as opposed to, say, the moment she turned 18 is telling.

R. Kelly actually met Aaliyah through her uncle, Barry Hankerson.

Juicy! (Poor Aaliyah in all that though!)

 

[Mike]

She was 12 in 1980. He would have been 38 (he was about 26 years her senior), and he apparently took out a mortgage on his home to fund her career. He was still married to another person at the time, and married her in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 52. (I'm not sure when they became romantically involved with each other, though.)

If I remember rightly, Celine and Rene sued - and won - over media allegations that they were sexually involved while she was underage.

I'm surprised the song went this early, but it's hardly a tragedy. I expect Celine's other three entries to be with us for a while yet.

 

[londonrain]

I’m shocked that Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down managed an average this high.

Y’all were way too kind.

 

[Empty Shoebox]

I’m shocked that Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down managed an average this high.

Y’all were way too kind.

Is that the one that sounds like a terrible rip-off of 'Break My Stride' by Matthew Wilder?