Categories : Music Reviews, Rap + Hip-Hop.
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Rating: 4/5 Released: December 9th, 2003 Reviewer: Jason Zalmanowitz |
Remember that crazy lady in that music video walking down the street screaming about how angry she was… something about “[hating] you so much right now� No? What about that time there was that superstar with the crazy hair singing ‘Young, Fresh, and New’? No? Well, what about Nas’ girl wondering why she chose to be with him, even though she knew he was a popular thug? No? Ok, so, you’ve had to have heard ‘Milkshake,’ seen ‘Milkshake’ playing on your favorite music video station, or heard it on someone’s cellphone as a ring tone. No? Alright, listen buddy, where have you been? A spider hole?
In the beginning, there was Foxy Brown, and she was good. And then came Missy Elliot, and she was also quite good. Mya, Aliyah, and so many other notables brought their sweet bumps to our ears, but there was something dynamic missing. And then along comes Kelis (pronounced Kah-leese). Unlike so many other female vocalists, there is some kind of magic surrounding her. There was an atypical oddity surrounding this Diva, something that made you think, “Wow, she really is crazy.†Not like nuthouse crazy, but more like “phat†crazy. All of this crazy verb confusion doesn’t actually do Kelis and her sweet voice any justice. The backbeats that the Neptunes, Chad Hugo and Pharrel Williams, managed to bring out to play may just be the right tool to do justice though. After two long years of bated breath, drawn short from 2001’s ‘Wanderland,’ we’re graced with ‘Tasty.’ And after five years of business done through Virgin, the Neptunes have passed their good graces down to Kelis and signed her to their newly formed StarTrak label.
‘Tasty,’ a fourteen track mixed masterpiece, opens with Kelis feeding some guy some random bits of food and drink. They are all apparently pretty tasty, as we can hear him enjoying them thoroughly. But when the sound of the zipper opens and the guy to whom she is sampling food speaks with his mouth half full, I start to get worried. But never fear, we’re promised something good… and ‘Trick Me,’ the second track of this LP, seems to keep said promise. The slow samba-esque rhythms, complimented by the siren song and spoken word interludes, are an excellent prelude to what is confidently this December’s #1 LP. And just in time to displace ‘Shut Up’ from everyone’s Top-20 countdown, ‘Milkshake’ starts playing. Now we know you’re all looking for something fresh, something that you haven’t heard yet. Something sweet, yet jagged. Something like a destined for stardom and triple platinum super single. Something like a teasing vocal melody mixed with a raw back beat and a dash of the soon-to-be newest fad sprinkled on top. Something like ‘Milkshake.’
With two full tracks completed, and the outlook extra-positive, what else could this LP do to make it that much better? Well, the mixture of Nas and Kelis on ‘In Public,’ a sexual track by nature, would be a good start. Or perhaps having the crisp sounds of Pharrel Williams compliment Kelis on ‘Protect My Heart’ could add some value to this LP. Now, if these two Clones aren’t any fun, try out a swinging up-tempo tune with Outkast’s Andre 3000, ‘Millionaire.’ I’m sure he didn’t take too long of a break from recording ‘Speakerboxx/The Love Below’ to help Kelis out. And with the plateau nowhere in sight, Raphael Saadiq, of ‘Lucy Pearl,’ helps Kelis slow it down on ‘Glow’ and spark our attention on ‘Attention.’ It would seem Kelis knows the right people to be able to ascertain such a compliment of big names to help her record big tracks.
But where does all of this attention from big names leave our heroine? Are we to assume that she needs the help of other big names to stand on her own? Does she need the backing of Nas to help make more sexually oriented tracks? Does she need Andre 3000 to help make an up-tempo song? No. Not at all. If you answered otherwise, you can pick up your parting gift and go home. Kelis shines on her own on every single track on ‘Tasty,’ which is no change in the status-quo of previous albums. ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Wanderland’ brought forth the notion that Kelis was a strong singer, and ‘Tasty’ has shown us that she is not just a strong singer – but a force to be reckoned with. This girl has nowhere to go but up.
With the final seconds of this LP wrapping up, and the ear candy being mulled over and mashed around, the final four seconds instruct us – just in case we’ve forgotten the proper steps of consumption – to swallow. Now, then, who’s ready for seconds?
