R. Kelly Live – The Light It Up Tour (HD-DVD/Image Entertainment)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B Extras: C Concert: C+
At one point
with I Believe I Can Fly, it looked
like R. Kelly would be another big crossover R&B star, but scandal and
controversy killed that, leaving the star in a big mess that he has
survived. As an artist, that has left
him his adult audience and ironically, one of the only Hip Hop artists that can
still sell larger numbers of recordings.
That has translated into R. Kelly
Live – The Light It Up Tour (2007) arriving in the HD-DVD format as one of
the only big ticket Soul entries of any kind in either HD format to date.
Performing
in front of a forgiving audience ready for his somewhat hardcore brand of
sexually charged tunes, he leaves everything else behind to focus on performing
and the result is a decent 110 minutes concert that is good, yet seems a bit
repetitious, a little rough and one that finds little new ground he had not
already covered. As compared to an Usher
(including a great concert of his on DVD elsewhere on this site) also has
showmanship, but can get too bogged down and muddled by a lack of variety in
the overall arc of the show.
Kelly’s
voice is certainly in good shape, but sometimes, it just felt like it was not
being challenged enough and it is a distinct voice. Too many single entendres and maybe playing
it safe by playing too much to the fan base backfires, but the fact remains
that it is one of the only early concerts in either HD formats and only R&B
titles so far. However, the Earth, Wind
& Fire half of the Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire concert (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) Image issued a while ago has nothing to worry about.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is good, yet mixed insofar as more
motion blur and shaky camera work than I would have liked, but it has its
moments for an HD shoot and as good as anything we have seen in Hip Hop on home
video to date. The sound mix is odder,
here in Dolby TrueHD 4.1 and lesser Dolby Digital Plus 4.1 mixes, with mono
surrounds at best and a soundfield that is not so good. In addition, the sound can be harsher than it
should be, even for the genre. The
combination is not as state of the art as it should be, but still above most
Hip Hop releases to date in any video format.
The only
extra is a series of low-def behind the scenes segments taped during the tour
in some form of digital video. I guess
Music Video licensing was out of the question.
- Nicholas Sheffo
