Kelis says she ‘made nothing’ from first two albums after Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo 'tricked' her

She said she was "blatantly lied to and tricked”
She said she "made nothing" from her first two albums
Getty
Tobi Akingbade31 January 2020
The Weekender

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Kelis has claimed she was exploited by The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo when she released her first two albums.

The singer, who recently unveiled herself as The Daisy in The Masked Singer UK, was helped by the duo when they produced her debut album Kaleidoscope, which was released in 1999.

They also produced her second studio album, Wanderland (2001) released in 2001, but she claims she made “nothing” from the releases after being “blatantly lied to and tricked”.

She told The Guardian, she first worked with The Neptunes and initially believed them to have provided a “pure” and “creative safe space” to produce her first album.

Kelis said she was "tricked"
Getty Images

Speaking of her experience at the age of 19, she said: “It ended up not being that at all. I was told we were going to split the whole thing [by 33%], which we didn’t do.”

The 40-year-old did not notice what was happening because she had made money from touring instead. However, when she did notice the alleged discrepancies, Pharrell and Hugo weren’t interested, she claims.

“Their argument is, ‘Well, you signed it.’ Yeah I signed what I was told and I was too young and too stupid to double check it.”

The hitmaker added she isn’t “angry” over the situation but decided to work with other producers for her third album Tasty (2003) which “offended” The Neptunes – who wrote and produced her hit song Milkshake.

Pharell worked with Pharrell in the Noughties (PA )
PA

When asked if she’d work with Pharrell or Chad again, she quipped: “There’s having faith and there is also just stupidity.”

Standard.co.uk has reached out to the reps for both Pharrell and Chad.

In scenes aired on Saturday, January 25 The US R&B star lost her place in the Masked Singer after being in the bottom two against Monster, whose identity is still unknown.

Explaining why she took part in the show, Kelis said: “People have just been telling me my voice was distinct my whole career, so I thought, well let’s see just how distinct it is.”

Panellist Rita Ora correctly identified Kelis before she was unmasked, while guesses from the other judges were Fleur East, Neneh Cherry and Alyssa Milano.

Ora – who jumped up and down in delight as Kelis emerged from under the elaborate mask – said: “I am the first person to get it right out of all the panellists.

The clues that pointed to Kelis’s identity included those about food, because she is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and those relating to jazz, as her late father Kenneth Rogers was a jazz musician.

After being unmasked, Kelis said her two sons convinced her to take part.

She said: “They really were the main reason. They thought it was the coolest thing in the world. So I did it for them.”

The Brit Award-winning and Grammy-nominated star said she did not find keeping her part in the show a secret too hard, and that it was a “fun” experience.

She added: “If I were to do it all over again, I definitely would have done something a little more dramatic or elaborate because that’s me, but it was cute and definitely did its job.”

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