She started her career in 1997 and released her debut album in 1999.
Discography:
- Kaleidoscope (1999)
- Wanderland (2001)
- Tasty (2003)
- Kelis Was Here (2006)
- Flesh Tone (2010)
- Food (2014)
My milkshake brings all the tropes to the yard:
- A cappella: She has a song called Acapella: Listen to it here.
Strangely, the song is not A Cappella, but there was a version done in that mode. - Alice Allusion: The title and album art for Wanderland can be considered this. In addition to the title sounding like “Wonderland”, on the album cover Kelis is dressed in blue and white, the same colours as Alice’s dress.
- Angrish: Her debut single "Caught Out There" has her scream during the chorus:I hate you so much right now!I hate you so much right now!I hate you so much right now!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Breaking Old Trends:
- Tasty was her first album not to be entirely produced by The Neptunes, while Kelis Was Here was the first of her albums not to feature them at all.
- Food was her first album to use live instrumentals rather than digital production.
- Break-Up Song: "Caught Out There" is about the narrator hating her boyfriend for cheating on her.
- Broken Record:
- “Flashback” chorus (with the exception of a few adlibs): “Yeah, yeah/ooh you make my body go/yeah, yeah/ooh you make my body go/yeah, yeah…”
- ”Rolling Through The Hood” bridge: “Maybe tomorrow/maybe tomorrow/maybe tomorrow/maybe tomorrow…”
- Played With on “Popular Thug”, where the line “make my record skip” is repeated four times with an effect that makes it sound like a record really is skipping.
- “Emancipate” chorus: “Emancipate yourself/emancipate yourself, emancipate yourself, emancipate yourself…”
- Careful with That Axe: An unusual one with her debut single "Caught Out There". It's an R&B song with a jarring example during the chorus. She even lampshades this in her later single "Bossy" ("first girl to scream on a track").
- Double Entendre: "Milkshake" could obviously mean serving yummy milkshakes to the boys, but could mean something else. (Acording to Kellis, milkshake refers to "the thing that makes women special".)
- Erotic Eating: She drinks a milkshake in the video for the song of the same name in a suggestive way.
- Obligatory Bondage Song: "Blindfold Me", featuring Nas.
- Self-Titled Album: Her fourth album Kelis Was Here.
- Sensual Sweets: Her "Milkshake" brings all the boys to the yard. The music video shows Kelis enjoying an actual milkshake in a suggestive way as well as dancing in a manner that shakes her body.
- Unusual Euphemism: "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..."
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Nas in "Blindfold Me".
- Woman Scorned: "Caught Out There": She discovers that her partner is having an affair, and the video implies that her reaction is to violently attack him. It eventually builds to her possibly killing his partner with a gun, and perhaps the other woman he cheated on her with.
