Keyshia Cole: Q&A with Billboard

With four weeks atop the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, Keyshia Cole discusses what it took to get “A Different Me” to No. 1.

Ciara to win ‘Woman of the Year’ Award

R&B singer Ciara will win Billboard’s Woman of the Year award. The award will honor the singer’s success as an artist as well as her leadership.

Billboard will announce this in the upcoming issue of “Women in Music” magazine.

Ciara is currently working on her upcoming album Fantasy Ride and it’s expected to release sometime in 2009.

Robin Thicke “Too White” for Vibe Magazine Cover

Robin Thicke recently revealed in Billboard magazine that he was denied the cover of Vibe magazine because he is too white.

Even though the R&B soul singer has worked with many black artists and lives with a black woman, Vibe still turned him down because they have a policy against having “white” artists on the cover. In fact, the only white artist to ever grace the cover of Vibe was Eminem.

Robin said, “If there’s one magazine that I’d want to be on the cover of, it’s Vibe” and goes on to say that he doesn’t think it was racism.

“You can’t always expect people to be as color-blind or open-minded as you want. What you can do is keep giving your heart and soul, like Bob Marley did. His music became so overwhelmingly loving; it was a relentless love in a sense. Keep beating them down with love and they can’t stop you.” Robin added.

Robin Thicke’s “Something Else” album is due for release on September 30th.

Billboard interview with Nelly

Billboard caught up with multi-platinum MC Nelly and discussed his J’z, changes in the music business and what fans can expect from his new album, “Brass Knuckles.”