When it started its climb to the Top Ten of Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart in late 1999, "Caught Out There" seemed like an audacious experiment: "What if
Millie Jackson had a younger daughter signed to
Ruff Ryders?" Instead, the retaliatory breakup anthem with a screamed chorus was the solo debut of Kelis Rogers, a charismatic singer with a singular rasp who would soon defy comparisons. Over the next seven years,
Kelis scored additional hits with the Top Ten pop single "Milkshake" and the multi-platinum "Bossy," but those singles were mere appetizers for some of the boldest albums in contemporary pop-R&B, namely
Tasty (2003) and the Grammy-nominated
Kelis Was Here (2006).
Kelis has continued to confound expectations. After
Flesh Tone (2010), a biographical and convincing left turn into electronic dance music, and
Food (2014), a loosely conceptual work mixing funk and soul with classic pop, she took an extended break from music, and returned with "Midnight Snacks" (2021).
Bred in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood, Kelis Rogers left home at 16 and landed a deal with Virgin four years later. Having linked with emergent production team
the Neptunes, she provided background vocals on Noreaga's "Superthug" and was featured on
Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Got Your Money." In December 1999, months after the release of the latter single,
Kelis made her full-length debut with
Kaleidoscope. Produced entirely by
the Neptunes, the album reached number 144 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. and was more popular in the U.K., where it went gold. "Caught Out There" was the lead single and peaked on the U.S. R&B/hip-hop chart at number nine. Two years later, she and
the Neptunes teamed again for
Wanderland. Political reworkings within the U.S. wing of Virgin prevented a stateside release, which compelled
Kelis to leave for Arista. She responded in 2003 with
Tasty. It yielded the number three pop hit "Milkshake," yet another
Neptunes production, and went to number 27 on the Billboard 200. "Milkshake" was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Urban/Alternative Performance.
Kelis returned in 2006 on the Jive label with
Kelis Was Here. It entered the Billboard 200 at number ten, led by the duly assertive number 16 pop single "Bossy," a booming
Bangladesh production featuring a verse from Too Short. The album earned
Kelis her second Grammy nomination, this time for Best Contemporary R&B Album. Jive subsequently packaged
The Hits, a mix of singles and album cuts that also contained some of the singer's most popular collaborations, such as "Get Your Money,"
N.E.R.D.'s "Truth or Dare," and
Richard X's "Finest Dreams."
From 2006 into 2010,
Kelis indulged her other passion, cookery, enrolling at and eventually graduating from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school as a fully qualified chef. In 2010, she returned to music, signing to Interscope through the will.i.am music group and releasing
Flesh Tone, an EDM-flavored set featuring productions from
David Guetta,
Benny Benassi,
Boys Noize,
Diplo, and
Jean Baptiste. It peaked at number five on Billboard's club chart. The following year, she sang on
Calvin Harris' single "Bounce," which hit number two on the U.K. singles chart. In 2013,
Kelis signed with the cult independent U.K. label Ninja Tune. She connected with
David Sitek of
TV on the Radio and emerged the following year with the album
Food. Compared to her earlier R&B work, the record was relatively organic -- based more on live instrumentation than her previous releases -- with a couple stylistic diversions. Around that time, she presented the program Saucy & Sweet for the Cooking Channel.
Less involved with music for a few years,
Kelis was featured on songs such as
Giorgio Moroder's "Back and Forth" and
TCTS' "Do It Like Me (Icy Feet)," appeared on the BBC One program Pitch Battle, and competed on the U.K. version of The Masked Singer. In 2021, she released "Midnight Snacks," her first proper single in seven years. ~ Andy Kellman