Keyshia Cole’s way

It has been an amazing journey for rhythm and blues singer 26-year-old Keyshia Cole. Each of her first two albums have been certified platinum, for sales of one million units in the United States, and recently she has gotten critical acclaim with two nominations in the 2008 Grammy Awards.

The biracial songstress did her first recordings with US rapper MC Hammer at the age of 12. But it was almost seven years ago that she upped the stakes making appearances on records for the likes of Tony! Toni! Toné!’s Dwayne Wiggins and San Francisco rapper Messy Marv.

Cole was inspired by her ex-boyfriend’s mother to pursue her musical aspirations, and moved to Los Angeles after severing her relationship with a cheating boyfriend. She attracted the attention of Interscope Records president Ron Fair, who in later recommended her to the Jimmy Iovine, Interscope chairman.

Cole was signed to the label in 2002. In 2003, she made her first solo appearance on the Biker Boyz soundtrack with the track Get Up. In 2004, Cole made another solo appearance on the track Never, taken from the Barbershop 2: Back in Business soundtrack with rapper Eve.

With hit singles including (I Just Want it) To Be Over, I Changed My Mind, I Should Have Cheated and Love, Cole’s debut solo album The Way it Is (released in 2005) sold more than a million copies. Cole has an ASCAP award win for Best R&B/Hip-Hop Song for Love, the Vibe’s Next Award (she tied with Young Jeezy) and a handful of other nominations includinga Vibe Award nomination for R&B Voice of the Year and Vibe Vixen. The NAACP Image Award nomination for Best New Artiste; BET Awards nomination for Best Female R&B Artiste and Viewer’s Choice; the Soul Train Award nomination for Best Female R&B/Soul Single and Best Female R&B/Soul Album for The Way It Is; an American Music Award nomination for Favourite Female Artiste; and a Soul Train Music Award nomination for Best Female R&B/Soul Single are some of her other accomplishments.

Just Like You arrived two years later in 2007 and sold over 281,000 copies in its first week of release to slam dunk its way to number two on the Billboard 200 album chart. To date, the set which features the hit singles Let it Go (featuring Lil Kim and Missy Elliott), I Remember and Shoulda Let You Go, has sold more than 1,002,614 copies in America alone.

To coincide with the release of Just Like You late last year, the second season Cole’s BET reality show Keyshia Cole: The Way it Is began airing. The show attracted record-breaking ratings for BET as the top returning series premiere in BET history. It also ranked at the number one original series premiere of the year in 2007. READ MORE…