![]() ![]() READ THE REST IN THE DEC/JAN ISSUE OF VIBE MAGAZINEīehind The Scenes: Keri Hilson’s Dec./Jan.Some people wait a long time to get their name in lights. Or, perhaps, if the people who have invested in her will let her. The question is whether Hilson can stomach showing it. There’s more to her than a face and voice, certainly. But when she promises that this album is more “her” than the last one, it’s hard to know what that means exactly. She’s proven herself as a singer and a songwriter, and she’s got movie-star good looks. Now, as she readies No Boys Allowed, her second full-length solo album, she faces the challenge of showing the world who she is, and differentiating herself as a lasting R&B act. You have to try it, and hope you are able to turn it around before you’re known as some- thing you aren’t.” But you want to-I mean you have to-please them. “Some- one says, ‘Go out there in this jacket.’ And you’re like, ‘But… it doesn’t fit! Nor is it my style.’ And that’s hard, because these are people who are investing in you, spending their time and their money, but they have a different direction. “There have been situations where the people you’re around have one vision for you, and it’s like trying on a jacket that doesn’t fit,” she says. ![]() And over the years, everyone has had different ideas about what-and who-Hilson should be.īut Hilson has her own ideas about that, too. Later, Polow Da Don scooped her up and introduced her to Timbaland. After high school, Hilson worked with producer Anthony Dent, who put her on as a backup singer and a songwriter when her first deal, with Elektra Records, didn’t pan out. That may be because she’s spent most of her career as someone else’s pet project. In other words, nothing she is known for so far particularly screams Keri Hilson. She was eclipsed by Lil Wayne on her second biggest hit, “Turnin Me On,” and its feisty remix got her in hot water for those kind-of-maybe Ciara and Beyoncé disses-which she says she didn’t mean and were not her idea. Its biggest song was “Knock You Down,” a catchy, impersonal pop record about falling in love that featured Ne-Yo and Kanye West. Her first album, In a Perfect World.was well reviewed but unmemorable, flooded with artists and big-name producers who stole the show. Her interview answers are unspecific, and so are her songs. ![]() Whether by design or by accident, Hilson, who has written songs for the biggest names in rap, pop and R&B, has managed to reveal remarkably little of herself. But as everyone around her is letting loose, she remains poised and a touch distant. Hilson is cocking back her shoulder with a little snap, and she even takes the mic for a while. It’s a drink-spilly kind of crowd, fun, festive and a little bit messy. Inside the tent occupied by Zone 4, the Polow Da Don-Interscope imprint to which she’s signed, her poppy new single, “Pretty Girl Rock,” blasts from the giant speakers on repeat. “I mean, can you imagine Beyoncé doing this?” Being famous may mean she gets her makeup done before she goes to a barbecue, and that a stylist will help her decide between the black cutoffs and the blues, but, as she points out, she’s here without an entourage and security. Hilson is famous now, especially in her hometown of Atlanta, and she has almost a million followers on Twitter, which means it’s a matter of minutes before people start sticking their phones in her face to snap pictures. “I don’t want to live like a prisoner,” she says, tweeting her whereabouts from her BlackBerry. on a Saturday, and the Morehouse/Spelman Homecoming is in full swing. Dressed in up-to-there Levi’s shorts and studded boots, this is Daytime Keri-casual, relaxed, go-anywhere Keri, who dances from the waist up with a straw in her mouth, and flashes her enormous smile for the cameras, of which there are several. ![]() KERI HILSON IS SIPPING a bright yellow frozen margarita and padding around in puddles of booze. Story: Siobhan O’Connor II Photography: GL Wood BUT WILL THE POWERFUL MEN IN HER LIFE CLEAR THE PATH? SHE WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH THIS ON HER OWN MERIT. KERI HILSON WANTS TO BE GREAT-BIG VENUE, ENDORSEMENT DEALS, RECORD-BREAKING- BILLBOARD-STATUS SUCCESSFUL. ![]()
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