Tasty (Kelis Album) - Album Information

Album Information

Both the album and its singles immediately found success in Europe. The album's second single, "Trick Me", proved successful on radio and music video channels in Europe, and went to the top ten in many European countries during mid-2004. However, the song did not enjoy success in America, where its music video was not released because her US label Arista Records folded at the same time that Tasty was released. Kelis was then transferred to Jive Records, who were not interested in continuing with the album.

This album is Kelis' second to bear the Parental Advisory label (the first being her 1999 debut album Kaleidoscope); as noted on the Parental Advisory sticker attached to the jewel case, an edited version was also available. However, there were only two small changes made to the edited version. A sexual reference was cut out of the song "Trick Me", and Kelis' hidden outro appended to the end of "Marathon" on the explicit version is omitted. In the outro she says "Okay, now, swallow". On the album's Parental Advisory warning, there is note of strong sexual content. Ironically enough, on the edited version, the sexually explicit song "In Public" remains unchanged and is the same version as that on the explicit version. Other explicit songs that have not been modified on the edited version are "Flashback", "Millionaire", and "Stick Up".

The success of Tasty was most obvious in the United Kingdom, where the four singles from the album were released. After "Milkshake" and "Trick Me" came "Millionaire" and "In Public". Her European label, Virgin Records, who she had been with since the start of her career there, decided to persist with the album. Due to her various splits with US labels, promotion for both of her previous projects Kaleidoscope and Wanderland were ended prematurely, just as she was finally breaking through in the UK. Virgin UK did not want her to lose the fan base that she was building up yet again by ending promotion early, because of the US and other territories deciding not to continue with the album. This paid off and Kelis finally cemented her UK status, with four top twenty hits from the album (including three top three hits) and Tasty going platinum there.