Many millennial women have had a moment either in their car or in the mirror, whether after a full on breakup or just a bad day, wherein they find themselves scream-singing the hook to Kelis’ “Caught Out There”. With its oh so delicious outrage, there are few things more cathartic than yelling I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW on beat. It’s an unabashed anthem of self-certainty and the refusal to be trifled with.
The origin story Pharrell speaks in the opening track to Kelis’ debut, Kaleidoscope, is fitting, as in 1999, Kelis’ sound was truly intergalactic. At the nexus of R&B, hip hop, grunge, and other vibrations, she was fresh, bold, and singular. From her neon curls to signature rasp, I’m reminded energetically of someone like Betty Davis. A future force that’s hard to categorize.
The album is infused with the narrative of an otherworldly being descending from outer space, a being not belonging and yet having this intrinsic knowledge that we don’t have. But there’s also an acute awareness of the political landscape at the very edge of the millennium running beneath the whole album. It’s fully grounded in the real (think of the tracks “mafia” and “ghetto children”) even as the ethereal strings and synth introduce the albums other single, “get along with you.” The lyrics speak of the beeper, the cellular, and a digital world, locating it in a very particular time. And yet, Kelis sings that she’s shedding all of it in the chorus: even the land and skies.
We’re privy to intimate confessions (at one point, she speaks: “Dear diary, I no longer have need for these worldly things” And also, as showcased in the the Jazz inflected middle track Suspended, we’re unmoored by earthly measurements. “we’re suspended from space and time”
The cosmic theme continues with the song Mars, which might distill the overarching sentiments of this album in one track. Early on we get the lyrics “the day to day action on earth just don’t appeal,” and Pharrell intros with the refrain “earth to your brain…earth to your brain.” The idea that love can be galactic in scale, that romantic chemistry can be as fast as the speed of light in laser guns, that NASA could give you a ring and send you back to Mars all reinforce the initial narrative of Kelis (and perhaps all black women) arriving from another planet. But these lyrical threads also bolster the album as a dual meditation on existential concerns intertwined with the romantic realities of a then-20 year old. Kaleidoscope is timeless in only the way an album by a girl from a different galaxy could be. Its title is a way in: reflections and refractions of ever changing color.
Xx.
