20 years ago, it was milkshakes. Now, Kelis has mastered soufflé, culturally-inspired dishes and farm-to-the-table cuisine.
Years after crashing charts worldwide with 2003’s “Milkshake,” a song that crossed the line from a hit to a cultural moment, the US singer trained as a Le Cordon Bleu chef, arguably the most challenging style of cooking to master.
“It was the best experience of my life and like, I absolutely loved it. Going to school as an adult is the best,” she tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ from her adopted home in Nairobi, Kenya. “Everyone should do it.”
Retraining, rewiring your brain, “it makes you feel young again, it makes you feel strong. I’m constantly learning stuff and trying to hone new skills.”
A published author with the cookbook My Life on a Plate, several cooking specials on Netflix, and a farm to tend to, the Harlem-born R&B star is living the good life.
This is an artist who cooks in the studio, on stage and in the kitchen.
“I’m happy. I feel really content, even in the midst of all the things that have happened. I’ve got three kids and they also kind of help to maintain, even though it’s pure chaos at all times,” she says ahead of her keynote address at BIGSOUND 2024 in Brisbane.
“I’ve had a really great career and I’ve enjoyed every second of it and I’m kind of in that next phase of my life right now. It’s fantastic. I’m loving every single moment of it.”
That next phase includes new music. Kelis confirms she’s “a good 75-80% there” on a new album, her first in a decade.
“The issue is when I start, if I don’t continue momentum, then it’s like I’m a new person by the time I start up again. And then I’m not interested in what I had already done, so I start again. That happened a few time over the past years. Now I’m in a space where I’m the closest to being done [on an album] that I’ve been, which is very good.”
To date, Kelis, turning 45 on Wednesday (August 21st), has recorded six albums, her last, Food, dropping 2014 on Ninja Tune. Five of those albums cracked the US Billboard 200, with a top 10 finish for 2006’s Kelis Was Here.
The “majority” of the forthcoming album was recorded on her farm, which was “just so comfortable and it really made me feel like myself,” she explains.
Kelis’ career blew up with her Neptunes-produced debut 1999 single “Caught Out There,” from the Kaleidoscope album. That no-nonsense cut (“I hate you so much right now”) led into her 2003 album Tasty and a string of bangers, including “Trick Me,” “Bossy,” and, of course, “Milkshake.”
Expect ‘90s vibes on her next collection, a reflection of a time when Kelis was coming up and “started falling in love with all the different sounds.”
And how does the new album sound overall? “I would say it would be like if Wu-Tang and Sade had a baby. That’s kind of where we’re at.”
BIGSOUND and Queensland Music Trails have partnered to bring out Kelis to the Sunshine State, by teaming for her keynote speech and a performance at Sweet Relief! Festival on Saturday, September 7th.
And if she had the chance to, say, cook for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, what’s on the menu?
“I would definitely like to incorporate my culture in it, right? For me being Puerto Rican and being Black American, and then my husband was Colombian, as a chef you start to see just how many things are interchangeable and how similar we actually are,” she says. “I would definitely cook something culturally-inspired by where I’m from. That would be the best way to kind of get to know me.”
