Keyshia Cole Celebrates 30th Birthday and Talks of New Album “Woman to Woman”

October 22nd, 2011 | By

It looks as though Keyshia Cole has nothing but great news. We’ve heard about her lavish wedding with NBA player Daniel Boobie Gibson and he new addition to the family. She is a successful wife, mother and R&B singer with an upcoming album dedicated to the women, “Woman to Woman”. Last week, her hubby threw her an 80s themed 30th birthday bash for Mrs. Gibson. She dressed up like the 80s Madonna, with a custom-made ballet-style dress and a gigantic bow. Boobie Gibson wore an 80s Run DMC style Adidas red track suit and gold chain. The birthday party was held at Tavo Martini Loft in her hometown Cleveland, Ohio. Some of the celebrity guests that made an appearance include Biz Markie and Kevin Liles.

“[Daniel] threw me the best birthday weekend celebration EVER! I had sooo much fun. Way too much fun!” tweeted Keyshia.

Keyshia’s upcoming album is a follow-up to last year’s album called Calling All Hearts. She’s done a collabo with Trey Songs, and has been noted being in the studio with other popular stars like Cool & Dre, Ester Dean, Boi-1da and Toxic. You’ll soon hear her first single, which will be out this December. This album will be her first release without Interscope A&R executive Ron Fair, who left the company earlier this year.

“So excited about this album! Although Ron Fair is no longer with Geffen records, N i’m very accustomed 2 him being here. MY NEW TEAM IS GR8,” she tweeted. “I will name them all very soon. New team. New life. New album. My child. My husband. 30’s are the new 20’s LOL. AND SO FORTH AND SO ON.”

Singer Teena Marie Passes Away

December 29th, 2010 | By

Singer Teena Marie was confirmed dead on December 26th. The cause of her death was unreported, but it was reported that she had suffered a grand mal seizure back in November. If you are familiar with Teena Marie, then you know she was a popular singer that had hits in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. Some of her most notable were with Rick James, like “I’m a Sucker for Your love” and “Fire and Desire”. Then some of her other songs include “Behind the Groove”, “Portuguese Love”, “Spare Biz” where she was rapping, “Out on a Limb” and “Dear Lover”. She first signed with Motown back in 1976, when James took her under his wing. She was his protege. There are various rappers who have sampled her music, including The Fugies (Fu-Gee-La), Jadakiss (By My Side) and The Firm (Firm Biz).

She even ended up signing with Cash Money Records, where she had two albums released (La Dona back in 2004 and Sapphire in 2007). A lot of people are devastated by her passing.

“We’re shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Teena Marie,” said Philadelphia International Records’ founders, Gamble & Huff, who honored Teena Marie in Philadelphia in 2008, during the R&B Foundation’s Hall of Fame Induction ceremony for the singer.

“She was one of the most memorable, soulful and unique R&B vocalists to come out of Motown. We send or condolences to Teena’s family, the entire Motown family and of course, our dear friend Berry Gordy,” Gamble & Huff said.

Keri Hilson: A Rising Star?

April 2nd, 2009 | By

Yeah, you’ve heard of her. The new hip-hop sensation Keri Hilson is hitting the radio and video channels by storm. But many are already criticizing her ways of accomplishing this. Some even think that her fame will fizzle before it can even truly shine. A “lazy” album they call it. If you take a listen to her debut album, “In a Perfect World”, you will hear a lot of generic songs that were “over-produced” and actually hides her personality. Ms. Hilson claims the album is supposed to send a message for women empowerment, but is that what you hear? What you do hear is a lot of Timberland and a lot of reworked beats; you will notice that the song “How Does it Feel”, is a recycling of the Timberland production, “4 Minutes”. Then there is “Return the Favor”, which sounds similar to “The Way I Are”.

Keri Hilson’s top producers on this album are Timberland, of course, and Polow da Don — maker of “In this Club” by Usher and “Forever”. A lot of cliches were found in songs like “Make Love” and “Get Your Money Up”, but you can find some reasonable tracks like “Turnin’ Me On”, featuring Lil Wayne, “Change Me”, produced by Akon and “Slow Dance”, which was co-written with Justin Timberlake. The latter two are pretty decent songs — maybe because they didn’t feature the usual Timberland, who happens to have his voice in all or most of the songs, and Polow. She let a few others produce some of the other songs, as mentioned above, and they turned out to be more original and had a lot of personality.