Why Kelis stopped making music with The Neptunes
In the late 1990s and early-’00s, The Neptunes were the most sought-after producer duo in all of hip-hop. Comprised of the renowned Pharrell Williams and the lesser-known Chad Hugo, their unique sound and beautifully simplistic sonics were so prevalent that by 2003, The Neptunes were responsible for 43 per cent of the songs on US radio.
The Neptunes worked with many artists during their heyday. However, one of their biggest protégés was Kelis. The tracks she made alongside the duo, such as ‘Caught Out There’, helped the vocalist secure a record deal in 1998. But one of her breakout hits was ‘Milkshake.’
In 2019, Kelis celebrated the 20th anniversary of her debut project, Kaleidoscope, which was produced in its entirety by the Neptunes. However, its lack of success made Kelis question herself and her relationship with her collaborators. Furthermore, the money she saw from the album was little as the music belonged to Pharrell and his team.
Kelis began working with the Neptunes when she was 19. Initially, she considered them her friends and worked well with them creatively, but she has since admitted that she was young and highly naïve when it came to the notoriously exploitative business side of the music industry.
In an interview with The Guardian, the ‘Millionaire’ singer unveiled that she didn’t make any money off her first two albums, 1999’s Kaleidoscope and 2001’s Wanderland, produced by The Neptunes.
Explaining the initial agreement concerning money generated from sales, Kelis told the publication, “I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do! Their argument is, ‘Well, you signed it.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’”
When it was time to work on her third studio album, Tasty, although she worked with the Neptunes partially, she also brought in producers such as Rockwilder, Raphael Saadiq and Dame Grease, and as she began to bring in and replace them by 2004, their relationship was over.
During a 2019 interview with i-D magazine, she took some of the blame for the deterioration of the working relationship, stating, “Were they fair to me? Did they give me what they said they were going to give me? Someone might argue that I was wrong, since I didn’t ask the right questions. It’s not a new story, it happens all the time.”
2014’s Food was her last studio album. Still, now that she’s living peacefully on a farm on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and is seriously removed from the industry. Although Kelis doesn’t hate the Neptunes, she does wish that the duo had given her a bit more grace considering her age when she entered the business.