Synopsis

R. Kelly plays an employee summoned by his powerful boss, Frank "Mr. Biggs" Biggs, portrayed by Ronald Isley. Before leaving on a business trip, Biggs asks Kelly to look after his wife, Lila, played by Garcelle Beauvais, while warning him to keep his distance. Kelly and Lila begin a secret affair, but their romance is exposed when Biggs returns unexpectedly. The jealous crime boss orders his men to punish the pair, leaving their fate uncertain.

Factoids & Trivia

• Ronald Isley's character, Frank "Mr. Biggs" Biggs, became one of the defining personas associated with his later work. The character returned in videos including the Isley Brothers' "Floatin' on Your Love," Kelly Price's "Friend of Mine" remix, and the 2001 R. Kelly and Isley Brothers collaboration "Contagious."

• Garcelle Beauvais appears as Lila, while Michael Clarke Duncan plays one of Biggs' henchmen. The video's cast helped give the clip the feel of a compact crime drama rather than a conventional performance video.

• The video's storyline expands on the song's theme of a secret affair by presenting the relationship as a forbidden romance inside a gangster-style world.

• The song was released in 1995 from R. Kelly's self-titled album, while the music video is generally dated to 1996.

• "Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)" became a major commercial success, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Hot R&B Singles chart. Its video helped bring Ronald Isley and the Isley Brothers back into the center of 1990s R&B culture.

• The follow-up "Contagious" revisited the same Mr. Biggs storyline several years later, turning the original video's cliffhanger into part of a continuing saga.