Despite critical acclaim, the album was met with domestic commercial failure; it instead found moderate success on international charts.

After signing with the Neptunes' Star Trak Entertainment, Rogers third studio album, Tasty (2003), served as her commercial breakthrough and earning continued critical praise.

She has collaborated with R&B and hip hop acts including Nas (whom she married in 2003), Busta Rhymes, Outkast, and Puff Daddy; electronic and dance producers such as Calvin Harris, Disclosure, Giorgio Moroder, Timo Maas, and Richard X; pop and rock acts Enrique Iglesias, Duran Duran, and No Doubt; and indie and alternative musicians including Björk and Dave Sitek.

In 1997, Kelis provided background vocals on "Fairytalez", a track on hip hop group Gravediggaz's album The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel.

The album performed better in Europe, where "Caught Out There" was a moderate hit in most European countries except the United Kingdom, where the song saw massive success, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart.

[22] The British Phonographic Industry certified Kaleidoscope gold for sales of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom,[23] where it reached number 43 on the UK Albums Chart.

[28][22] The album, which was produced in its entirety by the Neptunes and features collaborations with members of Clipse and No Doubt, received a subdued critical response.

[29] NME wrote: "In our collective fantasies, Kelis Rogers is already the ghetto-fabulous sex-queen of discodelic future-funk pop-rock-soul...But beyond the initial shopping-and-funking dazzle, there is way too much filler here for a hotly hyped alterna-soul princess with her eyes on the big prize".

The same year, she had a top 20 U.S. club hit with a remix of "Young, Fresh 'n' New", produced by Timo Maas, who featured Kelis on his single "Help Me".

[36] Although the Neptunes contributed several tracks to Tasty—the album was released by their label Star Trak Entertainment, a joint venture with Arista Records—Kelis also collaborated with other producers such as Dallas Austin, André 3000, Rockwilder, and Raphael Saadiq.

[22][47] The album was Kelis's first not to feature contributions from The Neptunes, as she had left Star Trak by this time; instead, she recorded with Cee-Lo Green, Max Martin, Raphael Saadiq, Scott Storch, and will.i.ams.

[26][50][51] MTV characterised critical consensus of the album as "intriguingly intelligent, if unjustifiably disjointed and long" and wrote in 2016 that "it remains her most creatively anarchic project".

[36] "Bossy" (featuring Too Short), Kelis Was Here's lead single, was a moderate hit in the U.S., peaking at number 16; it additionally went multi-platinum as a mobile phone ringtone, according to the RIAA.

[22] During mid 2007, Kelis toured in Europe, appearing in numerous festivals across the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, such as Wireless, Rise and Gurtenfestival.

[55][56] In 2009, Kelis signed to Interscope Records via the will.i.am Music Group to release Flesh Tone, which included production from Ammo, Free School, Benny Benassi, Burns, Boys Noize, DJ Tocadisco, will.i.am, and David Guetta.

[60][61] Critical reception to Flesh Tone was generally positive, with Pitchfork naming the album Kelis's best since her debut Kaleidoscope.

[20] The single "4th of July (Fireworks)" was accompanied by a video co-directed by Kelis (with Rankin and Nicole Ehrlich) and became a top 10 club hit in America and Britain.

[71] In 2012, Kelis's management firm at the time announced that her sixth studio album would be released in late 2012 and feature production from Skream, Burns, Tom Neville, Dan Black, and Caspa.

[87] A limited edition version of Food included remixes by electronic producers such as Actress, Mount Kimbie, Ben Pearce, Breach, Machinedrum, and Will Saul.

[90] In 2015, Kelis featured on veteran disco producer Giorgio Moroder's album Déjà Vu, singing on the track "Back and Forth".

[95][96] Kelis was featured on a Disclosure song titled "Watch Your Step" in 2020 and on "Deal with It", a track on Demidevil, the debut mixtape by Ashnikko, in 2021.

Kelis said that Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, the credited songwriters on "Milkshake", had "stolen" and "swindled" her publishing rights for the song.

[120] She promoted her 2014 album Food by sharing her recipes for apple farro, jerk ribs, New York vanilla bean cheesecake, and more on the Spotify app Supper.

[122] In 2016, Kelis and cooking duo Le Bun opened a pop-up restaurant in London that she adapted as a food truck to tour around UK music festivals.

[133] Kelis has described her relationship with Nas as physically and mentally abusive, crediting the anticipated birth of her child as a factor in her decision to end her marriage.

[136] In addition to the domestic abuse claims, she alleged that Nas' drinking habit began to damage their relationship, and he had been having adulterous affairs for two years.

The arrest report said an operation in which officers posed as prostitutes in the South Beach nightclub district was disrupted when Kelis started screaming racial profanities at them.

A spokesman for Kelis further commented that the singer would file a lawsuit against the Miami Beach Police, claiming unlawful arrest and the violation of her civil rights.

[152] Kelis's debut album Kaleidoscope took influence from a variety of 1970s genres,[153] which included urban, rock, jazz, hip hop, R&B, soul, and disco music.

[159] Her second studio album Wanderland resembles musically its predecessor while exploring more modern funk sounds, dabbling heavily into genres such as soul and rap.