Flesh Tone
Kelis
The girl whose milkshake brought the boys to their feet has since wiped up the spilt dairy, and put in a lighted dance floor. Gone is her Neptunes-produced, lollipop-licking hip-hop sound — what she has (allegedly) since referred to as being an unnatural but profitable business move. Replacing it has come a club-lovers’ format and a Grace Jones-style personal presentation. The move to dance may also be a business-minded one. Whatever; the union of the electronic sound and her voice is so organic — you’d be hard-pressed to prove that this was anything but an intentional progression. Prior to Flesh Tone, Kelis courted the club sound through collaborations with and guest vocals for artists like Benny Benassi and the Crookers — as well as myriad remix treatments her singles have received over the years from producers, including X-Press 2, the Scumfrog, Linus Loves, Dave Audé, E-Smoove and Junior Vasquez. Containing collaborations with producers like David Guetta, Will.i.am, Boys Noize, Diplo, DJ Ammo and Benny Benassi, Flesh Tone is a 9-track album (10 in its bonus track digital form), that contains not a single ballad while still managing to cover the same spectrum of emotions and intentions that a typical pop album does. The craze began with the release of the Guetta-produced initial teaser “Acapella,” and has now moved to its second single, “4th of July” with a standout remix treatment by Richard X.
