rapper Chink Santana, and veteran producer E-Poppi. Plus, she got the chance to collaborate with one of her inspirations, Eve, for a song on the Barbershop 2 soundtrack, “Never,” which was released as a single in early 2004.When Interscope/Geffen/A&M was ready to release The Way It Is in the spring of 2005, Cole found herself positioned alongside fellow young R&B women like Brandy, Monica, and Beyoncé. Yet Cole had an edge over her peers - a street edge. Having grown up in Oakland and lived there most of her young life, she knew life wasn’t all glitter and gold like it was in Hollywood. She knew the streets, and that inner-city viewpoint informs many of her songs, which are generally a bit rougher and less naïve than those of your typical young R&B vocalist. Two singles released from The Way It Is, “I Should Have Cheated” and “Love,” reached the Top Ten of the R&B chart, and the album eventually sold a million copies in the U.S.
The wait for her second album, 2007’s Just Like You, was broken up by memorable appearances on Diddy’s Press Play (“Last Night”) and R.
