Background
"Trapped in the Closet" originally appeared on Kelly's album TP.3 Reloaded, divided into five "chapters", which appear as the final five tracks on the album. The first five chapters of "Trapped in the Closet" were recorded by Andy Gallas during the 2004–2005 recording sessions for TP.3 Reloaded. R. Kelly wrote and produced all five chapters. The first of these five chapters was released as the lead single from the album in 2005, by Jive Records. Kelly and Jive Records promoted the single release by releasing each of the first five chapters of the song set to radio stations one at a time.
Following the success and popularity of the "Trapped in the Closet" song series, on August 28, 2005, R. Kelly lip-synched a "new chapter" at an appearance at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Finally, in November 2005, Jive Records released a DVD titled Trapped in the Closet, which aside from containing the five chapters of the song included on TP.3 Reloaded, also included seven more new chapters, bringing the song series to a total of twelve chapters. The material previewed by Kelly at the MTV Video Music Awards was revealed an early version of some parts of the twelfth chapter in the series.
Nearly two years later, in August 2007, Kelly and Jive released ten more chapters on another Trapped in the Closet DVD. These ten chapters were also shown on the Independent Film Channel (IFC), and were also streamed on IFC's Web site. The release of the DVD brings the series to a total of 22 chapters.
Kelly has stated that more chapters would be written and released. In December 2007, the first 22 chapters were released in a DVD entitled The Big Package, which also includes a "commentary remix" featuring a preview of chapter 23. On December 21, 2011, Kelly told TMZ that he has written thirty two more chapters, and is currently seeking investors in order to continue the saga. It was announced in October 2012 that IFC would have new chapters of "Trapped in the Closet" on Friday, November 23, 2012.
Kelly has described the entire "Trapped in the Closet" series as a hip hopera, and said, "It's now too long to be called a song." When asked about the writing of the song, Kelly stated: "I don't know how to explain how I wrote it. It just keeps rhyming and rhyming." He has also stated that "Trapped in the Closet" seems to have taken on "a life, mind and body of its own", and has called the series an "alien".
Read more about this topic: Trapped In The Closet
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