Kelis Rogers-Jones (née Rogers, born August 21, 1979), better known as Kelis (pronounced kuh-LEECE), is a Grammy Award-nominated American R&B singer-songwriter and since her debut, she has had nine top-40 singles in the UK as a solo artist and, as a featured artist, has had six top-40 singles to date.

Biography

Kelis was born and raised in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. Her first name, (she can be heard singing her own name in the song Blindfold me), is a combination of her father's name, Kenneth, and her mother's name, Eveliss. Kenneth is a Jamaican jazz musician, Pentecostal minister, and professor at Wesleyan University. Eveliss is a Chinese-Puerto Rican fashion designer who inspired Kelis to pursue her singing career.

As a child, she sang in church choirs and played violin, piano, and saxophone while attending Manhattan Country School, a private school. Kelis left home at age sixteen, but continued her education at age 16 when she went to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she formed the R&B trio BLU (Black Ladies United). After graduation, she formed a band with the Neptunes and, with their support, landed herself a record deal.

Kelis has since worked with a variety of musicians including Gravediggaz, Clipse, Raphael Saadiq, Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, OutKast, P. Diddy, Mondo Grosso, Usher, LFO, Moby, Richard X, Timo Maas, Björk, Enrique Iglesias, Timbaland, Sean Paul, Too Short, and her husband Nas. Her most notable duets were popular singles and music videos—even in the US—during 1999 and the early 2000s. These include the following: "What It Is" with Busta Rhymes, "Candy" with Foxy Brown, and "Got Your Money" with Ol' Dirty Bastard, with whom she was initially discovered beat-boxing in a video of his.

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Kelis is married to the American rapper Nas.

Kaleidoscope (1999)

main: Kaleidoscope (Kelis album) Kelis began recording her debut album, Kaleidoscope, in late 1998 and was finished within a year. The album was produced by The Neptunes members Pharrell and Chad Hugo. It debuted at number one hundred and forty-four on the Billboard 200 and reached the top fifty on the Top Heatseekers, selling over 10,736 copies in its first week of release. The album has since sold 249,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its lead and most notable single, "Caught out There", peaked at number nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart and became a minor MTV/BET video hit. The entire album took off in Europe, where all three singles—"Caught out There", "Good Stuff" (featuring Terrar of Clipse), and "Get Along with You"—were sizable hits. Kelis' colorful style in both clothing and hair received considerable attention.