Her collaboration with Nicki Minaj may not have found success on the charts, but Keyshia Cole is standing behind her decision. The R&B songstress explains that her label wanted to go in a different direction with her lead single, but she ultimately went with her gut.


Keyshia joined forces with the Pink Friday rapper on “I Ain’t Thru,” the first offering from her fourth album Calling All Hearts, but the song failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100.

“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 told the AP. “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.’”

She knew it was a riskier move going with the club-oriented record instead of sticking to more familiar territory. “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.”

The underperforming single was quickly followed by the mid-tempo ballad “Long Way Down,” which is off to a more promising start. “People are gravitating more toward [the record],” said Keyshia.