Out of the closet
Many remember where they were the first time they watched R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet. Maybe it was on a lazy Saturday dive deep into YouTube, or maybe it was a desperate late-night attempt at finals procrastination. Maybe, like me, it was on a bleary post-dinner Thanksgiving evening, sitting next to your very confused, vaguely amused father.
The point is this: For a certain age group (ours), Robert Sylvester Kelly is a foundational artist. At once a clown, a lover and a dramatist, Kelly is, above all, a ubiquitous and important force in pop music, a singular voice that drives and defines the sounds of R&B even when he’s on a hiatus.
Thankfully, Kelly has been in full gear as of late: He popped up in a surprise appearance at Bonnaroo over the summer, headlined this year’s Pitchfork Festival in his native Chicago, and, most recently, lent his tequila-soaked croon to tracks for Lady Gaga and Phoenix.
As we look forward to another Thanksgiving spent with Sylvester, Twan and the midget and prepare ourselves for Kelly’s latest, Black Panties, to drop in December, here is a look back at R. Kelly’s five R. Kelly-est moments:
5. “Same Girl” feat. Usher
This 2007 collaboration hits on all of Kelly’s pet themes: infidelity, bromance and kinky, very public sex. More importantly, it signals just what’s so unique about Kelly as a singer and songwriter: Framed as a phone call between Kelly and Usher, the song almost plays as a musical theater piece, with the two singers trading off lines and occasionally cutting each other off. Kelly’s delivery is unique and instantly memorable for its nonchalance; he is a talk-singer in a classical sense, basically layering everyday conversation over smooth R&B licks. “Same Girl” also shows off Kelly’s knack for weird, casual specificity (by the end of the song, we know that Kelly’s girl “went to Georgia Tech, works for TBS” and that she loves Waffle House). Conversational yet intricately melodic and lyrically dense, “Same Girl” is the closest R&B has ever gotten to Sondheim.
4. “Ignition (Remix)”
Did you even know there was an original version of “Ignition”? And that the end of the original mix included R. Kelly giving listeners a teaser of the remix? That’s how big of a deal “Ignition (Remix)” is: Not only has it replaced the nonremixed version in the popular imagination, but the original only existed to preview the remix. And for good reason: “Ignition (Remix)” is a monster of a cut, a slinky sing-along anthem tailor-made for rolling that body. A favorite of the late Michael Jackson and No. 19 on Pitchfork’s top 500 songs of the 2000s, “Ignition (Remix)” is an indisputable stone-cold classic.
3. “Chapter 19” of Trapped in the Closet
Let’s get one thing straight: Every single second of Trapped in the Closet is incredible, a love letter to storytelling and smooth R&B. But the 19th chapter of Kelly’s hip-hopera is its greatest: Taking a break from the story of Sylvester and Rufus, “Chapter 19” follows Pimp Lucius (Kelly) to a church, where a reverend (also Kelly) and a choir urge him (Pimp Lucius) to “stop pimping all these hoes/ And turn yo’ life around.” Ultimately (SPOILERS!), Pimp Lucius (who, by the way, has a severe stutter) reveals to a young bishop that he won’t give up pimping because “p-p-p-pimpin’s for life.” Heartbreaking and comic, this is everything great about Trapped in the Closet distilled to its very essence.
2. “Feelin’ on Yo Booty”
There’s so much that’s so great about “Feelin’ On Yo Booty.” For starters, the album that spawned it is called TP-2.com (way back in 2000, no less). The video, too, is a classic and features R. Kelly dressed up like a club-promoting Santa and a very young Nelly just kind of hanging out. But most importantly, “Feelin’” introduced the world to this hook: —
“Playas wanna play
Ballers wanna ball
Rollers wanna roll
But I’m taking off after I dance, yeah”
—And a new millennium of hip-hop was born. Ball on, Kells.
1. “I Believe I Can Fly”
You had to know it would come to this. “I Believe I Can Fly” is an incredible song, the kind that feels like it has always been around, having emerged fully formed from some great celestial music box in a time before time. A behemoth that has been covered by everyone from Jessica Simpson to Etta James, “I Believe I Can Fly” first appeared on the soundtrack to 1996’s Space Jam. Let that sink in. Before becoming a cultural touchstone and one of the greatest power ballads in modern pop music, Kelly performed this song with Bugs Bunny and post-NBA Michael Jordan (err…post-first-NBA-career/post-baseball/pre-second-retirement Michael Jordan) in mind. Soulful, spiritual and perfect in virtually every way, this is R. Kelly at the top of his game.
