Kelis claims that The Neptunes has been ripping her off and she is finally speaking out about it.
Kelis opened up about the shady side of the music industry recently during an interview with The Guardian, accusing Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes of tricking her into an unfair contract that allowed them to keep all the earnings from her first two albums. The projects, titled Kaleidoscope and Wanderland, were both produced by The Neptunes and helped jumpstart Kelis’ singing career. However, she claims she was “blatantly lied to and tricked.”
“I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do,” the singer said. Kelis admitted during the interview that her agreement was legally binding, saying, “Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.”
The “Bossy” singer went on to describe a time where she was forced to pretend she was still friendly with Pharrell, saying, “…he did that thing to me that he’s notorious for, which is making a nod from the stage, so it seems like there’s mutual respect, when in reality…I’m like, OK, I’m not going to yell back: ‘You stole all my publishing!’” Kelis insists she isn’t harboring any anger over the circumstances, although she does believe karma will prevail in the end for The Neptunes.
This isn’t the first time Kelis is speaking out on the dark days of her singing career, having accused her ex-husband Nas of severe abuse in 2018. The rapper vehemently denied the allegations. Meanwhile, Kelis has spent the last several years making a name for herself in the food industry and organic farming. She has graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, opened a hot sauce company, hosted specials on the Cooking Channel, written an autobiographical cook book, and created her own YouTube channel. Most recently, the singer purchased a sustainable farm in Colombia which is expected to open to the public in 2021.
