Keyshia Cole

Her mother is African-American and her father was Italian-American. Her mother's drug addiction led to her becoming a foster child adopted by Yvonne Cole at the age of 4. She has said that her musically talented brother, Sean Cole and Tupac Shakur were close friends. Sean Cole raps under the alias "Nutt-So", and recorded several songs with Shakur before his death.[citation needed] Keyshia's first recordings were with MC Radiant at the age of twelve.[1] In the early 2000s, she appeared on tracks by San Francisco Bay Area artists including Tony! Toni! Toné!'s D'Wayne Wiggins and San Francisco rapper Messy Marv.

Cole was inspired by her ex-boyfriend's mother to further pursue her career, so she left the Bay Area with a rented car and two hundred dollars after catching her boyfriend cheating. She moved to Los Angeles and within several months of her arrival, had attracted the attention of Interscope president Ron Fair, who in turn recommended her to chairman Jimmy Iovine, for whom she performed an early version of "Love" in June/July 2002. She was signed by then A & R rep Fair in December 2002. Cole started recording her debut album soon after. In 2003, she made her first solo appearance on the Biker Boyz soundtrack with the track "Get Up". In 2004, Cole made another solo appearance on the track "Never", taken from the Barbershop 2: Back in Business soundtrack with rapper Eve. She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.