MTV News caught up with the Game and Keyshia Cole during the video shoot for their collaboration “Pain”, Keyshia’s excerpt:

“Me and Keyshia came up around the same time,” he said of their collaboration. “We always wanted to get in the studio together but never had the chance because both our careers took off at the same time. She blew to superstar status on the R&B side. I blew up on the rap side. I knew she would come in and kill it. And she did.”

Keyshia Cole gives a tribute to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul at the end of the song. “See, Mary J., I want you to understand you paved the way for me. I’m givin’ homage to you.”

“He was doing a tribute [to hip-hop], and it’s rarely done,” Cole said of the collabo. “I really could feel his pain because of the tribute I did to Mary. … It’s a really nice record.”

Read the full article here.

Click here to view full size pics in the OK gallery.

MTV caught up with Keyshia and Lil Wayne this week to discuss possible tour rumors.

Wayne stated, “I think I might go out with Keyshia Cole. You’re bringing two different types of people in there. You got people coming to soothe their souls with Keyshia, and you got people who wanna throw their hands up with me. It’s like listening to the radio. I think a concert should be like listening to the radio. When you listen to the radio, and your top-five or top-eight songs come on, it’s hip-hop, it’s R&B. … I think you gonna get that from me and Keyshia and whatever in between that.”

“I’mma kidnap him and take him on tour with me,” Cole told us Thursday, on the set of the new Game video, ‘Pain.’ “I think it’s a little harder to get him on the stage than it is to get me,” she smiled. “We gotta make sure we get together on that.”             MTV News Thank you to MIMS of the OK Forums for posting!

Keyshia appeared at Manny’s Birthday bash Friday night! The party was held at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. Both Manny & Keyshia looked great. Click here to view more pics in the gallery. Special thanks to board member Sporche of the OK forums for posting.

Photo credits to Jamal G of AlltheParties.com & MsJuicy of DamnShorty.com

Keyshia was recently announced the new Luster endorser for Luster’s® Pink® Brand Smooth Touch® Limited Edition relaxer kits, which feature her face on the box! The Press Release states:

Cole, a platinum-selling R&B recording artist and reality television star, has endeared herself to fans of all ages and resonates with the Pink® Brand Smooth Touch® target audience, women 16 to 24 years of age. “When we were thinking about the image and benefits of Smooth Touch®, Keyshia Cole was a perfect choice,” said Jory Luster, president of Luster Products. “It was important to us to work with someone who already had success and visibility, but also could relate to our target and be someone they would want to emulate. Keyshia is young, talented, beautiful and has an electric personality. She’s perfectly represents the woman who uses Smooth Touch® products.” Luster’s® Pink® Brand Smooth Touch® line of hair care products will arrive in stores this summer.

Source

Keyshia appeared at BET’s “Upfronts” event in NYC, where the network unveiled their television programming for the upcoming year. It was announced that Keyshia’s #1 rated reality show “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is,” would return for a new season! After the ceremony, Keyshia closed out the event by performing three songs. Click >>>here<<< for red carpet photos & click >>>here<<< for performance photos.

One of the hardest working artists in the industry today, Keyshia Cole has creative juices that never seem to stop flowing. In order to remain relevant in such a fickle industry, the R&B soul diva has decided that she will quickly release a third solo project, tentatively titled Love, before the end of the year. BET.com caught up with the R&B princess at BET’s Spring Bling to find out what exactly she had in store for the remainder of 2008.

“I’m recording a new album right now,” says the Oakland native. “Actually, it’s gonna be released for Christmas. It’s gonna be more of a love album. It’s gonna be more about the good side of love.”
Though Ms. Cole denies having a romantic relationship, the singer says her love belongs to her family and her music, which she is ready to take in a different direction. Keyshia explained, “I’m calling it The Love Album, but that could change. I’m just focusing on the subjects of love that make you happy. I just wanna switch it up a little bit. That’s all.”

With a new body of work in progress, Keyshia believes her release date will propel her new project, The Love Album, to record-breaking sales figures. “I wanna do a million my first week,” she says. “That’s when they drop…on Christmas time. Everybody is ready to spend their cash on the artists, so I wanna be one of those artists this time…see if I can do 780,000. We definitely have to see what that’s about.”

For more on Keyshia’s upcoming projects, check back with BET.com. And don’t forget to catch her on BET’s Spring Bling, which airs April 10 - 13.

Excerpt from article:

The music industry climate is deteriorating indeed. As of late, rappers have seemingly been too busy producing criminal records to sell any units. In the year’s first quarter alone, The Game (60 days) and Beanie Sigel (3 months) were sentenced to short prison sentences while Prodigy recently began serving a 3 ½ year sentence on weapons charges.

[Editor’s Note: The Game was released after serving 8 days of his 60-day sentence.]

Meanwhile, Busta Rhymes and Nate Dogg nearly escaped jail time with three years probation each and Lil’ Wayne and C-Murder have upcoming cases. Sadly, T.I. and Remy Ma, who respectively faced 10 years and 25 years in recent cases, got more than slaps on their wrists.

Having proclaimed his innocence on federal gun charges for nearly six months, T.I. agreed to a plea deal last week (March 27). The Atlanta rapper was fined $100,000 and will have to do 1, 500 hours of community service before serving a one year prison term followed by one year on house arrest. Meanwhile, Remy fought her case and was convicted (March 27) of assault in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon and attempted coercion. Stars including Soulja Boy, Keyshia Cole and DJ Khaled recently shared their thoughts on the two convictions.

Keyshia Cole: I just feel like we’re all human. We all go through things and we all do the best that we can do. But I mean, we’re still who we are, so at the end of the day, I just ask that they keep their head up. Remy is my girl for life and if she ever needs anything, I got her in that aspect. And T.I., keep his head up… he got family, doing his thing.

Thanks Maya