NEW YORK USA (AP) - R Kelly has been all about romance on his last two albums but says he isn't going to abandon the explicit music that helped make him famous.

"Absolutely not, and I tell people all the time," Kelly said last week. "Make no mistake about it, R Kelly is not going anywhere, it's just that R Kelly has such a unique talent, and I've been blessed to be able to do all type of genres of music... I'm exploring my gift right now."

Kelly's recent "Write Me Back" and 2010's "Love Letter" were a departure of sorts for the singer-songwriter, whose hits include classics like "Your Body's Callin'."

He described those acclaimed albums as a way of taking a break from his typical explicit material to try something new.

"When you've done twenty-something years of giving people what they want, and satisfying people - people like to say they're making babies off your music, they're doing all this - it makes me feel good, but at the same time, it makes me say, `OK, now it's time to go and do something that's in me that I want to do and get out,'" he said.

He said his upcoming album will be on more familiar R Kelly ground.

"The name of my next album is `Black Panties' - that's my next `12 Play,'" he said, referring to his classic album filled with sexual material. "I'm going to have some fun on it."

Kelly is also focusing on the next chapters in his "Trapped" musical soap opera; he's been filming in his native Chicago and promises new characters, more surprises and an explanation of what the mysterious "package" is.