The Study of Racialism

amatrex · Posted: Thu 10 Jul 2008 13:03 Post subject: Kelis

Kelis Rogers-Jones (née Rogers, born August 21, 1979, better known as Kelis, is a Grammy Award-nominated American R&B singer-songwriter.

Kelis was born and raised in a Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. Her first name, pronounced /kəˈlis/ (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 an African-American 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 sixteen 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 U.S., during 1999 and the early 2000s decade. 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 beatboxing in a video of his.