With “Acapella” all over MTV and Channel O, Kelis is cooking. Her latest album, Fleshtone, is a lot like her fantastic fashion sense: incredibly dynamic!

She’s is the queen of reinvention and 10 years into a career that’s sparked more hits than misses, she’s back with nine new life-changing tunes. Think Lady Gaga meets modern-day Madonna, with all the R&B and hip-hop ripped out – that’s what this album shouts out at fans from start to electro-disco finish.

Yes, it’s all quite different from her “Milkshake” days, but over the past two years she fell pregnant with her first child, Knight, divorced Nas, and hooked up with producer David Guetta to record her latest blistering musical retort. It was in 1999 that she first enticed us with Caught Out There and since then she’s showered fans with no less than five deliciously diverse albums. Kaleidoscope, Wanderland in 2001, Tasty in 2003, Kelis Was Here in 2006 and now Fleshtone in 2010 – each chapter filled the airwaves and turned the Harlem, New York native into a force to be reckoned with.
 
Over the past decade, Kelis has worked with a wide range of artists, including The Neptunes, Andre 3000, Björk, Enrique Iglesias and Raphael Saadiq. With dance her new direction, she once again worked with only the best in the business: will.i.am, Free School, Boys Noize, Burnz, DJ Ammo and Benny Benassi. Four years have lapsed since Kelis Was Here, long enough to have fans wondering whether she would ever record again – especially when word got out that she was pregnant. But true to form, Kelis shook off the naysayers and pessimists in no time. “You know we New Yorkers don’t ever keep anything to ourselves,” Kelis joked on a blog posted to her fans on her official website. “I suppose people assumed after the baby and divorce that it would be on to motherhood for me. And while that’s true, my answer was always the same: ‘Soon, guys.’”

Perhaps best known for “Bossy”, which  broke bestselling records as a ringtone, the fashion icon is also a certified chef and a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. There was even talk of Kelis putting out a cookbook before she went in to record the new album. “I don’t know about a cookbook,” she says. “I became a saucier in school, so I’m aiming to bring out my own brand of special sauce. I think food, fashion and music all go together when it’s done right.”

With everyone once again wanting a piece of her, the kitchen will be taking a backseat for a while as she ascends the charts once again. One look at the new album’s artwork is all you need to know that the lady known for her outlandish fashion sense is set to make more styling statements while her songs enjoy high rotation. “It’s all me,” she says of her wild tresses. “My biggest challenge is not wearing my hair the way I do, it’s convincing my stylists to play along.”

So just how does someone like Kelis keep it real, no matter what life throws at her? “You’ve got to stick to your guns and trust your instincts,” she offers. And if anyone should know that it’s her – especially with nine new chart-teasing tracks in her arsenal.

By Jason Curtis

Image: UNIVERSAL MUSIC