Kelis dips her toes into soul, blues, folk, electronic, funk, hip-hop and Afro-beat.įood may be a new sound for Kelis, but she's bounced around different genres throughout her career: She started out working with the Neptunes (Pharrell and Chad Hugo), then she went to will.i.am's record label and collaborated with David Guetta and Calvin Harris. Food is a far cry from those days, and labeling the album as a particular genre would do it a disservice. That's when the wildly catchy "Milkshake" turned her into a household name. Kelis first appeared on the scene in 1999 with Kaleidoscope, but she really made a splash in 2003 when she released her third album, Tasty. The big change-up: This album has been a long time coming for Kelis, but it's different from anything she's released before.
But it's also unlike anything in the mainstream right now, so almost no one is talking about it. It's one of the most remarkable albums to come out in years, and every song is worthy of a single. It doesn't fit a formula, it doesn't fit the charts - but it addresses the most human of appetites.
SINGER KELIS FOOD HOW TO
So why is such a remarkable album being ignored? In one sense, the failure to acknowledge Food is a question of branding: People don't know how to categorize this marvelous concoction, so they ignore it entirely. 7 on its list of the 20 Best R&B Albums. The Independent raved, "If music be the food of love, Kelis has cooked up something tasty enough to satisfy all but the hungriest of hearts." The Chicago Tribune named Food its favorite album of the year. Food is a funky, soulful, truly exceptional example of what real music sounds like.
When most people think of Kelis, they probably think of her first big hit, " Milkshake." But Food, Kelis' sixth album in 15 years, proves she's far more than just a one-hit wonder. But this year is worse than most: The award show nominators overlooked Kelis' Food, the best album of her career and the best album of 2014.
The Grammys aren't exactly known for recognizing good music, but every year there's at least one record that is truly snubbed - a record so unjustly maligned that not only is it not nominated, it's not even considered by most as a snub.