August 16, 2007 18:52

R Kelly speaks at 'Trapped In The Closet' screening

Troubled star appears upbeat at New York cinema

A buoyant R Kelly appeared at a screening of new chapters of his “hip-hopera” ‘Trapped In The Closet’ last night at a West Village cinema in New York.

Kelly, wearing diamond encrusted sunglasses showed up 40 minutes late for his appearance and introduced chapters 13-22 of his infamous soap-opera-musical style production.

“Don’t nobody ask me no questions I don’t know how to explain how I wrote it” the singer laughed “I’m tired of people asking me that because I can not explain this. I can explain any other song but I cant explain ‘Trapped In The Closet’.”

Kelly went on to explain “It’s an alien, People ask me why is it an alien and I say it’s come down to show us new genres and new ways to produce movies, magic, song and dialogue which have all been put together, and has never been done as far as I’m concerned. I call that alien. And people ask me when ‘Trapped In The Closet’ is going to end and I say when the aliens decide to leave.”

He also revealed that when he first approached his record label and producers about the project, they were unconvinced and compared the experience to building the first airplane.

“When I first did it, the first chapter, they were looking at me like I was crazy, you know like the man that explained how was first going to build the airplane? They were looking at him like he was crazy I’m sure!”

Following his speech Kelly took a seat in the back row of the theatre and (having removed his sunglasses) watched the entire set of chapters in the company of his burly security.

As in previous chapters, Kelly himself plays a variety of characters in the piece from a pimp to a grey haired old man. The new material features a predictable twist in the story of Twan and Tina and a Soprano’s style encounter. The set culminates with a mildly confusing web of phone calls about a “package”. To be continued…

As previously reported, a trial date of September 17 has been set for Kelly’s court appearance which relate to his arrest on child pornography charges five years ago.

--By our New York staff.
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