“Trapped in the Closet”

If you don’t follow hip-hop, then you may not have heard of this “Urban Operetta” (I also heard it called the “Hip-hopera”) of R. Kelly. This is pop-marketing genius at work.

It’s a work in five parts — the story of an adulterous man’s morning-after, with Kelly singing as the protagonist. So it’s not really “operetta,” since the work is solely from his point of view (and he’s the only one singing), but there is a lot of dialogue…

I heard Part 3 on one of my drives between home and my mother’s a couple of weeks ago. And I was confused. Was it a song about a guy who’s er, dating, a girl and her husband at the same time? I felt like I must have missed the first part of the song, since I was confused about who was Rufus, Chuck and Mary (or is it Kathy?). And who had the gun? And then it stopped, after we learn that a man answered the phone at the protagonist’s home (he was expecting to talk to his wife).

I thought, “Cool! A song with a hook!” And it turns out that Trapped in the Closet is exactly that. Each segment (at least the four I’ve heard so far — more on that later) ends with a cliff-hanger. And then the radio station can run a commercial, have a station break, or go on to other songs, whatever it wants. And since it’s like a 30’s soap opera (as one web reviewer puts it), people stay tuned at least until they figure out the next installment isn’t coming right away.

Kelly released the parts in a dribble, partly to build suspense and get some viral marketing going on, and partly to build up desire for his new album due in July. And the lyric is weird enough (especially Part 3, which is my favorite) that even I, who can’t distinguish between hip-hop and sock-hop, was scanning the hip-hop/R&B stations to try to catch it. So the radio stations must love it, especially when they can say “Listen at 10am Monday when we have an exclusive performance of Part 5!” and know that their advertisers at that time are going to be very happy.

Will the piece “stand the test of time”? I doubt it. It’s a very simple melody, has some rhymes that don’t quite work, and is, after all, the story of an asshole. But for this summer, it’s amusing and catchy. And what more can you ask for a summer tune?