This is an ultimate group for Keyshia Cole. She is someone that puts her heart and soul into her songs. Her music is inspirational and motivational and to top it off she has a 'Killer' voice. Keyshia Cole is the real deal. Like many young people raised in a tough neighborhood, the 21-year-old songstress endured a tumultuous childhood in Oakland, California, and has fought all her life to keep her dream of a music career alive. Now she's realizing that dream on her own terms with her first album for the A&M label, The Way It Is. It's been a long road for Keyshia, but it's her powerful voice-- a bell-like instrument whose soaring clarity is topped off with a tantalizing touch of soulful grit -- that's carried her through, not to mention the diminutive singer's personal combination of sugar, spice, sass and sex appeal, along with a solid-steel spine. Keyshia's talent, personality, and faith have won her fans and supporters within the notoriously picky entertainment industry since she was a young girl. For example, while still a pre-teen she convinced then-superstar MC Hammer that he should put her on, and she even got a chance to do some recording with the rap star before she was 12 years old. Determined to start a brand-new life, it only took Keyshia a few months of making connections to snag an introduction to A&M Records President Ron Fair, who immediately signed her to her first solo recording deal.