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R. Full Description

Ever since Ray Charles wailed the sanctified booty call of "I Got a Woman," gospel has been a volatile part of black pop. An R&B bump-and-grind man like R. Kelly can try his hand at gospel moves – even sneaking the line "leaning on the everlasting arms" into the theme for a Bugs Bunny movie – while minister Kirk Franklin works the other side of the street, taking his spiritual jones into funky territory. Franklin made noise last year on the God's Property smash "Stomp," bellowing preacherly invocations while a choir sang hooks from an old disco hit or two. His fourth album, The Nu Nation Project, is the big payback: After decades of soul singers and rappers borrowing church flava, Franklin calls in the IOUs for his hip-hop gospel.

Nu Nation gets pop juice from R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige and Bono, all of whom guest on the ballad "Lean on Me." But Franklin is the real star here, sampling P-Funk, rewriting Bill Withers' "Lovely Day" and just getting his praise on. He revisits the hip-hop boom of "Stomp" in "Revolution" and "Praise Joint"; meanwhile, "Something About the Name Jesus" offers more trad, down-home harmonizing. Franklin raps, sings, produces and generally moguls around. (He even has a new book, Church Boy, somewhat quizzically billed as his "only authorized autobiography.") Nu Nation gets an amen for trashing musical boundaries, and it sure has a catchier beat than Marilyn Manson.

R. Kelly puts a lot of church into his music – even in salacious ballads like "Half on a Baby" – and that's just part of his always-wearing-shades allure. The mystery man spends his excellent double album, R., proving that he can do it all: He rhymes with Jay-Z and Foxy Brown; he croons with Celine Dion; he goofs on tango and opera; he speaks fluent pillow talk in every pop dialect. R. gets the party started with "Home Alone," which features rapper Keith Murray, Sugarhill sound effects and Off the Wall-style disco guitar as Kelly voices his intention to "freak you to the floor." But he also scores in smooch ballads like "Get Up on a Room," whispering, "Baby ... we're both just sittin' here ... we need to get somewhere ... private" until you're ready to toss him the keys. He also tries his hand at yodeling, for reasons known only to the man called R. himself.

Once upon a time, Kelly's productions for other singers, such as Aaliyah and Changing Faces, were inevitably livelier than his own records, but success seems to have fired up his brilliance – you take the R. Kelly who sings the drippy ballads and the R. Kelly who rides his pony through the funk jams and you've got two of the most lethal musicians on the planet. His overly Mase-style rapping aside, Kelly covers every base: beats, melodies, vocals, production, enigmatic-bald-guy cool, lyrics. Yes, lyrics – Kelly faces up to the bleak conscience of a do-wrong man in confessions that put Elvis Costel