Kelis - The Hits
-
Artist:
-
Album:
Over the past nine years, Kelis has changed her hair color countless times, showing us with every new single and subsequent video not just a new hairstyle, but new, exciting sounds as well. From orange to green to blue she’s never shied away from the bleach bottle. In The Neptunes-produced Ol’ Dirty Bastard song “Got Your Money” she debuted to the world with an orange hairdo, providing the infectious hook (“Hey, Dir-ty! Baby, I got your money”) to an O.D.B. classic. Refusing to be some chick on a hook by some dude, Kelis, who probably owes her whole career to Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, prepared to launch herself to stardom.Her latest album, a compilation called simply, The Hits, provides a premature overview of her decade long career, but it also reminds us of her roots (her dyed orange ones, at least). With each changing hue, came revamped musical elements, and growing credits as a featured guest on songs for N.E.R.D., Foxy Brown, and Bjork. This disc incorporates a few of her notable appearances, though her label disappoints by choosing to include a song she did with no name Richard X, rather than her more famous collaborations with Busta Rhymes. Overall, however, The Hits successfully encapsulates the varying directions of her music.
In the video for Kelis’ first single “Caught Out There,” a hate anthem for dickhead boyfriends everywhere, her multi-colored ’fro was memorable enough to feel like a minor character. As she thrashes her cheating man’s room, yelling the song’s hook, “I HATE you so much right now!” her hair comes to embody the rage-fueled “AHHH!!” that ends the hook, like a multi-hued exclamation point to her utterly incensed emotions. The hit was solid enough to catch our attention, even if we were only asking each other, “Who’s that girl with the orange hair who yells about hating her bf?”
Kelis was lucky enough to get her start backed by the classic sounds of 1999-2000 era Neptunes, whose hard beats and electronic blips zoomed out of speakers at the speed of shooting stars. Her sometimes raspy, sometimes sweet vocals were so well matched to the guitar-driven, grinding beats of The Neptunes’ production that both her first album (Kaleidoscope) and her second album (Wanderland) were produced entirely by the duo.
It was during the release of her second and third singles that Kelis dyed her hair a splattered mix of blue/green/yellow. Both singles failed to garner much attention, proving that Kelis was early perceived as a pop/R&B singer, who has always possessed more ‘rock attitude’ than any contemporary black females out there. “Good Stuff” features a mellowed out bass line, tambourine, piano and stiff snares, and if it’s a little too rock, Terrar from Clipse makes a cameo. “Get Along with You” also has a lot of snare sounds, set to a ticking rhythm, but the use of strings added more depth to the song (so much depth that she went all “goth,” complete with straight, blue-tipped, platinum hair and a leather get-up, in the track’s video), but the song’s repetitiveness is still tiring today.
Kelis dropped the rainbow color hair for the release of her second album and came back with her signature orange dye job for top layers, set off by black hair poking through underneath. “Young, Fresh ’n’ New” had that same familiar Neptunes sound, making it not so fresh ’n’ new. However, all of this practice with the Neptunes can be praised when you see it as a gear-up for the song she’s most famous for. You know what it is. (Hint: It brings all the boys to the yard. It’s better than yours…)
”Milkshake,” off of 2003’s Tasty, seemed to be the most overplayed song of the year. It feels like yesterday when everyone was scratching their heads, wondering exactly what her “milkshake” referred to. Tasty marked the first time Kelis worked with producers other than The Neptunes, however it’s no shock that they produced what became the driving single off of the album, as it’s also the keystone of collaborations between Kelis and The Neptunes. Other hits include the tempting exhibitionism of “In Public,” featuring Nas, the spazzed out “Millionaire,” produced by and featuring Andre 3000, and the sexified “Trick Me,” which found our chameleon darling with a toned down, brown, braided ponytail.
In 2006 Kelis hit the ground running with the Bangladesh-produced “Bossy.” Like “Milkshake,” it sounded nothing like anything else out at the time, and no one else but Kelis (Mrs. Nasir Jones, at this point) could make it tastier. Maybe her short, jet black, asymmetrical haircut helped, but the overall sound found on Kelis Was Here was a more sophisticated version of Kelis. “Lil Star” is just one instance off the album that shows she has developed into her own. Cee-Lo Green provides the sing-along hook, and his producing hand lends a soulful air to both the song and Kelis’ persona.
Why Kelis chose this moment in time to release a greatest hits album is unclear, and maybe she didn’t, it could simply be that the record company thought it was time to cash in. Whatever the reason, it’s too bad because most of them are mediocre hits at best and three of the songs aren’t hers but only feature her vocals. Still, The Hits offers a good taste of Kelis and what she’s all about. If her current, partially buzzed haircut gives any clue, Kelis’ next album will show us a whole new Kelis.
Comments (16)