Kelis
Kelis Rogers is an American singer-songwriter and chef. She attended New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she played saxophone and was selected for the Girls Choir of Harlem. Upon graduation, Rogers landed a role as a backing vocalist for the hip hop group Gravediggaz. She then began working with music producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo—collectively known as the Neptunes—who led her to sign with Virgin Records in 1998. The following year, she guest appeared on Ol' Dirty Bastard's Neptunes-produced single "Got Your Money", which marked her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rogers' debut studio album, Kaleidoscope, was inspired by jazz and disco music from the 1970s. Despite critical acclaim, the album was met with domestic commercial failure; it instead found moderate success on international charts. Led by her first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a lead artist, "Caught Out There", the album peaked at number 43 on the UK Albums Chart and earned gold certification by the country's British Phonographic Industry. She parted ways with Virgin Records after her second album, Wanderland also received poor sales—not seeing a domestic release until 2019. After signing with the Neptunes' Star Trak Entertainment, Rogers third studio album, Tasty, served as her commercial breakthrough and was met with continued critical praise. Its lead single, "Milkshake", peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100; the song and its follow-up, "Trick Me", both peaked at number two on the UK singles chart. Her fourth album, Kelis Was Here, was supported by the US top 20 single "Bossy", and peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200. Following its release, she took a hiatus from recording and ventured into culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu.
She later signed with will.i.am Music Group to release her fifth album, Flesh Tone, which explored electronic music. Two of its singles, "Acapella" and "4th of July " found success on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart and the UK Dance Singles Chart. Tying-in with her culinary career, she released her sixth studio album Food, which became her second top-20 album in the UK and spawned three singles: "Jerk Ribs", "Rumble" and "Friday Fish Fry". The album explored a neo soul recording style.
Rogers has been recognized at the Brit Awards, Q Awards, NME Awards, and Grammy Awards. Her musical output as a lead and featured artist encompasses various genres. She has collaborated with R&B and hip hop acts including Nas, Busta Rhymes, Outkast, and Puff Daddy; electronic and dance producers such as Calvin Harris, Disclosure, Giorgio Moroder, Timo Maas, and Richard X; pop and rock acts Enrique Iglesias, Duran Duran, and No Doubt; and indie and alternative musicians including Björk and Dave Sitek. She has sold six million records worldwide and has had particular success in the United Kingdom, where ten of her singles have peaked within the top ten of the UK Singles Chart.
Early life
Rogers was born and raised in the Frederick Douglass Houses in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. Her first name is a portmanteau of her father's name, Kenneth, and her mother's name, Eveliss. Her father Kenneth was an African-American jazz musician and Pentecostal minister and was formerly a professor at Wesleyan University. Her mother Eveliss is a Chinese-Puerto Rican fashion designer who inspired Rogers to pursue her singing career. She has three sisters, two older and one younger.As a child, Rogers sang in church choirs and played violin, piano, and saxophone while attending Manhattan Country School, a private school. At 13, she shaved off all of her hair. In an interview, Rogers says she was kicked out of her parents' house at 16 for bad behavior, stating that she would sometimes clash with her mother, but continued her education at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she formed the R&B trio BLU. She was also a bartender and a sales associate at a clothing store before graduating high school.
Career
1997–2002: ''Kaleidoscope'' and ''Wanderland''
In 1997, Kelis provided background vocals on "Fairytalez", a track on hip hop group Gravediggaz's album The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel. Afterward, a friend introduced Kelis to The Neptunes ; they formed a strong bond, and with their support she landed a record deal with Virgin Records. According to Kelis, Virgin Records advised her that publishing royalties would be split evenly among Williams, Hugo, and herself; however, Kelis made no money from sales of her first two albums on the label. Kelis has said that Williams was credited as a songwriter on songs of hers that he had not written.Kelis began recording her debut album Kaleidoscope in mid-1998 and was finished within a year. Produced by The Neptunes and released by Virgin Records in 1999, Kaleidoscope peaked at number 144 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and reached the top five on the Top Heatseekers chart. As of 2006, the album has sold 249,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its lead and most notable single "Caught Out There" became a top 10 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs hit and peaked at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. During this time, Kelis featured on Ol' Dirty Bastard's U.S. top 40 single "Got Your Money".
The album performed better in Europe, where "Caught Out There" was a moderate hit in most European countries except the United Kingdom, where the song saw massive success, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart. The single "Good Stuff" reached number 19; another single "Get Along with You" was less successful, reaching number 51. The British Phonographic Industry certified Kaleidoscope gold for sales of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 43 on the UK Albums Chart.
In 2001, Kelis won the Brit Award for International Breakthrough Act and the NME Award for Best R&B/Soul Act, then joined Moby and U2 on the Area:One and Elevation tours, respectively. Kelis and the Neptunes' output at this time was heralded as foreshadowing an innovation in contemporary R&B, but she later said "I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B". Her colorful style in both clothing and hair received considerable attention.
Kelis's second album Wanderland was released in 2001 in Europe, Asia, and Latin America but did not receive a North American release until 2019. According to Kelis, Virgin Records, her U.S. record company at the time, had laid off those that worked on Kaleidoscope; their replacements did not understand or believe in Wanderland. Eventually, Kelis was dropped from Virgin around the time of the album's European release, but she remained on the label's roster in Europe. A commercial failure, Wanderland peaked at number 78 in the UK; its only single "Young, Fresh n' New" managed to crack the top 40 on the UK Singles Chart. The album, which was produced in its entirety by the Neptunes and features collaborations with members of Clipse and No Doubt, received a subdued critical response. NME wrote: "In our collective fantasies, Kelis Rogers is already the ghetto-fabulous sex-queen of discodelic future-funk pop-rock-soul...But beyond the initial shopping-and-funking dazzle, there is way too much filler here for a hotly hyped alterna-soul princess with her eyes on the big prize". The Fader later referred to Wanderland as "Kelis's long lost masterpiece".
In 2002, Kelis recorded "So Be It" for the Red Hot Organization's Fela Kuti tribute CD Red Hot and Riot, from which all proceeds were donated to AIDS-awareness charities. The same year, she had a top 20 U.S. club hit with a remix of "Young, Fresh 'n' New", produced by Timo Maas, who featured Kelis on his single "Help Me". She hosted the DanceStar USA Awards ceremony at that year's Winter Music Conference.
2003–2005: ''Tasty''
In 2003, Kelis achieved a second top 10 hit in the UK as a featured artist on Richard X's "Finest Dreams", a reworking of the S.O.S. Band's 1986 single "The Finest", and a European club hit as a featured artist on "Let's Get Ill" by P. Diddy, her manager for a brief period. She found mainstream success in the U.S. later in 2003 with her Hot Dance Club Play number one, Billboard Hot 100 top three single "Milkshake"; this single helped to propel her third album Tasty to gold status in the U.S., where it peaked at number 27 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 533,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. "Milkshake" also went gold, selling over 500,000 copies, and earned Kelis a Grammy Award nomination in 2004 for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.Although the Neptunes contributed several tracks to Tasty—the album was released by their label Star Trak Entertainment, a joint venture with Arista Records—Kelis also collaborated with other producers such as Dallas Austin, André 3000, Rockwilder, and Raphael Saadiq. She stated in an interview: "I felt like I had a lot to prove with this album. People had started messing with me along the lines of 'Is she REALLY any good without The Neptunes?' — which I knew was ridiculous. And so I was like 'I'll take that challenge'." The album was well-received critically; Entertainment Weekly wrote that Tasty is "Kelis' past—big beats, out-there imagery, and sex appeal—refined...much of the beauty of Tasty is in witnessing Kelis rise to the challenge of working with multiple imaginative maestros."
"Milkshake" and Tasty immediately found success in Europe. According to the BPI, Tasty went platinum in the United Kingdom, selling over 300,000 copies, and "Milkshake" went silver, selling over 200,000 units. The Dallas Austin-produced "Trick Me", the album's second single, went to the top 10 in many European countries during mid-2004; it did not, however, garner success in the U.S. in the absence of promotion by Jive Records, the label Kelis had been transferred to after Arista Records folded at the time of Tastys release. Kelis' success grew in Australia, where Tasty went gold and where "Milkshake" and "Trick Me" went platinum. Kelis followed the success of the third Tasty single, the BPI silver-certified "Millionaire", with the Rockwilder-produced track "In Public", which reached number 17 on the UK chart.
"Not in Love", Kelis's collaboration with Enrique Iglesias from his 2003 album 7, was released as a single the following year, reaching the UK top five. Although the single failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it topped the country's Hot Dance Club Play chart. Also in 2004, Kelis collaborated with Björk on a remix of the latter's track "Oceania", which appeared as a B-side to the single "Who Is It". Kelis toured as the opening act for fellow Jive artist Britney Spears's The Onyx Hotel Tour, then headlined her own tour of Australia and New Zealand. In 2005, she was featured on the soundtrack to the film Just Like Heaven with a cover version of The Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket".