R. Kelly traps listeners with cliffhanger song
By Steve Jones, USA TODAY
R. Kelly is no stranger to drama. This time he's using it to seduce listeners with a groundbreaking story line containing elements of classic radio serial drama spread over five separate tracks.

Urban soap opera: R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet plays out in five chapters.
Jive Records

Trapped in the Closet has people not only listening but also talking about a one-night stand that spirals into an urban soap opera full of trysts and turns. The full serialization appears on Kelly's 10th album, TP.3 Reloaded, which hits stores July 5. A second disc with a 17-minute video (mirroring the total length of the five audio segments) will be included with the 19-song album.

"This is not just another R. Kelly record," says Elroy R.C. Smith of Chicago's WGCI. "It's so real that people were talking about it in churches. If he didn't deliver it so believably, it could have bombed, but the story is so vivid."

Kelly narrates the action and sings the various parts. The story opens with Kelly waking up in a strange bed after a night on the town and having to hide in the closet when the woman's husband shows up. The episode ends with the husband reaching for the closet door as Kelly awaits with his Beretta. It is the first of many cliffhanger moments.

Barry Weiss, Jive Records president, says the company hoped to tease fans with the first two parts of the story and then have them buy the album to see how it works out, but the whole saga already has played on some radio stations. Still, 1 million albums will be shipped to stores, and buying one is the only way to see the entire Trapped video.

Weiss says he knew Trapped couldn't be easily promoted to radio because it lacked the traditional chorus and hook of the typical pop song. It wasn't until Chapter 2 was made available that it really started to catch on.

WGCI used a question of the day about the situation to set up the introduction of the song, Smith says.

For Kelly, who faces trial on child pornography charges, Reloaded is his third album in less than a year. The double disc Happy People/U Saved Me came out in August, followed in October by the ill-fated Unfinished Business with Jay-Z.

Reloaded's first traditional single,Playa's Only, with The Game, is beginning to pick up R&B airplay. The album also includes songs with Snoop Dogg, Elephant Man, Nivea, Twista, Do or Die and Baby.

Kelly has done multiple-character story songs before —Contagious with Ronald Isley and Chanté Moore, for one — but Trapped is his first multiple-part effort.

"I can't think of another song that had five chapters to it," Smith says. "He's thinking totally out of the box, and for that he needs to be applauded."

And Weiss says there's more. Kelly has written chapters 6 through 13 and, depending on how the album is received, they could wind up being released in some form around Christmas.

i actually took the time out to listen to all 5 chapters, and i was intrested after the first 2,,,

but when you get to hear the last 5th one, the whole song is just shit the story was predictable and cheese fest,,

R.Kelly is a bore.What's the big deal about this new song anyway? He's already done numerous songs about cheating,getting caught,etc.When does his trial begin,anyway?

meltwithu said:

I read that whole dumb story, but somehow I missed the groundbreaking part.

DavidEye said:

Seriously. It's been a long ass time. Jail him already.

if he's acquitted...will she show up?

Finally heard the fifth. Anti-climatic and predictable. Don't understand all the hype.

JackieBlue said:

exactly the end was tottaly an anticlimax!

meltwithu said:

That woman was scary

R Kelly shouldn't be releasing music (and record labels shouldn't releasing) until after his trial, there is not much evidence, ie: the home made videos of him in action. and he has the nerve to deny it and say it wasn't him!??
Like Chris Rock said about the video of R Kelly and the underage girl and his constant denial
"We know it's you! we know how you look like, there's a "soul train" award right next to the bed "best r&b 98" that's you motherf***!

Oh boy! why?? THE SONGS SUCK -- it isn't just the story line but the song doesn't have any type of melody or even a good hook -- I could've wrote the same song about the shower I took today!

WORDS OF ADVICE: Stay off the lines R.Kelly-- not cute.

Good news: The single bombed on the charts.

Bad news: R. Kelly doesn't have a subscription to Billboard, will make more chapters.

Man im so excited for it! This is the first time ever someone can make a sopa opera in2 a song successfully.

I only heard up to Chapter 2. After he comes in with a man it's like..WHAT NOW!!???

SweetKreme said:

HulkHogan said:

Hey I speak the truth!

oh yeah I was really "trapped" by that cliffhanger.. how it go?

somethin' like:

I'm trapped in the cloSET!
I see dude from the cloSET!
Dude is looking at the cloSET!
Hope he don't open this cloSET!
Got a shotty in the cloSET!
Deadin' bodies from the cloSET!


One "chapter" I could easily earmark and never return to.

CinisterCee said:

how clever to rhyme closet with... closet, that takes talent right there!!

byronic said:

R Kelly is tha Kang!

SweetKreme said:

It's not a song!!!! ITS A STORY!

paisleypark4 said:

IT'S A TURD!

see i do enjoy R music time to time, but the plot to this Ghetto Opera is weak, its only good uptill the 2nd...

The man should go back to writting melodys for other artist, he seems to shine best at that.

VoicesCarry said:

Now that was funny!

meltwithu said: