After whetting America's appetite for more chapters of his decidedly ridiculous hip-hopera with a memorable string of melodic expletives, R. Kelly has finally released Chapter 13 of Trapped In The Closet.
You can watch it on IFC.com by clicking
here. Other chapters will be released every day this week.
(Why IFC.com? Because clearly there is no better arena for showcasing the talents of a director who would choose to show the passage of time with a lengthy montage of various clocks and watches.)
In his review of Double Up, my colleague Nathan called R. Kelly "the softcore Tyler Perry of pop." With Chapter 13, Kelly has successfully transitioned into simply being Tyler Perry, but with more cursing and poop jokes.
There has always been a healthy debate about R. Kelly's motives behind Trapped In The Closet: Does he know that what he has created is ridiculous? Is the comedy intentional? That Bridget/Midget thing clearly supposed to be funny, right?
Well, after watching Chapter 13, it's clear that even if Kelly began Trapped as an earnest R & B melodrama, he is now well aware of its comedic potential. Simply put, Kelly is laughing with us. You don't dress up like the crotchety, long-john-wearing, 80-year-old husband of Rosie The Nosy Neighbor, or toss out insults based on the mammary glands (or lack thereof) of fish, or write several verses detailing, with painstaking precision, the movements of Twan's hat if you're not trying to be funny. Right?