The Reason We've Given Up On Keyshia Cole

She has 3 platinum albums and sings in a way that can easily be described as soul fused with raw emotion. Keyshia Cole has entered the hearts of millions, yet somehow has not been able to stay there. Cole isn't a menace to society nor is she an attention-seeker looking for the next opportunity to discard her clothes.  So how could this songstress so quickly fall from many people's lists of favorite people?

Keyshia Cole appeared on the national scene with her debut album, The Way It Is.  She has a total of six albums with half of those selling over a million units. Cole was one of America's favorite star who represented her life, her culture, and her city to the fullest. She is also known for dauntlessly displaying her true self on reality television. But is it Keyshia Cole's "realness" that has placed her in the public eye as being inconsistent, or maybe "too hood" (as if such a term exist)?

Cole married professional basketball athlete, Daniel Gibson, and seemingly poured all into a relationship that eventually ended in failure. She's criticized for making comments about singers Beyonce and Michelle Williams. Her judgement is questioned again when she appeared at rapper Birdman's condo and gets arrested for attacking one of his female companions. We invited her in to our lives and then we discarded her just as quickly for doing things that most of us claim that we would do but probably would not.

I am not Keyshia Cole's #1 Fan nor will I ever be. That title probably belongs to a little girl in Cole's hometown who sees nothing but God's graces when she stares at the artist's postered face on her bedroom wall. However, I do confess to being someone who knows passion personified in a human form when I see it. Keyshia Cole is someone who will respond outwardly (and sometimes publicly) to matters without totally spiraling away from her ability to self-reason.

A similar type of person was introduced to me in a novel years ago entitled The Sorrows of Young Werther, a book written  by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In that novel the main character, Werther (pronounced Vector), would not allow his passion for the woman he loved be constrained. Young Werther inhaled the essence of his love-interest on a daily basis ultimately displaying true love in its paramount. It's a book of which one learns that a closed mouth and a closed heart proves unsuccessful in the areas of true love and conviction. Keyshia Cole is indeed like the character Werther. Her voice is strong and her actions are even stronger when it relates to something that she deems important.

I proclaim that Keyshia Cole is certainly not a "hood chick" who can't control herself, nor do I consider her to be a pampered artist. We need to support her for being quite the opposite. Cole is someone who is simply led by her heart; and surely that's a character-trait which should be respected. Or maybe we should give credit to another of her lesser known qualities: the ability to disregard her heart's cravings when love no longer beckons its way. I'm sure that talent alone should make us all want to buy Keyshia Cole posters.