Kelis — Tasty
Though gaining critical success with her first two albums, Kelis’ third studio album Tasty finally helped her reach the commercial success that she had not experienced. Whilst also proving to her naysayers that she could produce a great project without the dependency of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.
Kelis
With her first two albums, 1999’s Kaleidoscope and 2001’s Wanderland, Kelis was a unique act. She was able to fuse sounds of different genres, from the likes of R&B and Hip-Hop to Funk and Soul. With credit also going to The Neptunes, the production duo of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who produced and provided writing assistance for Kelis. With both albums gaining critical success and commercial success outside of the U.S, commercial success within the States alluded the singer. By the time of her third studio LP, Kelis’ luck would change. The first single off of Tasty, “Milkshake”, helped her gain that success. With the single’s infectious chorus and innovative dance production, Kelis gained her biggest single to date. Twenty years on from its release, the single has aged gracefully and is still capable of rocking a dancefloor if it comes on. Along with its music video, “Milkshake” is arguably one of the most iconic singles of the 2000s.
“Milkshake” isn’t the only great single off Tasty, the follow up singles “Trick Me” and “Millionaire” featuring Andre 3000 are incredible highlights. With her first two albums entirely produced by The Neptunes, Kelis seeked the work of other producers to prove that her success wasn’t purely because of Pharrell and Chad. “Trick Me” , produced and written by Dallas Austin, focuses on someone who deals with a manipulative partner who steps out on them. Similar to “Milkshake”, “Trick Me” is another single that can get feet on to the dancefloor as the production possesses a certain Hip-Hop bounce. “Millionaire” featuring and produced by Andre 3000, touches upon the stance of “more money more problems” and that fame and money doesn’t provide happiness. With a 1980s inspired synth funk instrumental, it’s one of the best records on the whole album from a song writing perspective and Andre’s feature is a major highlight as well.
A lot of the album cuts are also fantastic, with the best one being the Neptunes produced “Sugar Honey Iced Tea”. A great pop record, where Kelis describes her admiration for a crush, vocally it’s one of her best performances on the whole project. She sings in a relaxed tone, she fits really well with Pharrell and Chad’s phenomenal production. Besides Andre 3000, the Tasty also consists of features from Nas and Raphael Saadiq. Saadiq has two features on the album with “Glow” and “Attention”, both records being really great. “In Public” with Nas, unfortunately is one of the weaker records off the album. A sexually charged record, the song hasn’t aged well and is quite cringeworthy when you hear it in 2023. With Nas’ verse being the worst part of the whole song, with lines such as “The pu**y or the mouth? That is the question, like Shakespeare, but my erection is the case here”.
Though Tasty may have a couple of records such as “Keep It Down Pt. 2” and “In Public”, that don’t live up to the standard of the great records on the rest of the LP; Tasty is still phenomenal and contains some of Kelis’ best work. She was able to prove that she could produce great material with and without The Neptunes, whilst also finally getting the commercial attention that she deserved. Though not all, many of the album cuts and singles have aged really well and are still enjoyable twenty years on. This was Kelis at her best.