Damn it Keyshia, the sad songs are what made you famous:

Emotional songs such as “Love” and “I Remember” helped make songstress Keyshia Cole one of R&B music’s  most popular stars. But while those songs resonate with her millions of fans, Cole says that she can’t stand to listen to the songs anymore.

The singer says that she’s tired of singing those same old sad love songs. With her new CD, “A Different Me,” released this month, Cole introduces her “sexier” side.

Currently on tour with Lil Wayne and Gym Class Heroes, the 27-year-old diva - who is also a big reality star thanks to her successful BET show “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is” - say she’s changing up her stage performance and hopes to gain worldwide appeal.

AP: On the opening track of the new CD, you introduce your “sexier” side. What does that mean exactly?

Cole: Just the mood of some of the music, and also the pictures that I took for the album packaging were a little bit sexier than normal. It’s a lot lighter and sexier, you can listen to it and it’s not so heartbroken and painful.

AP: Do you feel sexier now than before?

Cole: I just think that sexier is, I guess, the clothes that you’re wearing. I’ve always been a young lady but I just chose to do certain things or look a certain way before. I really did like the fact that I work really hard to make it here. It’s just a sexier or softer side of myself that I chose to put forth and show the world. I think it’s always been there, it’s just the point of bringing it out and being comfortable with yourself.

AP: Talk about the songwriting process when recording the new CD.

Cole: With “Love,” after I wrote that song, I couldn’t listen to it, I still can’t listen to “Love,” I just can’t. Like I don’t even listen to my own albums, which is bad because I really need to do that because I perform them all the time. It’s just that after I write it, and I felt that way and I remember that way, it’s hard for me to go back and really listen to it because I hate feeling that way. But I perform those songs almost every night so it’s something that I have to take myself back to and remember that feeling and project that feeling to the world. But that’s why I went with the “A Different Me” title because I am a traveling performer and a growing entertainer and I wanted to switch up the music and change it up and give it a different vibe because I don’t want to be on the same vibe every night singing the same type of song.

AP: Is it going to be easier to perform the new songs because the material is lighter?

Cole: I’ll see. Hopefully it brings a wider base of a crowd for me to perform in front of. To get that arena audience, I felt like I had to switch it up just a little tiny bit, and touch (on) different (subject) matters in relationships, just on a worldwide basis.

AP: What else are you doing differently?

Cole: I definitely changed choreographers, I switched by band up, I revamped my whole staging and just rehearsing and working at that because I never really incorporated a bunch of dance moves or choreography on the stage, but now I’m trying new things. I just want to live up to the title “A Different Me.” I just want to become a headlining entertainer at arenas and do it that big.

Is it me or does Keyshia seem to pattern her career after Mary J. Blige. Everything from her toning down the ghetto look to now refusing to sing anymore sad songs. Remember when Mary made the album “No More Drama” in which she professed to never make another song about the drama in her life. Well, I hope it works for you Keysh. But from the sounds of this album, I’d say you are getting off to a slow start. In my opinion the album is not good at all and I’m a Keyshia Cole fan.

This is a new single from Keyshia Cole’s upcoming album “A Different Me” which is due for release on December 16. The song is titled ‘I Love You” and it uses the same sample as one of Mary J. Blige’s early records. I think the sample is from the group Trouble Funk. Lil Wayne is featured on the song. What do you think ???

Listen to a sneak peek from Ms. Coles upcoming album “Different Me”. The song is titled “You Complete Me” and is included on the official track listing from the album. The picture above is the album cover and you can check out the track list below mp3 player. What do you think of the song ?

Track Listing for ‘Different Me”

1. A Different Me
2. Make Me Over
3. Please Dont Stop
4. Erotic
5. You Complete Me
6. No Other Feat. Amina Harris
7. Oh-oh. Yeah-Yeah Feat. Nas
8. Playa Cardz Right Feat. 2pac
9. Brand New
10. Trust Feat. Monica
11. Thought You Should Know
12. This Is Us
13. Where This Love Could End Up
14. Beautiful Music
15. A Different Me

Fans can’t get enough of the lives of R&B sensation Keyshia Cole and her controversial family.

On Tuesday night, BET premiered the first two episodes of the third season of ‘Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is’ and they couldn’t have dreamed up how successful the show would be — scoring incredible ratings, amassing over one million viewers.

Not only was it the network’s#1 original series season premiere telecast for this year, the second episode scored the best ratings in the history of the network for an original program.

On the first episode of ‘The Way It Is,’ we find the platinum-selling R&B singer, a native of Oakland, adjusting to life in her brand-new home in Atlanta. She has a super-fly sports car and three puppies. She’s hired a trainer and personal chef and is taking better care of herself.

Last season, the chart-topper met with her accountant who told her she cannot continue financially providing for her family. Instead, he urged her to cut down on spending and save. If you know Cole, she totally did things her way and did not heed that advice.

Instead, she purchased a home in Atlanta for her sister, Neffe, and three nieces, in which her biological mother Frankie lives, as well. Her long-lost sister, who she was reunited with last season, has also moved to Atlanta. Neffe and Frankie have power struggles over the house and whether Frankie, a former drug addict, is wanted.

Last season, Neffe battled with the idea of having an abortion, when she found out she was pregnant with her fourth child. When the show returns, we find out that she ended up keeping the child and now had a baby boy.

In one of the new episodes, we also see Frankie and her daughter’s foster mother, Ms. Cole, argue over whether Frankie should go to the mother spa day that the singer planned for the two ladies. Frankie says she has a club gig that she will make t$2,000 at and decided she doesn’t want to go. This also makes Cole upset as she just wants to show both of her mothers that she loves and appreciates them.

Ultimately, this show continues to highlight her struggle with balancing her career with her intense family conflict.

Later this season, there will inevitably be more blow-out arguments between Frankie and Neffe and of course some behind-the-scenes footage of her recording her new album, which is due out via Geffen Records next month.

Her third studio offering, ‘A Different Me’ will be released on December 16. It addition to guest appearances from Nas, Kanye West and a duet with Monica, the project will also includes a track called ‘Playa Cardz Right’ featuring the late Tupac Shakur, who was reportedly a dear friend to her.

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In just three years, R&B singer Keyshia Cole has scored two platinum albums, three No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and a top-rated reality show on BET.

All these professional achievements belie the pain-filled personal saga that first introduced Cole to the spotlight. Many of her biggest hits — “I Should Have Cheated,” “Love,” “Let It Go,” “I Remember” and “Heaven Sent” — simultaneously evoke vulnerability and a fierce, don’t-mess-with-me confidence.

But Cole’s third album “A Different Me,” set for release on December 16 via Geffen/Interscope, finds the scrappy singer/songwriter having more fun.

“The first two albums (2005’s “The Way It Is” and 2007’s “Just Like You”) were more . . . painful,” she says. “It’s a different me this time: a young woman who’s still growing and finding myself, exploring life through different routes musically and in other areas. I wrote more about other people’s situations than my own. I’m moving forward.”

And while the pain quotient is definitely lowered on “A Different Me,” the emotional realness and accessibility that fans have come to love in Cole’s music remain — as do her searing vocals. It all adds up to “fearless R&B,” says her label boss, Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair.

She’s reflective and coy on the melodic lead single “Playa Cardz Right” featuring a posthumous Tupac Shakur; the track originally appeared on his 2006 album “Pac’s Life,” but dressed up with a new verse and arrangement, the song has shot to No. 25 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart after only five weeks. It’s competing with Cole’s last single from her sophomore album, “Heaven Sent,” which is No. 14 on the chart.

A girl-talk intro colorfully sets up Cole’s duet with real-life friend Monica on “Trust,” while the pulsating “Make Me Over” taps into Cole’s upbeat side. She further hones her ballad skills on the track “You Complete Me” and flashes a sultry side on a cover of R. Kelly’s 1992 hit, “Honey Love.”

While Cole’s rise may seem fast to the public, the 27-year-old singer first began dabbling in music when she was 12, recording with MC Hammer and being mentored by Shakur. Born in Oakland, Calif., to a drug-addicted mother and adopted by a family friend when she was 2, Cole is the younger sister of rapper Nutt-So.

“Other people recognized my talent before I did,” Cole says. “There were times when Hammer, Pac or other people from around my way would say, ‘That little girl can sing. Sing something.’ And I’d say, ‘You got $5?’”

Cole says the idea of seriously pursuing a music career didn’t kick in until Shakur was murdered in 1996 — “he saw it in me,” she says. That sorrow — and heartbreak brought on by a cheating boyfriend — pushed Cole to Los Angeles and a renewed focus on her career.

That hard work eventually led to an audition for Fair, who signed her initially to a contract in 2004. As Cole recalls, “That was the easiest part: Ron saying I was signed after hearing one verse of ‘Love’ and the chorus.”

The marketing strategy for “A Different Me” will focus on two objectives: building awareness of the album and revealing Cole’s evolution as an artist since “The Way It Is.”

Cole ushered in the third season of her top-rated BET reality show, “The Way It Is,” on Tuesday. Her current single, “Playa Cardz Right,” doubles as its theme music. The single’s video is receiving airplay on BET and MTV, while VH1 — which recently presented Cole with its Soul Sista Black Girls Rock Award — will air an upcoming hourlong special, “Soul Story.”

Beyond “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” or “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” her handlers are looking to showcase Cole’s tongue-in-cheek humor through bookings on shows like PBS’ “Tavis Smiley” and E’s “Chelsea Lately.” A holiday tour also featuring Lil Wayne and T-Pain will be revealed shortly.

Next year Cole will hit the road with a screenwriter in tow, as part of a plan to develop a movie based on her life. But Cole suggests her story is far from being told.

“I haven’t reached my goal yet,” she says, adding that she eventually wants to live in a log cabin and own horses, operate a veterinary hospital and pet store — plus a coffee shop on the side. “I want that real bad. I can just see the couches and the fireplace going.

“But to get there,” she notes, “I have to first accomplish my musical goals. To quote Tupac, ‘I got my money right, I got my mind right, and now I want war.’”

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R&B star Keyshia Cole’s mother is set to challenge her adopted daughter for airplay after recording an album of gospel songs. Dr.Yvonne Cole will release her debut album in February. She says, “I’m already a minister and I like spreading the gospel anyway. And I love singing.”

Shun"Nuttso" Cole

Keyshia’s mother is also setting up her own record label, C&W Records, after family members told her she would make the perfect executive. Dr. Cole is also mother of Shun “Nuttso” Cole who was handpicked by Tupac Shakur himself for his group the “Outlaws”. Nuttso won a grammy award for his work on Shakur’s “Better Dayz” album.

Dr. Cole has faced harsh criticism from detractors who believe that the move to the music business will conflict with the morals and values she preaches about as a minister but she is determined to make it work. She adds, “I’m like, ‘Why did I wait ’til I get up in age to do something?’”

I hope that she has a better voice than her taste in wigs. Good Lord !!!.SMH.

R&B songstress Keyshia Cole has moved forward with plans to release her third studio album this year.

Releasing a new single this week, entitled “Playa Cardz Right” featuring 2 Pac, Cole has also inked a release date for “A Different Me,” the follow up to 2007’s “Just Like You.”

As previously revealed on Singersroom, Cole has promised a new attitude and sound on “A Different Me.”

“It’s time to lighten up and have a good time for this album” says the Grammy-nominated singer.

“I’m not talkin’ about being so.. heartbroken.”

Cole’s “A Different Me” is slated for release on December 16th via Geffen/Universal.

Listen to the new single “Playa Cardz Right“ here.

I loved the original verison to this song which was done by 2Pac featuring K-Ci and JoJo. The original song sampled “If You Play Your Cards Right” by the legendary R&B group One Way. This version is very smooth and will probably find it’s way onto Urban Radio playlists all over the country. What do you think ?