Kelis Was Here
Encyclopedia
Kelis Was Here is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Kelis
, released in the United States on August 22, 2006 by LaFace Records
and Jive Records
. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios, namely Bangladesh Studios, Battery Studios, Blakeslee Recording Company, Blue Basement Recordings, Chalice Recording Studios, Doppler Studios, Glenwood Place Studios, The Hit Factory Criteria
, Ocean Way Recording
, The Record Plant
, Right Track Recording
, Sony Music Studios
, and Westlake Audio
.
It features production by Bangladesh
, Raphael Saadiq
, Max Martin
, Sean Garrett
, and Scott Storch
, among others, and also features collaborations with will.i.am
, Nas
, Cee-Lo, Too Short, and Spragga Benz
. The album was nominated for the Best Contemporary R&B Album
category at the 2007 Grammy Awards and is notable for being the first Kelis record to feature no production from long-time collaborators The Neptunes
.
in December 2006. It broke into the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100
to peak at number sixteen. The second single from the album in the US, "Blindfold Me
", featuring Nas
, peaked at number ninety-one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
but never made it onto the Hot 100. The second international single was "Lil Star
" which features Cee-Lo of the Gnarls Barkley
fame and earned Kelis her highest chart entries since 2004's "Millionaire
". "Lil Star" climbed to number three on the UK Singles Chart
selling over 118,000 copies and was also a hit in Ireland reaching the number-two position.
Due to the use of "I Don't Think So
" in a promotional advertising for Big Brother Australia 2008
, the song charted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart
on April 21, 2008 at number forty-nine based on digital download
sales alone. The following week it rose twenty places to number twenty-nine, ultimately peaking at number twenty-seven.
and at number six on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
with more than 58,000 units sold within its first week of release, making it Kelis' best-charting album to date. Nevertheless, sales declined soon and the album fell quickly off the chart after its sixth week. According to Nielsen SoundScan
, Kelis Was Here has sold 160,000 copies in the United States as of June 2008.
The album did not have much better success internationally, although it was ceritifed silver by the British Phonographic Industry
on September 29, 2006 for shipping over 60,000 copies within the United Kingdom.
Despite low sales, the album was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album
at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Although not her first nomination, it was Kelis' first album to be nominated for a Grammy Award (her 2004 nomination was for her song "Milkshake
" in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance
category).
s. At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 70, based on 23 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Ann Powers
from Los Angeles Times
wrote, "Blending the intimate purr of quiet-storm
balladry, the New Age
magic of Afrofuturism
, the beep of the Roland 808
drum machine and the bash of vintage black rock, Kelis Was Here mines a memory of R&B as the playground of category-dismantling individualists." Kelefa Sanneh
from The New York Times
described the album as "typically garish and glorious" and stated that "[t]he sound ranges from space-age
hip-hop [...] to space-age guitar pop [...] to, well, space-age hip-hop again." Slant Magazine
critic Preston Jones noted that "Kelis Was Here, like her three albums prior, doesn't stay locked into the R&B genre exclusively and this shotgun approach renders the disc an intriguing mishmash of sounds, beats, and vocal affectations; Kelis is just as captivating when she coos as she is when her pipes get dangerously husky." He also claimed that the album is "the sound of a talented, leftfield hip-hop diva in a holding pattern, concerned about her legacy but uncertain as to how to go about cementing it." Clover Hope of Billboard called it "wonderfully whimsical" and "thick with dynamic instrumentation", and referred to the songwriting as "surprisingly multilayered". Steve Hands of musicOMH
opined that "[t]he mixed bag of Raphael Saadiq, Swizz Beatz
, and Linda Perry
(to name just three) all centre the robo-like passion-at-one-remove Kelis voice in a pop-glossary of bubblegum beats, Mantronix
-synths, low-key gospel
, and the odd cartoon axe-riffing. At all points, there is a sense of Prince
-like knowingness, of pop-play and meaning being where you find it." He further concluded, "As far as Kelis Was Here is concerned, the results are not quite Tasty, but they're pretty damn close." Q
gave the album four out of five stars and commented that it is "chock-full of surreal soul diamonds."
Entertainment Weekly
s Clark Collis felt that the results of the inclusion of multiple producers on the album are "eclectic, erratic, and lacking anything likely to repeat the success of 'Milkshake
.'" He viewed that most tracks are "surprisingly anonymous, occupying rather than owning, for example, the pleasant, Cee-Lo co-penned 'Lil Star'", while citing "Circus" as the album's "hands-down worst track". Chris Salmon of The Guardian
, however, criticized the absence of The Neptunes, stating that "[c]ontributors such as Black Eyed Peas
' Will.i.am and Ludacris
producer Shondrae reject all subtlety for songs that caricature Kelis as sexy, bolshy and not much else. The results are shallow and unconvincing, driven by the kind of brash holler and breathy schmaltz you would expect from J-Lo
or Pussycat Dolls
(complete with the rubbish guest raps)." He also went on to describe the album as "a bloated 77-minute collection that badly mistakes quantity for quality." Mikael Wood of Spin
called it her "most streamlined effort yet", commenting that she "consolidates" her previous "allure" and "turns up sex, turns down sass". Pitchfork Media
's Tim Finney wrote that "like Wanderland, [Kelis Was Here] is formally varied but feels consistent—even monochrome in parts. She remains indebted to the Neptunes' production nous even in their absence, regularly adorning herself with the sort of production touches one would expect from the duo. But where the Neptunes gave Kelis consistency by always drawing attention to their own unmistakable sound, this album's consistency is a direct result of its coolly competent eclecticism, with both Kelis and her producers trying to fade, chameleon-like, into the fabric of the songs." Andy Kellman of Allmusic believed that "[w]hat makes [the album] less successful than 1999's Kaleidoscope and 2003's Tasty is that it's extremely choppy and excessively long, and it doesn't have the range of emotions to match the varied backdrops. There is too much and not enough Kelis; too much material is second rate, and the tougher sides of her character dominate the album." In a review for The Observer
, Peter Robinson
commented that the album "occasionally misfires [...] but there's still sass and creativity here." Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters
argued that "[t]he songs are individually good, but don't really sound like they should have been grouped together on an album."
Sample credits
Kelis
Kelis Rogers Kelis Rogers Kelis Rogers (born August 21, 1971 is an American musical artist. She is a BRIT Award, Q Award and NME Award winner and has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. She has had nine top 10 singles on the UK Singles Chart...
, released in the United States on August 22, 2006 by LaFace Records
LaFace Records
LaFace Records is an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment.-Company history:LaFace was formed in 1989 as a joint venture between the producing duo Antonio "L.A." Reid & Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and Arista Records. The combined nicknames of the duo's successful...
and Jive Records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios, namely Bangladesh Studios, Battery Studios, Blakeslee Recording Company, Blue Basement Recordings, Chalice Recording Studios, Doppler Studios, Glenwood Place Studios, The Hit Factory Criteria
The Hit Factory
The Hit Factory was a recording studio in New York City famous for its clientele. It was officially closed for business April 1, 2005 whereas other Hit Factory studio locations remained open, such as in Miami, Florida.-History:...
, Ocean Way Recording
Ocean Way Recording
Ocean Way Recording is the name of a series of recording studios in Hollywood, California and Nashville, Tennessee. Ocean Way Studios is well known in the recording industry due to the award-winning albums that were produced there....
, The Record Plant
Record Plant Studios
The Record Plant was a series of three famous recording studios which were founded by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, beginning in New York City in 1968. The next year, Kellgren and Stone opened a second studio in Los Angeles. In 1972, the company expanded again with a third location in Sausalito,...
, Right Track Recording
Right Track Recording
Right Track Recording is a four-studio recording studio located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. Established in 1976 by Simon Andrews, Right Track Recording today is one of the premier recording studios in New York City....
, Sony Music Studios
Sony Music Studios
Sony Music Studios was a well-known former music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The music and broadcasting complex was located at 460 W. 54th St., at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan...
, and Westlake Audio
Westlake Recording Studios
Westlake Recording Studios is a well-known music recording studio in West Hollywood, CA.-History:The studio was founded as Westlake Audio in the early 1970s by Tom Hidley, and is credited as "one of the first big commercial efforts to produce acoustically standardised 'interchangeable' rooms"...
.
It features production by Bangladesh
Bangladesh (producer)
Shondrae Crawford, better known as Bangladesh or Mr. Bangladesh, is a Grammy Award winning American record producer and disc jockey and rapper, who was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.- Life and career :...
, Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He also produced songs of such artists as TLC, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J...
, Max Martin
Max Martin
Martin Karl Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. Raised in Stenhamra, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, he broke through as a producer and songwriter in the mid to late 1990s after crafting a string of hits for pop artists like the Backstreet Boys,...
, Sean Garrett
Sean Garrett
Garrett Hamler, better known by his stage name Sean Garrett is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer. He has produced fifteen number one singles in only seven years of producing music. That number puts him in fifth place on the Billboard list of producers with the most number...
, and Scott Storch
Scott Storch
Scott Storch is an American record producer. He produces a variety of music, particularly hip hop, reggaeton, and R&B. His label, Storch Music Company responsible for signing Brooke Hogan and Nox...
, among others, and also features collaborations with will.i.am
Will.i.am
William James Adams, Jr. , better known by his stage name will.i.am and occasionally by his other stage name Zuper Blahq, is an American rapper, musician, songwriter, singer, actor and producer...
, Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
, Cee-Lo, Too Short, and Spragga Benz
Spragga Benz
-Career:He began his career around 1991. Once known to his friends as "Spaghetti" , but this was later shortened to Spragga. The Benz in his name comes from the sound system for which he used to work for, L.A. Benz, and it is through this that he found his way into the music industry at a Dubplate...
. The album was nominated for the Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre...
category at the 2007 Grammy Awards and is notable for being the first Kelis record to feature no production from long-time collaborators The Neptunes
The Neptunes
The Neptunes are a record production duo consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who are credited with contributing the sound for many successful hip hop, R&B and pop artists in the late-1990s and 2000s...
.
Release and promotion
The album's lead single, "Bossy", features rapper Too Short and was a successful hit. It was a slow burner in the US but eventually was certified multi platinum by the Recording Industry Association of AmericaRecording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in December 2006. It broke into the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
to peak at number sixteen. The second single from the album in the US, "Blindfold Me
Blindfold Me
"Blindfold Me" is the second US single from Kelis' fourth studio album, Kelis Was Here . The single, released in October 2006, features American rapper Nas...
", featuring Nas
Nas
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
, peaked at number ninety-one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
but never made it onto the Hot 100. The second international single was "Lil Star
Lil Star
"Lil Star" is the second international single from Kelis' Grammy Award-nominated fourth studio album, Kelis Was Here . Released outside US , the single features Cee-Lo, who is known for being a half of the duo Gnarls Barkley...
" which features Cee-Lo of the Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley is an American soul duo comprising Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green. Their first studio album St. Elsewhere was released in 2006; along with its first single "Crazy". Both single and album were a major commercial success and have been noted for their large sales by download...
fame and earned Kelis her highest chart entries since 2004's "Millionaire
Millionaire (song)
"Millionaire" is a song by American R&B singer–songwriter Kelis, featuring American singer–rapper André 3000—half of the hip hop duo OutKast. Written by Kelis and André 3000 who also served as the producer, the song was released in October 2004 as the third single from Kelis' third studio album,...
". "Lil Star" climbed to number three on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
selling over 118,000 copies and was also a hit in Ireland reaching the number-two position.
Due to the use of "I Don't Think So
I Don't Think So
"I Don't Think So" is a song by American recording artist Kelis from her fourth studio album, Kelis Was Here . Written by Kelis, Max Martin, and Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and produced by Martin and Gottwald, the song became popular with Australian audiences when it was used in advertisements for...
" in a promotional advertising for Big Brother Australia 2008
Big Brother Australia 2008
Big Brother Australia 2008 was the eighth season of the Australian reality television series, Big Brother Australia to air on Network Ten. Episodes were broadcast on Network Ten and Ten HD in Australia. The first episode aired on 28 April 2008. Since then, there has been a total 20 housemates...
, the song charted on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
on April 21, 2008 at number forty-nine based on digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
sales alone. The following week it rose twenty places to number twenty-nine, ultimately peaking at number twenty-seven.
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number ten on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and at number six on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
with more than 58,000 units sold within its first week of release, making it Kelis' best-charting album to date. Nevertheless, sales declined soon and the album fell quickly off the chart after its sixth week. According to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
, Kelis Was Here has sold 160,000 copies in the United States as of June 2008.
The album did not have much better success internationally, although it was ceritifed silver by the British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
on September 29, 2006 for shipping over 60,000 copies within the United Kingdom.
Despite low sales, the album was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre...
at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Although not her first nomination, it was Kelis' first album to be nominated for a Grammy Award (her 2004 nomination was for her song "Milkshake
Milkshake (song)
"Milkshake" is a song by American recording artist Kelis and the lead single from her third studio album, Tasty. The song was released in the United States on August 25, 2003, by Star Trak and Arista Records, and internationally on November 24. It was written and produced by The Neptunes, a duo...
" in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance
Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality urban/alternative performances...
category).
Critical reception
Kelis Was Here received generally positive reviews from music criticMusic criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 70, based on 23 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Ann Powers
Ann Powers
Ann Powers is an American writer and pop music critic.Powers has been writing about popular music and society since the early 1980s...
from Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote, "Blending the intimate purr of quiet-storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
balladry, the New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
magic of Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise,...
, the beep of the Roland 808
Roland TR-808
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines . Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real...
drum machine and the bash of vintage black rock, Kelis Was Here mines a memory of R&B as the playground of category-dismantling individualists." Kelefa Sanneh
Kelefa Sanneh
Kelefa T. Sanneh is an American journalist and music critic. From 2000 to 2008, he wrote for the New York Times, covering the rock 'n' roll, hip-hop, and pop music scenes...
from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described the album as "typically garish and glorious" and stated that "[t]he sound ranges from space-age
Space Age
The Space Age is a time period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events. The Space Age is generally considered to have begun with Sputnik...
hip-hop [...] to space-age guitar pop [...] to, well, space-age hip-hop again." Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
critic Preston Jones noted that "Kelis Was Here, like her three albums prior, doesn't stay locked into the R&B genre exclusively and this shotgun approach renders the disc an intriguing mishmash of sounds, beats, and vocal affectations; Kelis is just as captivating when she coos as she is when her pipes get dangerously husky." He also claimed that the album is "the sound of a talented, leftfield hip-hop diva in a holding pattern, concerned about her legacy but uncertain as to how to go about cementing it." Clover Hope of Billboard called it "wonderfully whimsical" and "thick with dynamic instrumentation", and referred to the songwriting as "surprisingly multilayered". Steve Hands of musicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
opined that "[t]he mixed bag of Raphael Saadiq, Swizz Beatz
Swizz Beatz
Kasseem Dean , better known by his stage name, Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, DJ, rapper and painter. At the age of 17, he gained attention in the hip-hop world through his friendship with rapper DMX. Grady Spivey and rapper Cassidy helped launch his label Full Surface Records...
, and Linda Perry
Linda Perry
Linda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer...
(to name just three) all centre the robo-like passion-at-one-remove Kelis voice in a pop-glossary of bubblegum beats, Mantronix
Mantronix
Mantronix was an influential 1980s hip hop and electro funk music group founded by DJ Kurtis Mantronik , and rapper MC Tee...
-synths, low-key gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and the odd cartoon axe-riffing. At all points, there is a sense of Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
-like knowingness, of pop-play and meaning being where you find it." He further concluded, "As far as Kelis Was Here is concerned, the results are not quite Tasty, but they're pretty damn close." Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album four out of five stars and commented that it is "chock-full of surreal soul diamonds."
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Clark Collis felt that the results of the inclusion of multiple producers on the album are "eclectic, erratic, and lacking anything likely to repeat the success of 'Milkshake
Milkshake (song)
"Milkshake" is a song by American recording artist Kelis and the lead single from her third studio album, Tasty. The song was released in the United States on August 25, 2003, by Star Trak and Arista Records, and internationally on November 24. It was written and produced by The Neptunes, a duo...
.'" He viewed that most tracks are "surprisingly anonymous, occupying rather than owning, for example, the pleasant, Cee-Lo co-penned 'Lil Star'", while citing "Circus" as the album's "hands-down worst track". Chris Salmon of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, however, criticized the absence of The Neptunes, stating that "[c]ontributors such as Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
' Will.i.am and Ludacris
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges , better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings...
producer Shondrae reject all subtlety for songs that caricature Kelis as sexy, bolshy and not much else. The results are shallow and unconvincing, driven by the kind of brash holler and breathy schmaltz you would expect from J-Lo
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
or Pussycat Dolls
Pussycat Dolls
The Pussycat Dolls are an American pop girl group and dance ensemble based in Los Angeles; currently consisting of Lauren Bennett, Vanessa Curry, Kristal "Lyndriette" Smith, Tiffany "Taz" Zavala, Kia Hampton and Paula Van Oppen. The Pussycat Dolls were founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995...
(complete with the rubbish guest raps)." He also went on to describe the album as "a bloated 77-minute collection that badly mistakes quantity for quality." Mikael Wood of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
called it her "most streamlined effort yet", commenting that she "consolidates" her previous "allure" and "turns up sex, turns down sass". Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
's Tim Finney wrote that "like Wanderland, [Kelis Was Here] is formally varied but feels consistent—even monochrome in parts. She remains indebted to the Neptunes' production nous even in their absence, regularly adorning herself with the sort of production touches one would expect from the duo. But where the Neptunes gave Kelis consistency by always drawing attention to their own unmistakable sound, this album's consistency is a direct result of its coolly competent eclecticism, with both Kelis and her producers trying to fade, chameleon-like, into the fabric of the songs." Andy Kellman of Allmusic believed that "[w]hat makes [the album] less successful than 1999's Kaleidoscope and 2003's Tasty is that it's extremely choppy and excessively long, and it doesn't have the range of emotions to match the varied backdrops. There is too much and not enough Kelis; too much material is second rate, and the tougher sides of her character dominate the album." In a review for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson (journalist)
Peter Robinson is a British music journalist. He is the creator of the pop music-based blog Popjustice. Robinson first came to the attention of music fans with his self-published biography/fanzine of The KLF, Justified and Ancient History...
commented that the album "occasionally misfires [...] but there's still sass and creativity here." Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
argued that "[t]he songs are individually good, but don't really sound like they should have been grouped together on an album."
Track listing
(*) denotes co-producerSample credits
- "What's That Right There" contains a sample from "(Not Just) Knee Deep(Not Just) Knee Deep" Knee Deep" is a funk song running 15 minutes, 21 seconds on side 1 of Funkadelic's 1979 album Uncle Jam Wants You.-Song information:...
" by FunkadelicFunkadelicFunkadelic was an American band most prominent during the 1970s. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...
.
Personnel
- Kelis – vocals, executive producer
- Ben H. Allen – engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
(track 13) - Wayne "The Brain" Allison – engineer (track 8)
- Chris Athens – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- BangladeshBangladesh (producer)Shondrae Crawford, better known as Bangladesh or Mr. Bangladesh, is a Grammy Award winning American record producer and disc jockey and rapper, who was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.- Life and career :...
– producer (tracks 2, 12, 15); engineer (tracks 12, 15) - Dawn Beckman – choirChoirA choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
(track 16) - The Blitzburg Group – mixing assistant (tracks 16, 17)
- Printz BoardPrintz Board-Biography:Printz Board is a producer, writer, and artist. His life career in music began in Ohio when he received his first trumpet. The then ambiguous Board became drawn in to the heated and story-filled sound of his horn...
– trumpet (track 4) - Renee Bowers – choir (track 16)
- Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd – co-producer (track 8)
- Renato Brasa – percussion (track 17)
- Kerry Braxton – choir (track 16)
- Robert "Brizz" Brisbane – engineer (track 7)
- Jason Brown – choir (track 16)
- Grecco Burratto – co-arrangerArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
(track 17) - Vadim Chislov – assistant engineer (track 8)
- Nathan Connelly – assistant engineer (tracks 16, 17)
- Cool & DreCool & DreCool & Dre are a team of hip hop producers from Miami, Florida, consisting of Marcello "Cool" Valenzano and Andre "Dre" Christopher Lyon.-Epidemic Records:...
– producer (track 7) - Kevin Crouse – engineer (track 11)
- Dickie – hair stylistBarberA barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
- Dr. LukeDr. LukeLukasz Gottwald , better known as Dr. Luke, is an American songwriter, record producer, and remixer. Luke performed with the Saturday Night Live Band for ten seasons until 2007. He has co-written and co-produced a string of commercially successful songs...
– producer, instrumentationInstrumentation (music)In music, instrumentation refers to the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and to the properties of those instruments individually...
(track 14) - Joseph Edwards – choir (track 16)
- Damon ElliottDamon ElliottDamon Elliott , commonly known as Dame, is an American producer, writer, composer, recording artist and entrepreneur. His production genre’s include pop, hip hop, rock, R&B, gospel, and more recently, country....
– producer (tracks 16, 17); arranger (track 17) - Cheryl Evans – backing vocals (track 11)
- John Frye – mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
(track 2) - Darien Gap – mixing (track 15)
- Sean GarrettSean GarrettGarrett Hamler, better known by his stage name Sean Garrett is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer. He has produced fifteen number one singles in only seven years of producing music. That number puts him in fifth place on the Billboard list of producers with the most number...
– producer (track 6); co-producer (track 2) - Sharon Gault – make-up
- Serban GheneaSerban GheneaSerban Ghenea is a four-time Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award-winning mixer. He has mixed songs for such artists as Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Jewel, Santana, Ozomatli, Shakira, Jill Scott, R. Kelly, Rod Stewart, and Dave Matthews Band...
– mixing (tracks 13, 14) - Jim GilstrapJim GilstrapJim Gilstrap is an American singer best known for his work as a session musician and his 1975 solo hit single "Swing Your Daddy", as well as singing co-lead to the theme from the TV series Good Times.-Career:...
– choir (track 16) - Conrad Golding – engineer (track 8)
- Cee-Lo Green – producer, vocals (track 13)
- John Hanes – Pro ToolsPro ToolsPro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
engineer (track 13); additional Pro Tools engineer (track 14) - Julio Hanson – choir (track 16)
- Keith Harris – keyboards (track 3), Rhodes guitar (tracks 4, 10); additional keyboards, Moog bassMoog TaurusThe Moog Taurus is a foot-operated analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Moog Music from 1974 or 1975 to 1981. Commonly called the Taurus I, it has a 13-note organ-style pedal board similar to the pedal keyboard of a spinet organ.-History:...
(track 10) - Jean-Marie Horvat – mixing (track 12)
- Josh Houghkirk – mixing assistant (track 7)
- J.Erving – executive producer, managementTalent managerA talent manager, also known as an artist manager or band manager, is an individual or company who guides the professional career of artists in the entertainment industry...
- Jake and the PhatmanJake and the PhatmanJake and the Phatman are Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum producers, songwriters, DJ's and Multi-Instrumentalists....
– co-producers (tracks 5, 9) - Chad Jolley – mixing assistant (track 8)
- Charles Jones – piano, keyboards (tracks 5, 9)
- Padraic Kerin – engineer (tracks 3, 4, 10)
- Markus Klinko and IndraniIndrani (photographer)Indrani is an Indian-Canadian director, photographer, and digital artist. She is known for her work for celebrities, beauty firms, advertising agencies, and fashion magazines...
– photography
- KnobodyKnobodyJerome Foster, better known as Knobody, is an American music producer and A&R. Knobody has produced records across different genres including soul, R&B, hip hop and rock for several multi-platinum artists including Jay-Z, Ne-Yo, Akon, The Game, Big Pun, Mýa and R.E.M....
– producer (track 11) - Marc Lee – engineer (track 8)
- Andrea Liberman – stylist
- Mike Makowski – mixing assistant (track 6)
- Fabian Marasciullo – mixing (track 8)
- Max MartinMax MartinMartin Karl Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. Raised in Stenhamra, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, he broke through as a producer and songwriter in the mid to late 1990s after crafting a string of hits for pop artists like the Backstreet Boys,...
– producer, instrumentation (track 14) - Renson Mateo – engineer (tracks 16, 17)
- Dave Mattix – assistant engineer (track 17)
- Charles McCrorey – engineer (track 2)
- Colin Miller – mixing assistant (track 12)
- Wesley Morrow – production coordinator (tracks 5, 9)
- Bobby Ozuna – drums, turntablesTurntablismTurntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
(tracks 5, 9); percussion (track 9) - George Pajon Jr. – guitar (track 4)
- John Patrick – choir (track 16)
- Joe Peluso – mixing assistant (tracks 3, 4, 10); assistant engineer (tracks 3, 10)
- Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado – mixing (tracks 16, 17)
- Mark Pitts – executive producer, A&RA&RArtists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
- Neal Pogue – mixing (track 11)
- Polow da DonPolow Da DonPolow-Freache Jamal Fincher Jones , better known by known by professional name Polow da Don or Awesome Jones, is an American record producer, songwriter, rapper, and singer. His cousin is Atlanta singer Monica. He has produced for a variety of artists including Usher, Nelly, Christina Aguilera, T.I...
– producer (track 6) - Chuck Prada – percussion (track 4)
- Sandra Riley – choir (track 16)
- James Roach – assistant engineer (track 8)
- Tim Roberts – assistant Pro Tools engineer (tracks 13, 14)
- Danny Romero – engineer, mixing (tracks 5, 9)
- Raphael SaadiqRaphael SaadiqRaphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He also produced songs of such artists as TLC, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J...
– producer, bass, guitar (tracks 5, 9) - Tatsuya Sato – engineer (track 11)
- Erika Schimdt – choir (track 16)
- SmokeField MobField Mob is an American Hip-Hop group from Albany, Georgia composed of artists Shawn Timothy Johnson and Darion Crawford better known by their stage names Shawn Jay and Smoke respectively...
– rapRappingRapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
(track 12) - Brian Stanley – mixing (track 6)
- Scott StorchScott StorchScott Storch is an American record producer. He produces a variety of music, particularly hip hop, reggaeton, and R&B. His label, Storch Music Company responsible for signing Brooke Hogan and Nox...
– producer (track 8) - Brian Sumner – engineer (tracks 6, 12, 14, 15)
- Phil TanPhil TanPhil Tan is an Atlanta, GA-based music/audio engineer.He is a 3-time Grammy Award recipient, as mixing engineer for Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" , Ludacris' "Release Therapy" and Rihanna's "Only Girl " .Among the artists on Tan's list of credits: Jill Scott, Jennifer...
– mixing (track 7) - James Tanksley – assistant Pro Tools engineer (tracks 5, 9)
- John Tanksley – Pro Tools engineer (tracks 5, 9)
- Teddy "Bear" – co-producer, programmingProgramming (music)Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
, keyboards (track 16) - Meneradini "Bridge" Timothee – piano, keyboards (track 5)
- Too Short – rapping, engineer (track 2)
- Denise Trotman – art directionArt directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
, designGraphic designGraphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience... - will.i.amWill.i.amWilliam James Adams, Jr. , better known by his stage name will.i.am and occasionally by his other stage name Zuper Blahq, is an American rapper, musician, songwriter, singer, actor and producer...
– producer (tracks 3, 4, 10); clavinetClavinetA Clavinet is an electrically amplified keyboard instrument manufactured by the Hohner company. It is essentially an electronically amplified clavichord, analogous to an electric guitar. Its distinctive bright staccato sound has appeared particularly in funk, disco, rock, and reggae songs.Various...
, Moog bass (track 3); drum programmingDrum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
(tracks 3, 10); synthesizer, drums (track 4); keyboards, vocals (track 10) - Ethan Willoughby – mixing (tracks 3, 4, 10)
- Doug Wilson – engineer (tracks 2, 6, 11)
Chart positions
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
96 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 69 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Flanders) |
45 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... (Wallonia) |
88 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
82 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
104 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
77 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
90 |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
109 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
35 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
51 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
22 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
41 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
10 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
6 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
Silver |
Release history
| Country | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| United States | August 22, 2006 | LaFace Records LaFace Records LaFace Records is an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment.-Company history:LaFace was formed in 1989 as a joint venture between the producing duo Antonio "L.A." Reid & Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and Arista Records. The combined nicknames of the duo's successful... , Jive Records Jive Records Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African... |
| Canada | Sony BMG | |
| Germany | September 7, 2006 | EMI EMI The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major... |
| Netherlands | September 8, 2006 | |
| United Kingdom | September 11, 2006 | Virgin Records Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny... |
| Scandinavia | September 13, 2006 | EMI |
| Italy | September 15, 2006 | |
| Australia | September 16, 2006 | |
| Japan | September 29, 2006 |
External links
- Kelis Was Here at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...