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Kelis

  
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
10:01 / 25.04.06
It would seem that there has never been a thread dedicated to Kelis, which seems odd since I know that she has many fans on the 'Lith, whether of the early idiosyncratic stuff or her more recent r&b-ruling, Nas-marrying phase. Personally I find its the second singles from the big albums, the growers, that I like best - so, 'Get Along With You' over 'Caught Out There' and 'Trick Me' over 'Milkshake'...

Anyway, she's cut her hair short and has a fabulous new single, 'Bossy', which demonstrates that she really doesn't need the Neptunes in 2006 (although who does need the 2006 version of the Neptunes?). I love her to bits, and I want to hear from other people who do too.
 
 
haus of fraser
16:13 / 25.04.06
(although who does need the 2006 version of the Neptunes?)

apparently Mariah Carey...
 
 
The Falcon
16:22 / 25.04.06
Hey, I love Kelis so much I even own 'Wanderland', albeit purchased for £3 at a second-hand store. Don't think it even got a release in the US.

Anyway, yeah, I remember 'Caught Out There' coming out, and many of my various friends & acquaintances (m & f) in cultural backwater Dundee being all 'oh, women shouldn't behave like that, it's a bit much, you know.' I thought it was fair enuff, given the sitch described in the track, that she might be a bit pissed off, plus I loved all the space invader noise in the background. Hearing it again, in the city's then-premier nightspot, coming up on a spink as the deejay eased us in to the evenings hi-octane beats with some rap and r&b, it became evident that - not for the first time - I was right, and everyone else was wrong.

Missed her on Jools Holland, where apparently the backing band just went metaal! (I presume now it was N*E*R*D or Spymob or whatever,) heard 'Mafia' and 'Good Stuff' - funnily, have no recollection of 'I Just Wanna Get Along With You' being a single - and ultimately overcame my fiscal prejudices to buy an R'n'B album, her first, 'Kaleidoscope'. Just as fucking well, too, because with the exception of one or two post-80s Stevie Wonder slow jams (not inc. the brilliant, aquatic 'Suspended',) it is uniformly amazing. A psychedelic, sci-fi, emotional walloper, that has to my knowledge not really been challenged in years since or prior (maybe 'Arular'...); 's aged incredibly well, and I still listen to it regularly, it basically set the Neps up as the Phil Spector of the late 90's-early c.21. The only piece they've made that rivals overall is probably Clipse' 'Lord Willin'', a couple tracks of which Kelis guests on. (Shame they're a bit shit nowadays, really - I actually had to tun Mariah feat. Snoop over the other day. Never thought that'd happen; fuck, even Mariah's other recent urban stuff is miles ahead. Sad.)

'Wanderland' has it's moments: 'Digital Love', featuring Roscoe P. Coldchain, the bonus track which I'm calling 'Do You Care?' for the sake of argument serves as soemthing of a reprise of 'Caught Out There' - it's, ehhh, 'ballsy', I guess: more screaming, more proper deep bass. It 'rocks', in that particular way. 'Flashback' with staccato shuffles is good enough to make it onto 'Tasty'. 'S always worth mentioning 'Finest Dreams', too, with Richard X - probably the best single of 2004, was it? 2003?

Most recently, I got 'Tasty' on day of issue (iirc,) buoyed by a preview of the excellent-if-now-somewhat-overplayed 'Millionaire' with Andre 3000. First album not wholly Neptunes-produced, their 'Protect My Heart' is twin sister to Justin's 'Last Night', Grease production 'Stick Up' and the aforementioned singles are highlights of a somewhat more emotionally-vulnerable, less angry album; maybe Nas got to her but good. Some of it's a bit too gloopy, Trevor Nelson-sound for me - was a bit disppointed in the Raphael Saadiq tracks, which I'd expected more of.

Anyway: Kelis = the good stuff. QED.
 
 
Shrug
11:15 / 26.04.06
I picked up Kaleidoscope in the cheapy bin a few years ago too. Also, very glad I did. It isn't something I expected to like very much. Usually the way it goes when I buy a chartish pop album, I mean that I like a single but hate the album, not always thankfully. I'm listening to it again right now, it still suprises me.

Mafia/Suspended are tracks I continually put on mix c.d's. Quality. There's a great staccato rhythm to the vocals in Get Along With You, that I love too (neptunes beats help greatly, of course). Builds and dips in the right places, I suppose. Alot of the album just puts a smile on my face (I'm not sure what that is even about though). Such a flirtatious, whimsical, funny album in some ways, in others so subtle and forceful in its effect.
Kelis' vocals are enjoyable anytime, though. It's pretty perfect, really.
 
 
Jackie Susann
09:17 / 03.05.06
I saw Kelis in 2004 and during 'In public' (or whatever it was called) she made EYE CONTACT with me as she sang the lines 'let's get it on in public'.

Obviously she intended those lines for me specifically and was not just staring blind into the crowd.
 
 
D Terminator XXXIII
08:42 / 08.06.06
i. LOVE. Kelis. And I'm desperately trying to find a download of her newest single but the sites available to me don't carry it. Huggles to whomever can remedy that -- I'm new to this MP3 thing and I don't think I can download a player specific to a site, or get the single from U.S. based sites.
 
 
Jackie Susann
21:18 / 08.06.06
Kelis/Too Short - Bossy

(I assume this is the one you're after, if there's a more recent single I haven't heard it.)
 
 
Uatu.is.watching
15:47 / 21.08.06
I've been listening to "Bossy" quite a bit this summer and there's a line that kinda bugs me. The lyrics on the first half of the hook are:

"I'm the first girl to scream on a track/I switched up the beat of the drum/That's right i brought all the boys to the yard/And that's right, i'm the one that's tattooed on his arm."

Now, this all seems pretty self-referential to me. "I'm the first girl to scream on a track" seems to refer to "Caught out there". Even if the claim that she's the first is dubious, at best, she does let loose with a mighty scream. Obviously, "Milkshake" is when she "brought all the boys to the yard", and her name is, in fact, tattooed on Nas's arm.

The thing that bugs me though is this. When, specifically, did she "switch up the beat of the drum"? Context, would seem to imply that she's being self-referential here, but I can't for the life of me figure out what song she would be referring to here, and my Google-fu isn't good enough to find relevant links that aren't just the lyrics for "Bossy". Any ideas?
 
 
Jackie Susann
00:15 / 22.08.06
I took it to mean her influence generally raised the tempo for poppy r&b, but now you've got me thinking if there's a song that's specifically based on a switched-up drum loop or something.
 
 
D Terminator XXXIII
10:14 / 22.08.06
and her name is, in fact, tattooed on Nas's arm.

Her barebreasted likeness, in fact.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
13:19 / 22.08.06
Also, tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't it usually guys making the beats which the girls then sing over? So she's msucling in on a traditionally male area? Does that float?
 
 
Uatu.is.watching
15:31 / 24.08.06
Her barebreasted likeness, in fact.

I did not realize that's what it was. Saucy.

Also, She didn't produce this track. In fact, I don't know about this album, but she pretty much made it big by virtue of beats from the Neptunes.
 
 
Jackie Susann
20:30 / 24.08.06
That's a bit misleading - she made it big by singing really well with lots of character on top of hot Neptunes beats.

I dunno who produced this, but she had a falling out with Pharrell a while ago - I dunno if it ever came out what it was over.
 
 
Lugue
14:56 / 05.09.06
So. Anyone paying any attention to the latest album at all?

So far I'm somewhat disappointed, though not fully firm as to what I think of it... Musically, it doesn't seem as strong but also, and this is what makes it hard for me to be sure of how I feel about it, is that there's something rather odd (not yet sure whether actually "off") about it, either because of some shift in her voice or because of the general stylistic lack of cohesion (whiiich I'm not even sure is really an issue); maybe both.

Do like "Aww Shit!". Definitely amused by "What's That Right There" and "Blinfold Me" and smiley about "Have A Nice Day" (sunny, relaxed fun that nicely matches my current mood for Brazilian stuff), though . Oh, and I do dig the bonus track - Kelis being harsh just works for me.
 
 
Jackie Susann
20:17 / 05.09.06
Which one's the bonus track? I just have a few tracks I've downloaded, and my favourite is I Don't Think So - upbeat but taunting, like she's the ice queen with a spring in her step. It has a great playground-chant hook.

Otherwise I haven't been motivated enough to even download the whole album, but then I am on an 'all recent music sucks' kick which is getting increasingly hard to justify.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:38 / 06.09.06
The bonus track is 'Fuck Them Bitches' and it is, for want of a better word, fierce. Sort of like 'Trick Me' with the reggae vibes excised and replaced with precision-guided weaponry.
 
  
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