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Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre

2600 Atwater St., 48207, Detroit, MI, US

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Doors open: 20:00

Concert in your area for Hip-Hop, R&B, Funk & Soul, Pop, and Electronic.

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Keyshia Cole biography

Keyshia Cole is an R&B singer and songwriter hailing from Oakland, California, US who was born on the 15th of October 1981. Since her debut in 2005 she has released six studio albums, three of which have gone platinum, and five top 40 hits on the Hot 100.

It’s not normally a good idea to meet your idols, so goes the accepted wisdom. It’s doubly true if they happen to be musicians, since one builds up such a convincing portrait of them based on their music that’s probably still false. However, it seems Keyshia Cole had the experience that every musician dreams of having when they meet their idols. At the age of twelve, Cole and her brother Sean were trying to make it in the music world so they decided to go straight to the source for information. They called MC Hammer. Of course, Hammer was nothing if not a busy man in the early 90’s, so it took many, many calls and many terse conversations with his secretary but miraculously, they managed to get through to him, and the twelve year old Cole found herself recording with him soon afterwards.

What’s more, it would happen again, but this time in infinitely more tragic circumstances. After working with Hammer Cole became something of a name in the Hip-Hop scene and later struck up a friendship with Tupac Shakur. Again, it was almost too good to be true, as he promised to help her out with her singing career, giving her a leg up by letting her write and sing a hook on an upcoming track of his. However, that would all happen on the same night he was tragically murdered. However, Keyshia Cole turned out to be the kind of artist who wouldn’t need that kind of help, and true to form, her first major successes would come on her own terms.

At the age of 18 she moved to Los Angeles from Oakland, and by the time she was 21 she was introduced to Ron Fair, an A&R man from A&M Records. He heard a demo of “Love”, a song that would go on to be her first platinum single, and signed her almost immediately after. Her first singles may not have set the charts alight but they showed off some impressive collaborators, with hr debut single featuring Eve and her second single being produced by some no-hoper called Kanye West. Her first mixtape came out soon afterwards, which again saw some impressive team ups with Fat Joe and Ghostface Killah. However, her debut album was what made her a star.

It was an immediate top ten smash, selling nearly a hundred thousand copies in its first week. Everything that followed “The Way It Is” was a hit, third single “I Should Have Cheated” hitting number 30, and “Love” going straight in at number six. Cole had arrived. Since then she’s gone from strength to strength, with two other platinum albums following her debut and since 2006, she’s had a succesful side venture as a reality TV star, with a number of shows following her personal life to this very day. Clearly, Cole is an artist that every fan of Hip-Hop and R&B should feel pretty blessed to have going, and she’s not out of her prime yet. One to see as soon as possible.

Live reviews

Keyshia Cole might not be one of those R&B artists who shot up to fame very quickly, but she is definitely one who’s managed to have some longevity in a this volatile business. So what keeps people coming back to see her? Her resilience, passion and her ability to wear her heart on her sleeve.
Starting her career at the age of 18, Keyshia dropped her debut album, ‘The Way It Is,’ in 2005. Eventually going platinum, this put Keyshia in prime position to be a contender in the R&B market that was already filled with some heavy hitters. However, she held her own and dropped five more albums including ‘Point of No Return,’ her latest LP.
If there’s something that makes Keyshia Cole a great performer is the fact that she personifies whatever she’s singing. While other singers do that when they start moving down toward the ground or shutting their eyes while belting out that high note, Keyshia is a bit more dynamic. When she’s singing an upbeat banger like ‘Rick James, she’s put her bitch mode into overdrive to show her diva side. Then if it’s a song like ‘Trust & Believe,’ she makes us feel like she’s just been heartbroken and makes you want to weep along with her achingly beautiful lyrics.
So if you’re in the mood to feel the music, not just hear it, Keyshia Cole might be the R&B artist for you.

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evtan

Lloyd - who, for my money, should really be going by his fabulous birth name, Lloyd Polite Jr. - is one of those R&B singers who has a lifelong grounding int he music industry, having come up through a boy band in the form of N-Toon; he started out with the group at the age of just ten. Since then, he’s released a slew of solo records, signing with the likes of Def Jam and Murder Inc. down the years and seeing two of his albums go top ten in his native U.S., thanks in no small part to chart smashes like ‘Southside’ and ‘Get It Shawty’. More recently, he’s decided to veer away from the smooth R&B sound with which he made his name, swapping crooning for rapping and signing with G-Unit Records last year. He’s released one new track to date - the considerably heavier ‘Get Dat Doe’ - and looks set to make a serious tilt at the genre on his as-yet-unconfirmed fifth solo album. How that will affect his live shows remains to be seen; they’ve generally been mellow affairs, as was the case when he appeared at 2012’s Wireless Festival; he performed a slew of his laid-back classics, in a dubious leather jacket/bare chest combo, to a packed tent, and it’s difficult to imagine rap tracks fitting in with that particular vibe - time will tell.

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