If only you could separate the music from the man. In an era of hip-hop excess, Chicago's R. Kelly held a torch for vintage soul, updated for the streets. 2000's "I Wish" remains one of the great fallen-buddy tributes, and "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" is a stately gem. In light of Kelly's legal troubles, though, listening to his more provocative material — and most of it is just that — can be grueling. "Honey Love," "Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)," "Sex Me": the sundry permutations of Kelly's love engine boggle the mind. He even plans a legal-defense strategy on "Bump n' Grind — Old School Mix": "Show me some ID, before I get knee-deep into ya." Unfortunately, that line was from 1993. Whoops.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"