Tender Lovemaking

The other night Pam and I were going to study for Japanese Class, and we got in to a discussion about the Isley Brothers. I was under the impression that R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet was basically a rip off of earlier work done by the Isley Brothers, and not in fact a totally original thing that would revolutionize the world as Robert had indicated in the DVD commentary.

I would like to share my findings with everyone so that the record can be set straight.

The only recurring figure in the Isley Brother's videos is "Mr. Biggs". I've only been able to find that character in 4 videos. He first appears in the video for R. Kelly's song "Down Low".

In this video Kelly makes sweet love to Biggs' girl Lala, even after Bigg's tells Kelly that Lala means everything to him. At the end of the video, Bigg's busts him with his woman, takes him to the desert and drags him through the dirt. The viewers are left with many questions. How does Kelly know Biggs? What is the history between Lala and Biggs? Why did Biggs only need "say a half a minute" at the beginning of the video?

In 2001, the Isley Brothers released "Eternal" with the hit song "Contagious".

This video also features Mr. Biggs. This video is also similar to "Down Low" in that Kelly is making sweet tender love to Biggs' girl again. One interesting thing to note is that this time the girl is not Lala. Could it be that Biggs' ill treatment of Lala in the previous video kept them apart? Or was it that he could not stand that she had cheated on him with Kelly?

At the end of the video you find out that Biggs knows Kelly from somewhere. One can only assume that Biggs recognizes him because he was bonking Lala in the previous video.

Next up, in 2003 they released the album "Body Kiss". This album had two videos made that are important to this research. First up is the video for "What would you do". I'm not sure if that is a statement, or a question.....

This video still features Biggs and Kelly. One of the most remarkable parts of this song is that is features the signature "water drop" sound that is heard throughout all of the Trapped in the Closet videos. For some reason Kelly gets up on stage and does a performance with Biggs, which seems really weird to me because so far he has bonked two of Biggs' ladies. I certainly wouldn't let Kelly get on stage with me. This video only has a little bit of drama at the end with a mild confrontation between Kelly and Biggs, where you can see that Biggs' shorty making eyes at Kelly. Is this foreshadowing to the next and final video? Well, lets see!

Surprise! It was! The final video has the most drama in it. The story finally finishes, and we get all of our answers. Kelly is doing it with Biggs' shorty again. You'd think that Mr Biggs would have learned by now. All of his chicks do it with R. Kelly.

To recap: R Kelly lays all of Mr Biggs girls down by the fire, Mr Biggs never learns his lesson. All of this spanning 3 different albums!

In conclusion, we can definitely see where Robert got his inspiration for Trapped in the Closet. But I don't think that these four videos can be called a "Hip-hopera" on the level of Trapped in the Closet. I have presented the facts, and you dear reader, can judge for yourself. Just know that Biggs is in Atlanta and Kelly moved just around the corner from him.....