Apparently R Kelly still won’t come out of the closet.
The famous crooner was revolutionary in his time, combining sultry R&B with storytelling, to grace the world with his trapped in the closet project, a series of tracks and accompanying music videos, debuting in 2005, with the most recent release in 2012. The “story” ( for lack of a better word) begins with R Kelly trapped in the closet after sleeping with a married woman, a tale which escalates into a ballad of forbidden love, revenge, and a whole lot of weird shit.
For those unaware, I implore you to at least watch part 1 of this 33 ( I kid you not) part series, and marvel at the cringe worthy attempts at musical narration, featuring such lyrical gems as:
“Throws her in the bed
And start to snatchin’ her clothes off
I’m in the closet, like man, what the fuck is going on?”
“He hopped up and said, “There’s a mystery going on
And I’m gonna solve it”
And I’m like, “God please, don’t let this man open this closet”
If 33 parts simply wasn’t enough to quench your thirst for narrated nonsense, R Kelly has now revealed in an interview with Complex that there are no less than 40 more chapters of this modern day epic.
According to Kelly, all 40 tracks have been written and recorded; the music videos just need to be shot, with part 34 to debut on the fictional “out the closet” TV show ( are you confused yet?)
The man himself seems to be undergoing a renaissance of sorts; he of course shot to notoriety after much publicised legal drama tarnished his reputation. The damage has never truly been repaired; but R Kelly has recently appeared on tracks with Kanye West and has even jumped on the latest release from Ty Dolla $ign.
At his peak, R Kelly was the undisputed King, and while the remix to ignition still gets a solid workout at nightclubs, his career remains one giant what if. Who knows what he would have become if he was not embroiled in such scandals.
R Kelly’s new album The Buffet is due to hit stores by the end of November.