''The Buffet'' is the thirteenth studio album by American R&B singer-songwriter R. Kelly. It was released on December 11, 2015, by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

. The album features guest appearances from

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

, Jhene Aiko,

Ty Dolla Sign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Griffin gai ...

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract wi ...

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, established ...

Wizkid Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun (born 16 July 1990), better known as Wizkid, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. Born in the Ojuelegba suburb of Surulere, Lagos, Wizkid is a voice in the emerging Afrobeats movement. His music is a blend of Afrobea ...

and

Tinashe Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe ( ; born February 6, 1993), known mononymously as Tinashe, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Tinashe moved to Pasadena, California, as a child, where she pursued w ...

. The album also marks the debut of Kelly's own daughter, Joann Kelly going by the stage name Ariirayé.

Background

The album serves as a follow-up to its predecessor '' Black Panties'' (2013). In May 2015, he announced that he decided to change the title from ''White Panties'' to ''The Buffet'', because "it's just a variety of things" and would contain a mix of different genres of music. Kelly reportedly had written over 462 songs during the development of the album, from which he made his final album selection.

Composition

According to ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', ''The Buffets first half leans more towards

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

influenced R&B, while on the second half of the record the singer "stretches out stylistically", with episodes of

Memphis soul Memphis soul, also known as the Memphis sound, is the most prominent strain of Southern soul. It is a shimmering, sultry style produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring melodic unison horn line ...

, quiet storm, and

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

Singles

" Backyard Party" was released as the albums's first official single on August 21, 2015. The written credits and the serving of its Record production that was handled and provided by R. Kelly. The song peaking at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Airplay. " Switch Up" was released as the album's second official single on November 6, 2015. The song features guest appearances from an American rapper

and a fellow R&B recording artist

, with the writing and the production that was handled and provided by R. Kelly himself, along with J-Holt and Cem T.

Promotional singles

Marching Band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

" featuring

, and " Wake Up Everybody" were released as

promotional single A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mu ...

s along with the album's pre-order on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''The Buffet'' received mixed reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on nine reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Andy Kellman of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

awarded the album three stars out of five, stating that the album "does have more dimensions than Black Panties" while also pointing out the fact he "remains driven to as ever to take a metaphorical theme to a comedic extreme and then deviate from it in direct and explicit fashion." Andy Gill of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' gave the album three stars out of five, saying that the album by all accounts is "far from Kelly's best work" while also stating that it's "an OK effort overall." Dan Weiss of '' Spin'' awarded the album with a seven out of ten, saying that the record is "like the 12 that came before it: hard to enjoy objectively." He also adds that its "better than just another R. Kelly album, but not enough to be worth saying so outside of a review, much less on a year-end list; call it a good one-night stand."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 16 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, with first-week sales of 39,000 equivalent copies (36,000 in pure album sales). It was the eleventh best-selling album of the week. ''The Buffet'' was the thirteenth solo album by Kelly to debut at number one on the ''Billboard''

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

. In the second week, the album sold 26,000 equivalent copies (25,000 in pure album sales). The album would later sale over 500,000 copies in the United States

HuffPost Live Interview

Acknowledging the album's lack of record sales, Kelly reached out to his

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

fans asking for support. In an interview on HuffPost Live, interviewer Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani suggested to Kelly that the lack of sales could be due to listeners feeling conflicted by Kelly's multiple allegations of sexual assault with minors. Kelly refused to answer and walked out of the interview.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

. *R. Kelly – producer, vocals, arranger, mixing *A.C. – instrumentation, producer, programming *Jhené Aiko – featured artist *Ty Dolla Sign – featured artist *Lil Wayne – featured artist *Jeremih – featured artist *Ariirayé – featured artist *Juicy J – featured artist, vocals *Tinashé – featured artist *Ammo – producer *Angel Onhel Aponte – engineer *Bigg Makk – bass, producer *Cashmere Cat – producer *Jeff Chestek – engineer *Maddox Chhim – assistant *Cirkut – instrumentation, producer, programming *Diana Copeland – executive assistant *Gared Crawford – violin *Samantha Crawford – violin *Antonio Daniels – keyboards *Dr. Luke – instrumentation, producer, programming *Jennifer Eashoo – production coordination *Dernst "D'mile" Emile II – producer *Blake Espy – violin *Rachael Findlen – assistant *Ghislaine Fleischmann – violin *Mike Foster – engineer *Abel Garibaldi – engineer, mixing, programming * Serban Ghenea – mixing *Clint Gibbs – engineer *Larry Gold – conductor, string arrangements *Erwin Gorostiza – creative design *John Hanes – mixing engineer *Samuel Hindes – producer *J Holt – producer *Kash Howard – wardrobe stylist *Jaycen Joshua – mixing *J-MIKE – Instrumentation, producer, programming *Ryan Kaul – assistant *George Kelly – personal assistant *Jonathan Kim – viola *Emma Kummrow – violin *Dave Kutch – mastering *Christian Lantry – photography *Jennie Lorenzo – cello *Donnie Lyle – bass, guitar, musical director, producer, programming *Andre Manuel – producer *Fabian Marasciullo – mixing *Luigi Mazzocchi – violin *McCoy – assistant *Ian Mereness – engineer, mixing, programming *Megan Nimerosky – assistant *Karl Petersen – assistant engineer *Epikh Pro – producer *Irene Richter – production coordination *S1 – producer *John Shullman – assistant *Cem T – producer *Vern – assistant *Alfonso Walker – keyboards *Keyel Walker – producer *Brian Warfield – engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffet 2015 albums R. Kelly albums Albums produced by R. Kelly RCA Records albums Albums produced by Cashmere Cat Albums produced by Dr. Luke Albums produced by Cirkut