Kelis and Will.i.am's hunt for cred

Beware, Kelis fans. By reports coming out ahead of the New York singer’s next album, currently set for a 6 July release in Australia, there are many signs to indicate she’s been Black Eyed Peas’d. Her album, Flesh Tone (the title made incidentally more timely by the hoopla caused by the recent description of a ‘champagne’-coloured dress Michelle Obama wore as ‘flesh tone’ by the designer), led by first US club chart hit Acapella, is being released through Interscope via Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am’s own label. Collaborators on the album include David Guetta, Benny Benassi and Boys Noize. In a recent interview with New York City’s The Village Voice, Will.i.am said of his partnership with Kelis, “She’s the cool people’s best-kept secret and I want to introduce her to the world.” Yes, tread carefully, or you’ll be wiping the back-spray off your face like Fergie after a long show.

Will.i.am’s quote, of course, doesn’t mean a whole lot, except to say that Kelis has many times attempted sustained ‘mainstream’ success and failed due to a generally acknowledged level of ‘artistic integrity’. She hasn’t done too badly for herself, with spiking single sales every few years with the likes of Milkshake and Bossy, but the appearance of a handful of tracks on which she was merely a ‘guest’ for other artists on her own ‘best of’ in 2008 speaks volumes. Kelis has been often used as the ‘credibility’ guest for more successful acts, including NERD, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Enrique Iglesias, but has had trouble turning that cred into ‘breakout stardom’. But if anyone knows how to overcome that hurdle, it’s the man who led the Black Eyed Peas’ once exploding-POW-sign hip hop into the musical (well, and visual) representation of the Speedracer remake, ie. a whole lot of shiny, expensive nothing.

Acapella so far hasn’t had the same kind of chart impact in Australia as it’s had in the States and also hasn’t made the jump to the main singles chart in the US, but it’s early days yet, particularly for a ‘dance crossover’ act, which often take some time to be latched onto by radio. The track is also not nearly as bad as anything BEP have given us of late, though it doesn’t touch her distorted pop of old. Of course, if the success doesn’t come, it’ll likely just add to her ‘credibility’ status and get her more guest work in the future.

The same could be said of fellow New Yorkers Ratatat, who released their LP4 record last week (through XL/Remote Control) and take a seemingly dichotomous approach to their work. On the one hand their ‘artist’ albums are straying further from ‘indie dance crossover’ land (the influence of structured French electro on their first two records) and taking more from Warp Records ‘sound-art’ and the French electronic approach to shoegaze (chillout?). Their peers at this stage are Air more than any of America’s newer crossover indie dance acts. It’s excellently textured stuff, yet their name is synonymous in many circles with club remixes and collaborations with more ‘mainstream’ artists.

Ratatat’s two remix albums have seen them work over Kanye West, Notorious BIG, Jay-Z and Missy Elliot. Last year they collaborated on two tracks for Kid Cudi’s album. Perhaps the biggest sign of their entrance into club culture are the lists of unofficial mash-ups other (usually pretty shit) DJs have made with their tracks. If you’re looking for a pumped up Nirvana or AC/DC song, an amateur Ratatat mash-up is waiting for you on Beatport or SoundCloud or wherever the ‘jockeys’ are uploading their tracks these days. There’s no doubt Ratatat could take their collaboration and remix success and translate it to their ‘artist’ work with their own ‘guest’ vocalists/rappers, or even fit their own sounds into a clubbier mould. Perhaps they’re happy to remain the “cool people’s best-kept secret”, particularly if it means not becoming Will.i.am.

Besides, it’s sounding like Mark Ronson is going to go there for them anyway. The first tracks released from his upcoming Record Collection album, Circuit Breaker and Bang Bang Bang, take the arcade-game structure of old Ratatat and push it into a cut-for-radio cube with a soul groove. A ‘kept secret’ it is not, but then, there might be a reason he’s releasing the album under the name Mark Ronson & The Business.