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Though R. Kelly was sidelined from touring for most of this year due to vocal issues, he will be undertaking an extensive tour to finish off 2012.

The “Single Ladies” tour will kick off in Columbia, S.C. on October 13, and is scheduled to continue through November 2, when the legendary R&B singer takes the stage at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. In between those dates, he will hit cities including Atlanta, Miami, Memphis, Chicago, Dallas Milwaukee, New York and Philadelphia. R&B singer Tamia will join him on the 22-date your.

R. Kelly was forced to cancel appearances in New York this summer to promote his most recent album, Write Me Back, due to complications from surgery he underwent in 2011. In the summer of 2011 he had emergency throat surgery because of an abscess on one of his tonsils.

Write Me Back was released in June of this year, and is the 11^th studio album by Kelly. Both it and its predecessor, 2010’s Love Letter, feature a romantic feel reminiscent of 1970’s R&B. But that doesn’t mean the singer has abandoned the often explicit material that he also has become known for. He recently spoke about this extensively to the Washington Post.

“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,” he said in the interview. “I’m just exploring my gift right now.

“The name of my next album is Black Panties – that’s my next 12 Play. I’m going to have some fun on it.”

12 Play is Kelly’s 1993 album featuring a slew of sexually explicit material including the single “Bump N’ Grind” and “Sex Me, Pts. 1 & 2.”