Kaleidoscope

Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.113) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000".
Q Magazine (1/01, p.93) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000" - "...Refreshing, vibrant and replete with futuristic flourishes..."
NME (12/30/00, p.77) - Ranked #10 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year".
Rolling Stone (2/17/00, pp.53-4) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...[her] background in jazz, gospel, rock and r&b brings a deeply felt sonic futurism....this interplanetary power-girl mix sounds both danceably down-to-earth and shockingly new."
Spin (2/00, p.109) - 6 out of 10 - "...Kelis is...a cool sound on an album full of them....[The album's] production standout is 'Mars' where the chorus impossibly melds slow keyboards, fast bully chants, stutter drums, and Kelis' angled wailings with lyrics that involve refusing to leave the planet..."
Q Magazine (4/00, p.88) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...an inspired debut....[She] establishes herself as a solo artist with an album that packs punches of the Mike Tyson variety and oozes confidence from every beat..."
Entertainment Weekly (1/7/00, p.68) - "...fleshes out her persona with petulant sass and roller-rink whimsy, pegging her romantic maturity halfway between Brandy and Mary J....what lingers are the minimalist staccato beats from production duo the Neptunes..." - Rating: B+
Mojo (5/00, p.96) - "...The producers possibly see themselves as the new Jimmy Jam-Terry Lewis. She is their Mary Davis. The material veers from hard looks at rocky relationships...to, oh dear, UFOs....Best track is 'Ghetto Children', a positive, uptempo song with catchy chorus, crisp rap and a strong echo of Stevie Wonder."
NME (2/26/00, p.35) - 9 out of 10 - "...a futuristic, visionary, multi-layered work of R&B, funk, soul and rap, furnished with an inspirational, psychedelic spirituality, rarely seen but desperately needed in these cynical times....We need more like this."
Melody Maker (3/28/00, p.48) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Pop's best mad psycho-bitch from hell. She does possess a demonic godzilla-with-toothache roar....brilliantly futuristic..."
CMJ (12/20/99, p.21) - "...one of the hottest R&B debuts of 1999....a full spectrum of moods and tempos...bound together by Kelis' reflective lyrics and the rubber soul production of the Neptunes..."