|
 |
Browse Bands by Name
|
|
Or enter a band name below to search:
|
 Bands Main
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jermaine Dupri
|
Jermaine Dupri, hip-hop mogul, platinum-encrusted hitmaker: " 'Trapped in the Closet' the song is genius. It takes him in a different direction, and he's doing something that no one else has done. As an R&B artist, it's so hard for you because rap is so dominant. If you can create something that makes all those people stop doing what they're doing and pay attention to what you're doing, it's a very creative move. I'm definitely trying to hear where he's going to go with it, because parts one and two were very dramatic — all of them were so dramatic — so parts 6-12 ... something's gonna happen."
|
|
Beck
|
Beck, alt-rock stalwart, fan of over-the-top R&B numbers (check "Debra," the sexed-up closer to his Midnite Vultures album): "The pure ambition and scope of it leaves me speechless. It's kind of one of those concepts you can come up with at the studio late one night, but to execute it to that degree is amazing. When I saw the first one and it said 'To be continued,' and then I saw five more, then I got to the end of those and they said parts 6-10 [12 actually, but who's counting] are coming out ... it's like a tunnel that you never get out of. We're in it for the duration. And it could be the epic of our time."
|
|
Ant
|
Ant, comedian, host of VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club": "When I first saw [the 'Trapped' videos], it was back-to-back on MTV, and I didn't know what the heck I was watching. I thought, 'God, this is the longest music video I have ever seen!' And then all of a sudden the door opens and it's the boyfriend. Oh my God, I fell off my bed. You had to pick me up off the floor. I literally looked at the TV and I was like 'Mother-----r, no!' I did not see it coming. I thought it was going to be his wife's mother who was his mistress. I knew he was going to drop a bomb, I just didn't think it would be the G-bomb. And then I thought, 'Is R. Kelly trying to tell us he's gay? Is he trying to come out of the closet?' I started to think, 'hip-hop must be going homo-hop.' I know black guys on the DL who act like that. I used to date one. In that culture, it's a very common thing, it's still not accepted. And I think it's incredible he's making people question what they believe is acceptable behavior."
|
|
Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz
|
Pete Wentz, bassist, Fall Out Boy: "We watch 'Trapped in the Closet' almost every day. And we never know what's going on with it. He sings the most insane words on the planet in the most beautiful way possible. And then acts them all out. And I think the best things about it is that at some point, all of these things may or may not have happened to R. Kelly. And that's awesome. But I think it's insane. I also think it's absolutely genius, and nobody can mess with it."
|
|
The Bravery
|
Sam Endicott, lead singer, the Bravery: "We were at the bar while that [VMA performance] was happening, so I was like 'Am I imagining this?' I couldn't tell if it was just me who was confused by it or what. I think it might've been the most brilliant post-modern thing I've ever seen, I'm not sure. The guy's ahead of his time."
|
|
Charles Ross
|
Charles Ross, writer, director, choreographer, star, "The One-Man Star Wars Trilogy": "I play every character from the original trilogy, and basically I tell the whole story of 'Star Wars' using nothing but lines from the film, and telling the whole thing in less than an hour. It's ... kind of like what Kelly did at the VMAs. If I could give him any tips for future performances, I would tell him to learn how to pace himself. You learn when to push it and when to hold back. Because the films are broken up into three films, I take a water break in between acts, because if I didn't I'd probably be dead. Also, you don't eat a big giant meal two hours before the show, because you'd be throwing up during the performance. And that's bad."
|
|
Dave Kreizman
|
Dave Kreizman, head writer, CBS daytime soap opera "Guiding Light": "I love the whole thing, but I wasn't shocked by much of it. I saw the gay-lover thing coming from a mile away. I mean, 'Guiding Light' has been running for almost 70 years now, so it's pretty difficult to shock me. We've certainly had our fair share of shocking storylines, too. Like the cloning one. Basically, it involved one of our big couples, Josh and Reva. She was presumed dead in a plane crash, and her distraught husband used her frozen eggs to clone her. And he had a scientist buddy who had developed a formula to rapidly grow people, and so the baby aged in about two or three months to the age his wife was when she died. So then he was trying to turn the clone of his wife into his wife, and then of course, his wife came back. So it was a twist on the evil twin thing. And of course, it ended with the clone dying in the arms of the original Reva. Which is kind of like what R. Kelly's doing here, except no one's died yet."
|
|
|
|
Photo: Karl Heitmueller
|
|
|
|
