The Buffet

The album serves as a follow-up to its predecessor Black Panties (2013). In May 2015, he announced that he has decided to change the title from White Panties to The Buffet, because "it's just a variety of things" and would contain a mix of different genres of music.[4] Kelly reportedly had written over 462 songs during the development of the album, from which he made his final album selection.[5]

"Backyard Party" was released as the albums's first official single on August 21, 2015. The written credits and the serving of its Record production that was handled and provided by R. Kelly. The song peaking at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Airplay.[6]

"Switch Up" was released as the album's second official single on November 6, 2015. The song features guest appearances from an American rapper Lil Wayne and a fellow R&B recording artist Jeremih, with the writing and the production that was handled and provided by R. Kelly himself, along with J-Holt and Cem T.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	60/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
The Independent	[9]
NME	3/5[10]
The New York Times	(mixed)[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
Spin	7/10[13]
USA Today	[14]

Upon its release, The Buffet received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 9 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[7] Andy Kellman of AllMusic awarded the album three stars out of five, stating that the album "does have more dimensions than Black Panties" while also pointing out the fact he "remains driven to as ever to take a metaphorical theme to a comedic extreme and then deviate from it in direct and explicit fashion."[8] Andy Gill of The Independent gave the album three stars out of five, saying that the album by all accounts is "far from Kelly's best work" while also stating that it's "an OK effort overall."[15] Dan Weiss of Spin awarded the album with a 7 out of 10, saying that the record is "like the 12 that came before it: hard to enjoy objectively." He also adds that its "better than just another R. Kelly album, but not enough to be worth saying so outside of a review, much less on a year-end list; call it a good one-night stand."[13]

The album debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 39,000 equivalent copies (36,000 in pure album sales).[16] It is R. Kelly's lowest-charting album ever. It was the eleventh best-selling album of the week.[17] The Buffet was the thirteenth solo album by Kelly to debut at number one on the Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[18] In the second week, the album sold 26,000 equivalent copies (25,000 in pure album sales).[19]

Credits adapted from AllMusic.[21]

• List of Billboard number-one R&B/Hip-Hop albums of 2016