It's 1998. Keyshia Cole is 16 and on her own. She should be in the 10th grade.
Brandy and Monica are big with "The Boy Is Mine." Janet Jackson has "I Get So Lonely." It's been more than a decade since the start of the crack tsunami, and the Oakland Unified School District has experienced triple-digit increases of assaults, sex offenses, and drug and alcohol offenses. Clinton cops to Lewinsky. The hot new show is HBO's Sex and the City.
Keyshia walks in to a West Oakland recording studio at about two in the morning. Alicia Keys is at work in one of the rooms, as is D'wayne Wiggins of the recently disbanded East Oakland R&B group Tony! Toni! Tone!
There is a hazy, after-hours vibe in the place. Somebody says Keyshia wants to get on the mic. The "young lady sound good," they say. Keyshia sings a song now lost to legend, then she leaves. Wiggins wakes up at dawn and listens to the track. He asks the room, "Who was that chick who was here last night?"
Now it's 2007, and here's what we know about "that chick" Keyshia Cole. She's an American Music Award-nominated singer-songwriter whose second album, the much-anticipated Just Like You (Imani/Geffen), has just been released. Keyshia's a platinum-recording artist - and it's no easy feat in this era of digital downloading to sell more than one-and-a-half million copies of any album, even one as deeply felt as Keyshia's 2005 The Way It Is. Her "Love" song was painful to listen to, but it was also huge - rising to No. 3 on Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop chart. Then, in 2006, with Sean "Diddy" Combs, Keyshia had the biggest pop hit of her career (to that point) with "Last Night" (Bad Boy). She also stars in a highly rated BET reality show (Keyshia Cole" The Way It Is) in which the "reality" is her life. Keyshia has a reputation for being a magically emotive live performer and often plays to sold-out crowds. Keyshia Cole, everyone says, is Mary J. Blige's heir apparent.
So, okay: But who is Keyshia Cole?
Keyshia Cole is an Oakland type of chick. And I'm one who might know a little something about that.
Keyshia came up in East Oakland off of 84th Avenue and East 14th Street. I claim 83rd and East 14th, and so can my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother. For the first 27 years of my life, I never left Oakland except for Los Angeles, so I didn't know to say that I "loved" Oakland, or that I'd ever "miss" Oakland, or that I was an Oakland type of chick. All I knew was that Oaktown (called that corruptively and affectionately) was wide-open, dangerous, sometimes pretty, and ferocious with crack and the seemingly cool, vicious, sweet guys who sold it in small and sometimes big ways.
Sixteen years separate Keyshia and me, as well as the circumstances of our upbringings (though, of course, we all have our crosses to bear) but she - with her grimy sweetness, underdog mentality, and what can only be called a reflexive stank attitude - reminds me of the girls I ran around with when I was young and living in Oakland, trying to figure out how to get out of - but still be of - the 'Town.
To read the rest of this cover story, cop VIBE's December 2007 issue, on stands now! Or keep VIBE locked, as we roll it out, piece by piece, paragraph by paragraph, over the next couple weeks.
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Comments
1.
dharaguru says:
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the hottest chick she is even better than beyonce
October 17, 2008 at 1:30 pm
2.
Martinx says:
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I had a crush on the girl until she took her clothes off she broke my heart why is it our woman don't want to be known for their brains and talent anymore do they all want to be strippers wheres the pole peace, love and study
September 24, 2008 at 4:53 pm
3.
m1girl says:
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LET ME TELL ALLLL YALLL KEYSHIA COLE IS THE NEXT MARY J I LOVE MARY J TOO BUT YEA MISS COLE AINT MAD AND I AAINT EITHER COME'N FROM EAST OAKLAND FEEL ME BAY AREAA.
August 11, 2008 at 8:40 pm
4.
deke2407 says:
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Will you marry me Keyshia?
April 2, 2008 at 6:20 pm
5.
SHANTE_2008 says:
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i luv this gurl to death she is so real....... n most people say that she is 2 ghetto or this or that. she just that real type of person that be her self all the time there isnt any fake or phony about here.
thats y she my favorite femal r&b singer
February 25, 2008 at 10:40 am
6.
kendra says:
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I like ms Cole now i used to not bcause she seemed fake but atleast she has her own style and not that same old look she look like a ghetto fabulous african beauty princess and glad shes not waring long weavy curls and all thet same old shit girl get it just stop getting too loud in songs and work out youre tones together. with ms.cole u neva know what to expect becauese shes not like B, rihanna, and miraih. who shows off thyere dancing, singing, and all when they first start she wanna last long so shell give us a suprise every year. We here hits from mariah every ofthen, then where is she? same with b and all other favoritism, so shes different different last longer! duh! same old shit will ware off its 08, a New Generation!
February 1, 2008 at 11:05 am
7.
cris_82 says:
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to keyshia cole for who it may concern please super stars and rap song writer i write to read some of my writeing skills go to keyshia cole lounging poetry and writing under C_passion and rean do you think i have a chance to make a cd check my ears flows i know i am real but who know?
January 20, 2008 at 1:54 pm
8.
jaipur2001le says:
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hi sexy.good to have seen you and it will be good to know you.would love to have a friend like you.tell me somthing good about yourself.
January 3, 2008 at 9:41 am
9.
Ladyc-2009 says:
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Hi
I resent the bad remarks about Oakland. It being
dangerous, drug filled and all. I have live in Oakland for the past 12 years and it is a nice place to live. If you choose to be in that drug lime of life then that
was your choice. But Oakland is doing big thangs and will soon be as big and better as
San Francisco.
December 1, 2007 at 11:39 am
10.
tman says:
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ASSS
November 29, 2007 at 2:05 pm
11.
Hajjsr says:
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To whom it may concern: I am a fan of Ms Cole's. One that she doesn't know. I consider myself one of her biggest fans. I would like to know if Ms Cole has an email address; and if so would you be so kind as to make it available to me? I think she is more than attractive. She doesn't have a clue how gorgeous she is , other wise she wouldn't have never even entertained the thought of tatooing such a beauty like herself. I stil go for her even though she marked her self, like she did. I won't rest good until I catch her in concert. I learned about a showing that she made just this past weeked in Philly, at a little spot called SOLO. I don't know how true the rumor was; but I would have loved to get an up close look at her. to see it she is as pretty as she is on TV, and in picures that I 've seen her in. Being very honest; I ain't too crazy about that shot of her on Vibe magazine. But i know it's all about that dow. She's still my number one. And if I was granted the opporitunity, I wouldn't hesitate to let her know. HAJJSR 609 540 1778 T-Mobile connection
November 28, 2007 at 5:07 pm
12.
Danielle says:
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This article about the trials and tribulations of Keyshia Cole was the best written article I've ever read by vibe magazine. It lets her fans know how hard it really is for some people to make it. Especially since her life in Oakland wasnt so pleasent. It takes true talent to overcome all those fears and become a successful female artist in the industry today.
November 16, 2007 at 6:33 am
13.
shanu says:
your choot me lond dalin
November 16, 2007 at 2:39 am