Songoftheday 7/2/24 - Damn right it's better than yours, I can teach you but I have to charge...

 

 

"Milkshake" - Kelis

from the album Tasty (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (five weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 16

 

Today's song comes from R&B singer Kelis Rogers, who grew up in New York City, where he finished high school at an arts-based school before pursuing a music career, using just her first name. Her first big break came at the close of 1999, where she had a featured vocalist spot singing the chorus on the single "Got Your Money" by Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard.  That record got her into the top-40 on the pop chart and the R&B singles list. At the time that was peaking, Kelis released her debut album Kaleidoscope, produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, who also helmed "Got Your Money". The pair wrote all the songs on the disc (including three co-writes with Kelis), including the lead single "Caught Out There". That song was a stone-cold classic, and made it to #9 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, but stalled down at #54 on the Hot 100 (despite having a commercial single). But the international response to the song, as well as her debut album Kaleidoscope, was much better, with "Caught Out There" reaching #4 on the British Singles chart and follow-up "Good Stuff" making it to #19 there.  

 

So by the time to release her sophomore effort, Wanderland, Virgin Records refused to release it in America, just internationally in 2001. And even then, it was given a meager push, with lead single "Young, Fresh, 'n New" only reaching #32 on the British singles chart.  The set, completely produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, deserved much better, and she was subsequently dropped from Virgin in the States.

After returning to the top ten in the UK on DJ/producer Richard X's dance-pop single "Finest Dreams", Kelis came back to the Neptunes, signing on to their own label Star Trak under Arista Records. Her first release there would be Tasty, which had the duo producing only five of the 13 tracks. But more crucial, one of those would be the lead single "Milkshake". Written by Pharrell and Chad, Kelis in interviewed teased on about how the title is about "self-worth" or what they call "rizz" these days, but no one was really fooled. It's about the human milk(shake) production feature, which brings "all the boys to the yard". With a vague southern Asian groove and sparse instrumentation, it allowed Kelis to vamp through the song that sounds like a belly-dancing backing track. The music video naturally put Kelis in a diner where she can be around copious amounts of the dairy delight, with future husband and rap star Nas looking on at the cook...

"Milkshake" became Kelis' first and biggest hit on the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100, reaching the top three at the close of 2003, while peaking at #4 on the R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song climbed to #8 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #5 on the Mainstream R&B airplay list, and spent five weeks at #1 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The dance remixes of the track, done by X-Press 2 among others, helped "Milkshake" spend a week at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart and rise to #5 on the Dance Airplay radio list. Internationally, the single did just as well, topping the chart in Ireland, and reaching the top ten in the UK (#2), Australia (#2), New Zealand (#3), Canada (#4 radio), Denmark (#4), Croatia (#4), Sweden (#5), Norway (#5), the Netherlands (#7), and Belgium (#10 Flanders/#38 Wallonia). The Tasty album, released in December as the single was about to crest, came in at #27 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #7 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Milkshake" was nominated for Best Urban Alternative Performance, but had no chance against Outkast's classic "Hey Ya!".

 

Despite this success, Kelis was a victim to label shenanigans yet again, as Arista was going under at the time. What was supposed to be the follow-up, "Trick Me", was written and produced by R&B veteran Dallas Austin and a respectable retro-jazz vibe, but only managed to slip on to the Rhythmic radio chart in the U.S. at #37.  But again overseas, it was a success, hitting #1 in Czechia, Hungary and Romania, and reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), New Zealand (#3), Croatia (#3), the Netherlands (#4), Ireland (#4), Australia (#5), Norway (#5), Austria (#6), Denmark (#7), Switzerland (#8), Belgium (#8 Flanders/#18 Wallonia), Italy (#9), and Germany (#10). A third non-U.S. single, "Millionaire", paired Kelis up with Outkast's Andre 3000, who co-wrote and produced the electro-funk track. The song went to #3 in the UK, and #8 in Ireland. The last release, "In Public" was Nas, was able to score a fourth top-40 hit in Britain (#17) and Ireland (#22). 

Kelis will be back to the series.

(9/10)

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Here's one of the remixes by X-Press 2 that helped "Milkshake" top Billboard's Dance Club Play chart...

and performing live on a TV appearance in 2003...

A posthumous hit from an iconic rapper.