Kelis has come forward about some shady business practices performed by production duo When Kaleidoscope and Wanderland, she was told that the three them would split the prits evenly, but apparently, that never happened. Kelis claims that she never saw the money for her work, but instead was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by “the Neptunes and their management and their lawyers.” She initially didn’t notice the missing prits, though, because she had finally started to make money from touring and “just the fact that I wasn’t poor felt like enough,” she indicated. However, when she did eventually confront and Chad, they blew it f as a non-issue.
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“Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it,'” she explained, referring to her recording contract that she signed with them when she was 19 years old. “I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.’” Their ploy was especially hurtful, because Kelis, Pharrell, and Chad were all friends. This conflict lead Kelis to seek out other producers to work with instead, which “I could tell they were really fended,” she said.
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They had somewhat a falling out, but Kelis reveals that she has run into Pharrell since. He nodded to her from the stage at an industry event to make “it seem] like there’s mutual respect,” a gesture she returned somewhat begrudgingly. “I’m like, OK, I’m not going to yell back: ‘You stole all my publishing!’ So you end up nodding back and everyone thinks everything’s great. Like, whatever.” Yikes. Kelis will be releasing the 20-year reissue Kaleidoscope on February 21st.