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[Sovereign.]

This is one of the most brilliant articles I've read this week and wanted to share/shed light on Kelis' contribution and innovations. Myles Johnson (a writer for Okayplayer is behind this).

Every universe has their big bang ? a moment where everything collides, and a new genesis is born. Each piece and parcel, in existence before the new creation, conspires to make this split-second spectacularly possible. And the sky and the darkness will never be the same.



Similar events happen in music.


Artists and artistic events shift and open up the culture in ways that birth new possibilities and realities. They forge bright paths and embolden the creative landscape and change the course of history. Kelis is that artist.

Similar to the conception of a universe, many cosmic bodies made Kelis possible ? the power of Chaka Khan, boldness of Betty Davis, and originality of Grace Jones. The sass of Blondie and sensuality of Vanity ? all of whom paved proverbial ?cultural streets? and gave Kelis a route for travel straight into our sensibilities.

But, even having traveled paved roads, Kelis remains an unsung hero in her own right. A living, breathing challenge to rigid ideas of what Black girls could and could not be in mainstream space. In a colorful Afro, at the tender age of 17, she performed rage in an era where a subdued R&B vixen was the belle of the ball. When corporate maximization of profits encouraged Kelis to lean into her sexuality, in negotiation with the patriarchal gaze, she slighted those who would glare upon her body. Instead, she prioritized enthrallment over attractiveness. In their own battles, her contemporaries helped make this possible. After close examination of Missy Elliott, Erykah Badu and Janet Jackson, we recognize how thoroughly we were primed and prepped for a cultural juncture like Kelis.

Still, nothing could truly prepare you for every individual piece of innovation she let loose, with each bit still guiding us today.



?I hate you so much, right now!?


Kelis screamed into the faces of the public in her premiere song, ?Caught Out There.? She ends the verse with a resentful holler backed by The Neptunes? signature production. Her furor hearkens us to the future. Had she not transgressed the script of honey-dipped R&B siren in 1999, Beyonce?s ?Ring the Alarm? nor Rihanna?s ?Breakin Dishes? might not have penetrated and captivated audiences.


Today, Kelis? inspiration arrives in the aesthetic of SZA, Teyana Taylor, Rihanna and others. We see young Black women finding commercial success in thwarting aesthetic rules that traditionally hindered her Black femme body in the public gaze. Kelis has helped, along with others, expand the options for black women in public beyond the dichotomy of erotic vixen and mammy.

Thematically, she pushed us forward too. Kelis? impassioned outrage conjures similar feelings of liberation to Betty Davis? loud declaration of sexual ownership by screeching, to a funky rhythm, ?he was a big freak.? Often, the Black femme is discouraged from performing thematic and aesthetic fury, in fear it may perpetuate historical stereotypes that disassociate Black femininity and softness. Often the Black femme goes to extremes to avoid a public appearance of anger or irritation. Often, if you are a black femme and angry in public, you will be stereotyped as that for the remainder of your public life.



Kelis premiered with unapologetic rage.


She followed up with a solemn kind of sensitivity with ?Get Along With You? and expressed a colorful brand of confidence and sensuality with ?Good Stuff.? On the cover of her debut album, Kaleidoscope, she stood nude, painted from head-to-toe with a multi-colored Afro that transformed her into one parts art project, one parts Funkadelic wet dream. Kelis refused to be trapped into a trope. She dared to explore the full range of humanity no matter how strange, uncomfortable or embarrassing it felt to witness.

The space she opened for Black women who failed the R&B vixen role is undeniable, but rarely discussed. Imagining artists like Rihanna, Solange, FKA Twigs and Janelle Monae suddenly proves difficult without Kelis? contributions. In the world of hip-hop and R&B, Kelis staged a rebellion, lending visuals, sounds and cultural infrastructure to eccentric, transgressive new spaces for Black femmes to continue building. Kelis is both the artist with the ode to Ghetto Children on her debut album and the one who wore a leather jacket with ?nigger? bedazzled on the back. She is the artist who posed on top of a giant milkshake during her Tasty musical era, and the artist who crooned disappointment about poverty and heartbreak on Rollin? Through The Hood ? all on the same album.



Kelis refused not to exist diversely.


To this day, Kelis? work forecasts where the culture is headed. Moments like her Tasty era, where she bridged cyber-dance sounds, the best of the 80?s R&B and hip-hop to produce a sound as seducing as it was bold, and made the blueprint for pop hits to come. On the album she ushered in the rap-sing trends we later enjoyed on songs like Gwen Stefani?s ?Hollaback Girl? and Fergie?s ?Fergalicious.? She experimented with rock (?Keep It Down?) and trip-hop electronic sounds (?Marathon?) that forecasts moments by some of Pop and R&B?s current starlets.




Source: NajlaKay for Swoonist


It is of great sin and deep offense to reduce this era to her hit single, Milkshake. Kelis? signature Tasty sounds informed the space Gwen Stefani?s LAMB and Fergie?s The Dutchess would find refuge in. Using similar musical sensibilities, and even producers, to craft kindred sassy hits, both artists reflect Kelis? cross-cultural influence. Bossy, with its hard-hitting 808s and braggadocious lyrics, forecasted the current Trap&B style that would later deliver Rihanna?s ?Bitch Better Have My Money?/?Pour It Up,? Beyonce?s ?Formation? and countless other hits that center the Black femme ego in spaces typically reserved for rappers.

Even in her latest work, Kelis displays a gift of knowing what is next. Her last album Food, a soulful, introspective, home-grown look at her inner-world. The culinary-themed musical feat bridged R&B with rock, funk and other sounds that prophesized musical victories Solange would earn with A Seat At The Table and Beyonce with Lemonade.

Women artists are constantly in conversation with one another and Kelis has initiated many a taboo topic. She elevates unmentionable whispers and pushes them to the edge thru screams. Kelis transgresses not artistically, but entirely, and for this she is often overlooked. She did not evolve into the bold woman with bold looks and lyrics. That is the only Kelis we ever knew, and it has never meshed well with patriarchal white supremacist industries that prefer submissive commodities.

Her sexuality, her body, her career and her privacy remained her own even during intense gossip and scrutiny. She did not perform her anxieties and eccentricities for the titillation of the public, like a Lady Gaga or Lana Del Rey, and she suffered for it. She chose to not narrate her heartbreak or her inner-turmoil for entertainment, and for that she is constantly erased, however, rarely forgotten. She is remembered in the moves and sounds and aesthetics of the women that dare take chances and transgress creatively from the start.

Kelis is still working on music, raising children and marketing a line of culinary sauces. In hindsight, it appears her most dramatic artistic rebellion is the one of her life; her decision to evolve on her own schedule and not attempt to upstage peers (or herself) for relevancy. She is uninterested in churning out meaningless material after material to secure flimsy profits and perpetuate her stardom. She dares to follow her heartbeat, expanding and shifting as she sees fit. She dares to innovate and nourish herself. Something about her unpredictability makes her seem like more than a star. Kelis is something like a planet to observe.

https://swoonist.com/2017/08/08/a-planet-called-kelis/

[Freemala Harris]

whew let me take time to read this

Queen is truly an icon and has been ahead of the curve since day 1.

[Lazarus]

 

[Sovereign.]

I would love another album from her, Pharrell and Chad. Just one more.

[Young]

whew let me take time to read this

Queen is truly an icon and has been ahead of the curve since day 1.

[Glenda]

I really love her. I was JUST telling my bby Squid about me getting back into her alberms "Tasty" and "Kelis Was Here

[Kurama]

I would like another alb

[.betterwiseup]

Great article! He told nothing but the truth.

[.betterwiseup]

I concur to everything, minus the Bossy praise. That was as  generic as it came.

Not in 2006. No one was going for that sound. Plus, Kelis had all the girls running to work with Bangladesh after Bossy success.

[Gilgamesh.]

I concur to everything, minus the Bossy praise. That was as  generic as it came.

For that time it was progressive.

[Young]

I concur to everything, minus the Bossy praise. That was as  generic as it came.

For that time it was progressive.