Kelis: Young! Fresh! New!

Kelis has a lot going for her, but this is by far my favourite moment in her already 9 year old career.

"Young, fresh n´new" was the one and only single that came off her second album "Wanderland". It is a bold song about running away from home and being young and fresh and new. Why this never got a proper release in the USA is really beyond me. It´s not that her first album was in any way a flop!

In 2001 the Neptunes/Timbaland production style had already caught on in the mainstream. Aaliyah`s "Try again" brought the year 2000 to a minimal funky, futuristic kickstart. But it sounded almost conventional compared to the squelching, dirty particle-storm the Neptunes cooked up with "Young, fresh n´new".

The video is a candy-coloured rebellion with Kelis as the pied-piper, crashing through neatly manicured frontlawns in her monster-truck and dancing in front of giant slo-mo explosions. It´s a pop dream come true and a briliant match to a song which opens with the memorable lines: "Young and different. She looked at a condom. And could still see the sun."

But maybe it was just bad timing. I remember seeing this phenomal video shortly after the horrors of 9/11 and rebellion, monster truck destruction and slo-mo explosions were not considered to be entertainment in the aftermath.

However, Kelis left Virgin records who were nearly wrecking her career and came back as schoolyard dairy-queen with the sonic onslaught that was "Milkshake". From the healing shock of "looking at a condom" without getting blind to "I can teach you, but i have to charge". Kelis rocks!