R. Kelly is about to release a book and he promises to “show the tears, fears and sweat.” Now I find this to be especially interesting since he’s already confessed to being “functionally illiterate” — maybe this should have been announced BEFORE he made the announcement about doing a book. No one really writes books anymore anyway, it’s all about them ghostwriters. If it was hip-hop, we’d have him slayed LOL.

According to an announcement released Wednesday, the book, due in 2011 from SmileyBooks — the book imprint of radio/TV host Tavis Smiley — will be authored with celebrity writer David Ritz, who has collaborated on autobiographies with Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin.

“I’m writing this book as Robert, not R. Kelly,” the singer said in announcing the untitled book. “I’m tired of being misunderstood. I will show you the tears, fears and sweat. I will open my heart and reveal the good in my life as well as all the drama. I want to tell it like it is.”

Among the topics Kelly — who recently claimed he is functionally illiterate — is slated to cover in the book are the pain of losing his mother, the stories behind such hits as “I Believe I Can Fly” and Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone,” as well as the six-year child-pornography trial that nearly overtook his music career for much of the past decade and ended in his acquittal in 2008. (Source)

Alright, so, have we separated the man from the music? Is it too soon to say that you listened to/bought his latest record Untitled? Plenty of celebs have tweeted about liking the record…I have listened to it, I gotta admit. What ya’ll think?

I’ve not yet sorted out all my feelings about R. Kelly LOL.