R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" Saga Is Far From Over

Still trying to decide if R. Kelly's hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet" is genius or ridiculous? (Face it: It's both.) We'll all get a chance to re-examine this fascinating labyrinth of sex, guns and deceit because IFC has acquired ten new installments of the series, which follows the comically raunchy, melodramatic life of a character called Sylvester, played by Kelly. The first twelve episodes were released on DVD early in 2006 and Kelly has since strongly hinted that more episodes would follow (he says he "always thought of 'Trapped' as an independent film"). IFC plans to air the original twelve episodes plus the ten new ones so everyone can properly catch up. No word yet on when the new episodes will be filmed.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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