“You Stole All My Publishing!”: Kelis Says The Neptunes “Blatantly Lied” To Her About Contract Split

Kelis said she made nothing from sales of her first two albums because of the contract.

As Kelis preps for her 20th anniversary Kaleidoscope tour, the singer sat down with The Guardian to talk about the forthcoming tour, her music career, and Nas.

READ: Kelis Announces ‘Kaleidoscope’ 20th Anniversary Tour

In regards to her music career, the New York artist revealed that she had a falling out with Pharrell that stemmed from an unfair publishing contract she signed with him, and fellow Neptunes collaborator Chad Hugo, at the start of her career.

“I was told we were going to split the whole thing 33/33/33, which we didn’t do,” she said, before going on to add that she was “blatantly lied to and tricked” by “the Neptunes and their management and their lawyers and all that stuff.”

“Their argument is: ‘Well, you signed it.’ I’m like: ‘Yeah, I signed what I was told, and I was too young and too stupid to double-check it.'”

Kelis then went on to recount how the last time she saw Pharrell was at an industry event he was performing at, and she was  a part of the audience.

“And he did that thing to me that he’s notorious for, which is making a nod from the stage [to someone in the audience], 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!’ So you end up nodding back and everyone thinks everything’s great. Like, whatever.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kelis also spoke about Nas and his claims that she stops him from seeing their son amid revealing that the rapper physically abused her in a 2018 interview.

“Any rational person would look at this situation and say [to Nas]: ‘Well, if you want to see [your child], you have to actually show up!’ My kid is a really happy child, because I don’t tell him when [his father] says he’s going to come and doesn’t show up,” she said.

Source: The Guardian