I saw R. Kelly’s new video for ‘Happy People’ (from his upcoming double album) on BET last night, and he wasn’t wearing a mask. Sorry folks. He does make some interesting fashion choices, though. He’s wearing this frock/shirt/coat thing, somewhat like the jacket Keanu wears in the later Matrix movies, only this is white and Kells wears a tie around the collar. I can’t really explain it, you’ll have to see it for yourself. MTV has the “Happy People” video online. Check it out!

The video itself is really great, and made me very happy.

Take a good look at me

Tell me do you like what you see?

Do you think you can

Do you think you can do me?

So, what’s new with R. Kelly? Well, he performed here in Chicago last night, and the local papers had coverage. The Tribune even had a paragraph that seemed to speak right to me:

Kelly will go on trial here in Chicago for charges relating to child pornography, and as lamentable as the charges are, Kelly has put on a pair of blinders that have allowed him to become one of the premier songwriters and singers in all of pop music, let alone R&B. But the show nonetheless carried the air of an implicit defense. [emphasis mine — tew.]

So the Trib’s got a theory about the mask thing, and there is someone out there on the internet who has made a life-size mannequin of R. Kelly. Scroll down a bit to find the pics. There’s also some sweet RoboCop content there for Phil’s Phanatics if you’ll scroll down even further.

Okay, my lighthouse keepers, I need you to find something out for me. Why is R. Kelly wearing a mask all the time now? I know he claims to be the “pied piper of R&B” (and isn’t that an unfortunate comparison to be making, Kells?) but that can’t be the whole story. Here’s a guy on trial for various and sundry transgressive acts involving minors — I think that R. Kelly in a Zorro mask is ruling it, but I could see some people finding it a little creepy.

He’s wearing the mask in his video for Step in the name of love [decent midi, ringtone appropriate] and also in the new Cassidy video for Hotel [horrible midi, ringtone length] — both really very good songs. And now we can see that he wore the damn thing to the Grammys. I would seriously like to know the real story behind this. I will keep you posted if I learn more.