Kelis to Offer “Tasty” Set
Hip-hop chanteuse Kelis will issue Tasty on October 6th on
the Neptunes’ Star Trak label, a subsidiary of Arista. The album
will be her first U.S. release in four years — Virgin Records,
which released 1999’s Kaleidoscope, opted not to issue her
second effort, 2001’s Wanderland.
“While I was getting off Virgin last year, I was bored and
started recording a lot of stuff on my own,” she says. “No [label
reps], no management, nothing. It was just Kelis in a booth, and
that’s sixty percent of the album. [The album’s producers] were
like, ‘We know eventually you’ll get signed, and one day we’ll get
paid.’ They were really wonderful.”
Unlike Kaleidoscope and Wanderland (available
as an import), which bare the Neptunes’ heavy influence,
Tasty incorporates a wider production palette. Kelis has
completed about twenty songs, including five with Raphael Saadiq
(Tony! Toni! Tone!, Lucy Pearl), a few with Dallas Austin (Monica,
Madonna), one titled “Guilty Girl” with her new manager P. Diddy,
and another called “Running Mate” with Timbaland. Kelis also worked
with Dame Grease, known for his work with DMX, on “Stick Up” and
“Everyday Story.” “He really brought it,” she says.
Kelis will record five more tracks for possible inclusion on
Tasty. She hasn’t collaborated with any guest artists so
far, but she’s not averse to using the talents of her fiance,
rapper Nas. “We haven’t done one yet,” she says, “but there’s a
song I’d like him to do.”
“Milkshake,” produced by the Neptunes, will lead off the
Tasty charge, hitting radio in July. “It’s like a fun
summer record,” Kelis says of the song. “It’s a return record, like
‘I’m back.’ It’s a fun little tease.”
Kelis will test-run some of the new material when she joins the
Neptunes and Talib Kweli on the Sprite Liquid Mix tour in
August.