Kelis photographed by Jonathan Mannion (1999)
by Gina Physic
On her debut album, the “Caught Out There” singer blended hip-hop and R&B, among other genres.
In the moments before the turn of the century, Kelis burst into the industry screaming, quite literally. In her debut single “Caught Out There,” from the studio album, Kaleidoscope, Kelis was herself, unafraid and ready to meld genres in a frantic time that desperately needed new energy. With her single, and the album as a whole, Kelis repackaged sounds familiar to hip-hop, R&B, rock, and funk, forever transforming the former two.
While Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money” is one of Kelis’ best known hooks (the track samples “Cold Blooded” by Rick James), it, nor “Caught Out There,” was her first step into the music industry. After graduating high school, Kelis was featured on “Fairytalez” by horrorcore rap group Gravediggaz. But even before this, the singer played violin, saxophone, sang in the Girls Choir of Harlem, and grew up with a musician father. She often would share that she found inspiration in everything---and it was this love, plus past experiences with music, that made Kaleidoscope as impactful as it was.
During a 2021 Sundance Film Festival panel on speculative fiction, the self-proclaimed “foremother of Afrofuturism”, Jewelle Gomez, stated, “For us, the past is more than prologue. The past is a really deep stew that we are cooking in and we cannot go anywhere without the aroma of that past.” The same was true of the sound Kelis introduced as a signee of Virgin Records, which was also the home to other genre-blending Black performers like Janet Jackson and Aaliyah. She was unlike anything hip-hop or R&B had seen before---experimental, while leaning on some of the very sounds that helped to birth both hip-hop and R&B: jazz, gospel and disco. With the help of The Neptunes, who fully produced Kaleidoscope, she was able to forge a new sound that remained in conversation with the sounds of the past.
Songs like “Ghetto Children” (the first track N.E.R.D appeared on) offered a futuristic and playful take on 80s rapper Slick Rick’s “Hey Young World” while laced with Kelis’ effortless, honey-dipped vocals. With “Roller Rink,” she took listeners bouncing on a psychedelic ride through space over a sample of Al Jarreau’s “No Ordinary Romance.” Kelis was repackaging an existing musical lexicon to formulate her sound, and as a result, bridging the worlds of hip-hop and R&B.
Shortly after Kaleidoscope was released, Kelis completed a promotional stop on the BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland, a show she frequented since her work was received warmly in the United Kingdom. In the 2000 interview, she explained why she called her album Kaleidoscope, saying “Well, I mean, just think about what a kaleidoscope is. It’s a really great blend of many different things and together they’re each individual pieces, but when you put them all in one… it’s a big picture.” During the interview, Holland also noted a conversation he had with Kelis’ band, sharing that they were heavily influenced by Willie “The Lion” Smith, a jazz and stride pianist who was a predecessor of composer and bandleader Duke Ellington. The band was also inspired by James P. Johnson, “The Father of Stride Piano,” and Jelly Roll Morton, who is widely recognized for aiding in the evolution of ragtime into jazz.
Jazz, with its reliance on improvisation and sample-ready percussion, lent its back to the building of hip-hop, directly playing a role in the sonic territory Kelis explored.
Beyond Kaleidoscope, when Kelis toed the line between hip-hop and R&B, she was part of some of the most influential collaborations across the genres, establishing a formula that would dominate radio waves and later, streaming platforms.There was a time, as she recalls, that she was a “feature girl on every hook there was.” From her offerings with Foxy Brown, to Angie Martinez, to Busta Rhymes to her former labelmates, The Clipse – Kelis left her mark. Her music has since been sampled by James Blake, Xzibit, The Internet, Disclosure, and when it isn’t directly sampled, it’s referenced heavily.
Much like the lineage from which Kaleidoscope pulled, Kelis’ own influence is sprawling. Her early musical contributions bridged a gap between hip-hop and R&B, encouraging change and inspiring a generation of music makers. But of course they did, since she came in the game telling us that the good stuff was right here.