ESSENCE: Were you always going to be a solo artist?

KEYSHIA COLE: Well, actually, I was gonna be in a group with these two girls. We were in Los Angeles and we were working with Damon Elliot, who is Dionne Warwick’s son, and he was like, “Keysh, if you wanna sign with the girl group, you can; but I’ll sign you solo.” And I was like, I’d rather be solo because I do everything in the group anyway. They’re just pretty. We were gonna get, like, a $30,000 advance and split it ten/ten/ten; but I figured, “Why should I give them my $20,000 when I can get it myself?” So I told them, “I’m sorry, but I can’t.” Then I recorded a couple songs with Damon and one of them was (the hit single) “Love.”

ESSENCE: Early in your career you went to Los Angeles and met legendary music producer Suge Knight and Tupac Shakur. What was that like?

COLE: My brother was close with Pac, he got records with Pac and everything. And Pac’s mother is really cool with my brother and me. So to me, Pac was just like a big brother. That time was like one of the biggest moments in history, and I saw everything. I was with them in Malibu and Vegas and I stayed in the “big house” by myself. I knew the world, the whole industry, everything. I was only fourteen.

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ALICIA KEYS DOING HER THING AT THE 2007 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS
ALL PHOTOS BY FRANK MICELOTTA

Just looking at the photos makes you believe the 07 VMAs was on point! Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I guess you just had to be there to “enjoy” it. Because at home, it looked like crap. I used to actually like the MTV Video Music Awards, but it seems to me that ever since BET started doing their thing every June, MTV has been trying to out-do them somehow, and end up OVER-doing it and the show ends up like crap. Let’s just rewind it back to the way the VMAs used to be. TAKE THE SHIT BACK TO NEW YORK … PLEASE! Anyhow, Y’all know who all these folks are, so there’s really no need for me to go through and name them. Enjoy . . .

The dreadfully WACK 2007 MTV Video Music Awards aired Sunday night live from Las Vegas. Oddly enough, the number of viewers were up 23% from last year. Go figure! Even though the show was wack, everybody on the red carpet looked nice … minus a few people, of course. If you check out the flicks above, and after the cut, you’ll know who I’m talking about without even having to guess or ask. Just trust me on this one! *cough* Lil Mama *cough* Photos from the show to follow!!

RED CARPET PHOTOS BY // SHOW PHOTOS BY ETHAN MILLER // ALL FOR GETTY IMAGES

Diddy, T.I., Three 6 Mafia, Jazze Pha, Rev. Run, Polow Da Don, and a ton of other big names in hip-hop gathered at the New York New York hotel Friday night for the BMI Urban Awards, which honor the songwriters and music makers behind the year’s biggest hits. Rev. Run was there to receive BMI’s Icon Award, an award previously grabbed by Al Green, Isaac Hayes and James Brow. Rev. Run joined rappers Lil Jon and Lil Wayne to perform Run-DMC’s 1986 breakthrough hit “Walk This Way.” Check out photos from the show and the red carpet after the cut . . .

:Sigh: For those of you who missed FASHION ROCKS 2007 Friday, September 7th on CBS you didn’t miss much. The show was pretty whack (J.Lo!) with the exception of the videos I’m posting … Lol. First, Usher comes out and does this amazing rendition of, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s World” – woooo he still got it! Next, Mary J. Blige comes out and does Aretha Franklin “Respect” then Usher and Mary “Do I Do” to Stevie Wonder’s classic. Click after the cut to watch Alicia Key’s incredible performance, “The Thing About Love,” a new song from her album As I Am which she also preformed at Live Earth not too long ago.

USHER AND MARY J BLIGE PERFORMING AT “FASHION ROCKS!” 2007
SHOW PHOTOS BY BRYAN BEDDER // RED CARPET PHOTOS BY PETER KRAMER // ALL FOR GETTY IMAGES

Fashion Rocks 2007, an annual celebration of fashion and music, went down last night in New York City. Folks like Russell Simmons, 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Mary J Blige, Usher, Alicia Keys, and a lot more showed up to either perform, present an award, or just enjoy a night filled with runway models and live performances! The show will air on FOX on Sunday, Sept. 26th at 8 PM ET. Check your local listings for more details. But for now, check out more photos from the show after the jump!

JAY-Z AND ROB GOLDSTEIN OF THE PALAZZO // ALL PHOTOS BY JACOB ANDRZEJCZACK FOR GETTY IMAGES

On Thursday, Jay-Z was at The Venetian in Las Vegas to announce the opening of another one of his 40/40 clubs The $20 million hot spot is scheduled to open in December at the Palazzo, a 3,000-room hotel-casino that will adjoin The Venetian. When it opens, Jay-Z, will be the newest entrant to the Las Vegas club scene that’s grown from a gimmick to attract late-night traffic to Strip casinos into an entire party industry with some clubs making tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Jay Z’s 40/40 Club, for example, will be a 24,000-square-foot sports-themed restaurant that club promoters say will feature 85 plasma-screen televisions, 24-karat gold and platinum flooring and five 40-foot, bi-level bars. The name refers to baseball players hitting 40 home runs and stealing 40 bases in a single season, a feat accomplished by only four players. This is a little of what Jay-Z said at the press conference:

We’ve always believed that sports and entertainment are cousins. We started this to marry the two . . . Las Vegas is like no other place in the world. It is every other place on steroids.

This will be Jay-Z’s 3rd 40/40 club. The first one he ever opened resides in New York City, the second, which was opened back in 2005, can be found in Atlantic City, New Jersey. And now the latest, in Las Vegas. Get ’em Jigga! When asked if he would be marrying Beyonce, his girlfriend of over 4 years, he simply replied “One day soon . . . let’s leave it at that.” Would they get married in Sin City? “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s kind of comfortable here. If [Palazzo President Rob Goldstein] throws in the ring, who knows?”