Kelis -Bounty Farms and former Glendale, CA home
In the late 90’s to early 2000’s, Kelis was a force to be reckoned with. From her edgy-colorful style, soft but raspy vocals, dare to be different attitude – there was no one like her. Kelis was one of the female artist during that era that young women looked at and realized it’s okay to be different and to step out of the social norm.
Sources state that a friend introduced Kelis to The Neptunes which consisted of super producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. They formed a bond and with their support she landed a record deal with Virgin Records.
Produced by The Neptunes and released by Virgin Records in 1999, Kelis’s debut album Kaleidoscope peaked at number 144 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and reached the top five on the Top Heatseekers chart. Its lead and most notable single was “Caught Out There”. Around this same time Kelis was also featured on Ol’ Dirty Bastards, “Got your money”.
Kelis’ second album Wanderland was released in 2001 with its lead single being “Young, Fresh and New” with album features such as Clipse and NoDoubt.
In 2003, Kelis released her third studio album “Tasty” on The Neptunes record label StarTrak Entertainment– it hit gold status in the US and peaked at number 27 on the Billboard 200.
The albums lead single “Milkshake” helped push album sales to over 500,000 copies sold and earning Kelis a Grammy award nomination in 2004. Tasty also included other fan favorites such as “Marathon” and “Suga Honey Iced Tea”. Notable names that played a role in producing this album were Raphael Saadiq, Andre 3000, Dallas Austin and of course The Neptunes.
In 2002 Kelis met rapper Nas at an MTV Video Music Awards party in 2002; they dated for one year, became engaged in 2004, and married in January 2005.
The album “Kelis was Here” – was released in 2006 and her hit “Bossy” peaked at number 16 in the US it additionally went multi-platinum as a mobile phone ringtone.
In 2002 Kelis met rapper Nas at an MTV Video Music Awards party in 2002; they dated for one year, became engaged in 2004, and married in January 2005.
In April 2009, she filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Kelis remarried in 2014 to photographer Mike Mora – the couple were married till March 2022 – when Mike succumbed to stomach cancer.
In 2012 Kelis purchased this cute and elegant Spanish style house in Glendale California for $895,000 – it had 5 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, a true entertainer's backyard with privacy and seclusion, large rooms and beautiful hill views. Additional highlights included a sparkling pool, built in water fountain, fire pit and a one bedroom one bath guest house towards the back of the property. Although this property had tons of character and looked like it had it all - in 2017 Kelis decided she wanted to experience a different way of life and opted to list her Glendale property for $2,195,000. The home was on the market for about a year and after a few price adjustments – sold for $1,675,000.
After the sale of her Glendale property – she purchased a 25-acre ranch in Temecula, California for $600,000. When she’s not on IG showing us the latest farm fashion she’s tending to her many farm animals, creating all natural skin and hair products, writing cook books and showing off her culinary arts skills.
