It appears that there are still those who don't take Kelly seriously as an artist ( this is somewhat understandable), but it is not wise to assume that no one takes Kelly seriously as an artist. I’m somebody, and I have always respected Kelly’s artistry. I own ALL of her albums,even her Diva Deluxe EP (released on Itunes),and they ALL stay on repeat. I think her music breaks molds. She’s also a trailblazer (she collaborated with a European DJ, and that suddenly became an R&B trend in 2011).
I think people sleep on Kelly because Kelly sleeps on herself. I have never had a problem with her music, but I have a huge problem with her inability to follow through with her musical eras.
Kelly has a hustler’s mentality and I’m not mad at her for that; but her time management skills need work. She’s constantly taking on multiple projects at once and as a result her album promo undoubtedly suffers. “Here I Am” should have been her break-out album. She broke away from Matthew,was released by Columbia records, spent a year recording independently and still managed to produce a worldwide EDM smash with “When Love Takes Over”. This got the attention of a label head and Kelly was suddenly a Universal Motown artist. Her first official single (“Motivation”) became a chart-topping hit. This song stayed atop the R&B charts for several weeks consecutively. It became a platinum selling single, and spawned a number of remixes done by other big name artists (you know you’ve made a great song when your peers try to duplicate it). After all of this, you would think that “Here I Am” would have been flying off the shelves, but it was not,and the reason why is because Kelly dropped the promo ball.There weren’t hardly enough televised appearances or performances,and when she landed the FAME tour gig,she cut her tour time short in order to do X Factor UK. She stopped promoting the album. She expected her label to push singles for her and of course they didn’t,so the album ‘flopped’ even though it was a great body of work that produced hit singles (“Commander” and “Motivation”).
Fast forward two years later and “Talk a Good Game” is released. This is arguably the best album of Kelly’s career. So many songs were single worthy, but of course, Kelly played it safe and went with what she (and the label) thought would be Motivation no.# 2. They released “Kisses Down Low”,it was not Motivation no.#2. They then released “Dirty Laundry” as the second and final single off the album. Kelly never performed “Dirty Laundry” while on her promo tour. She performed it live while on her concert tour which she co-headlined with The Dream. But wait, she then cut that tour short to film the X Factor US and promo for “Talk a Good Game” came to a screeching halt. So the album,while great musically, still flopped. Why? Because most people didn’t know there was an album,because Kelly never promotes for the masses.She has never had a strong promotional era and she has never completed a concert tour.That’s a problem.
Kelly’s issue has never been a lack of talent or musical capability. Her issue has always been a lack of follow through and finishing what she starts,which directly effects album promotion. Kelly fails to fully dedicate herself to her music outside of what she accomplishes in the studio because when it’s time to promote,Kelly busies herself with other projects that make her money, but take her away from what her main priority should be; her music.
I can certainly understand why people are frustrated with Kelly and claim she’s a “basic artist”. Those people are basing their opinion on numbers alone. The fact is if Kelly’s albums had all been multi-platinum phenoms, people would be singing a very different tune. People today base every thing on first week metrics. Whatever happened to the ‘slow burn’ album. Kelly is a platinum selling artist. As a solo act she has pushed over 25 million units. That’s a huge deal, until you compare it to the units of other pop artist who are pulling in those numbers for one album alone, but many of those artist don’t hold a candle to Kelly’s artistry.
Just because an artist doesn’t sell well does not mean that their music sucks. It usually means that there is a missing element; and in Kelly’s case that element is time management and strategic marketing and promotion.In my opinion, Kelly is one of the best in the game artistically speaking, but so many people still don’t know it because Kelly can never get the ball Rowland (pun intended :).
Hopefully she will surprise us all with this new era. We shall see.

Read more: https://thatgrapejuice.mystagingwebsite.com/2016/01/kelly-rowland-release-new-music-next-month/#ixzz41uUWwpUs
Follow us: @ThatGrapeJuice on Twitter | ThatGrapeJuiceOfficial on Facebook