Keyshia Cole’s brand new album Calling All Hearts is in stores now. The soulful singer recently spoke to the Associated Press about her choice for the projects first offering. The Nicki Minaj assisted, uptempo “I Ain’t Thru”. The statement song, was Keyshia’s choice, and she says the label felt that she should have gone in a different direction. The single has not cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and is barely making noise on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, peaking at #58.
“The label didn’t really want to drop the record because they knew … that people wanted a more intense, soulful record from me about love and I really should have followed (their) direction,” she said. “But I wanted that to be a statement record. It’s like saying, ‘I’m doing me, you know. I don’t have no regrets for nothing that I’m doing.'”
“There’s no way to predict how people will respond to things,” said Ron Fair, chairman of Geffen Records. “It’s something that Keyshia really wanted to say.”
Keyshia stands by her artistic expression, however she also understand fans perception of her. “I just think that people expect me to be, you know, an artist that sings about just love. But I’m always growing as an artist and I have to feed my artistry,” she said.
They have already followed up the song with “Long Way Down,” which she says “people are gravitating more toward” because of its mid-tempo groove and focus on love; the song was released to radio last week.
Fair, who executive produced all of Cole’s albums, says though the pre-album buzz isn’t as strong as it has been in the past, he’s not worried about the new album’s first-week sales.
“The record business is so perilous right now that it’s always, for me, a case of the tortoise not the hare,” Fair said. “What will be the ultimate judgment is where this record is in a year.”
