Keri Hilson Working On Third Album

Keri Hilson is wasting no time getting to work on her third album. You can read more about that below as well as stories on The-Dream's new album and Fantasia's latest movie role!

Keri Hilson released her sophomore album No Boys Allowed only a few short months ago, but the wheels are already turning for a follow-up. The sexy singer revealed that she’s about to commence work on her as-yet-untitled third LP, with plans to hit the studio with producer Polow Da Don next month.

“I’m actually recording, going back into the studio in March just to see what happens with Polow Da Don,” Miss Keri exclusively told Rap-Up.com. “I’ve given it some thought, but I’m definitely not going to rush it. I never want to be in that position, so there’s no date or anything. I’m going pretty deep on the second album, anyway.”

The songstress plans to see No Boys Allowed through until the end, with a tour slated for April and hopes of taking Jessie J and Miguel on the road. But with features on her sophomore album including Kanye West, J. Cole, Rick Ross and more, she isn’t counting out big collabos for album number three.

“Bruno Mars and I have talked about it,” she said of her potential duets, name-checking another singer on her wish list. “Cee Lo is one that I would like to have happen.”

The singer-songwriter is currently promoting her latest album, which spawned the singles “Pretty Girl Rock” and “Breaking Point.” For her next single, she’s leaning toward “One Night Stand” featuring Chris Brown, though she hopes that the John Legend-penned “All the Boys” will eventually become a single.

The-Dream To Release New Album

The-Dream might have claimed that last year’s Love King would be his final album, but it ain’t over yet. Last night at the premiere of Justin Bieber’s 3D documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, the singer-songwriter revealed that his fourth album is in the works and should arrive by late summer.

“Everybody’s calling for an album now, so I should have one out by August,” he told Quddus on the purple carpet.

The “Baby” hitmaker is also burning with Bieber fever, sharing that he’s working on the teen idol’s next album alongside Danja, Kevin Cossom, and Kanye West. “We’ve actually been working on the next record, so I’ve been writing, just to get ready,” he said.

And while Biebs has experimented with his sound lately by remixing “Runaway Love” with Kanye and Raekwon, The-Dream plans to continue pushing the envelope. “I can’t give away that,” he teased of the pop star’s new material. “Somewhere between like Fergie and Jesus, somewhere in between there. If I can get away with edgy, I would love it.”

Fantasia To Play Mahalia Jackson In New Film

American Idol alum and erstwhile VH1 reality-show star Fantasia Barrino has added another line to her resume today.

The season three winner is slated to appear in a feature-film adaptation of the 1993 book Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel, which recounts the life of the late American gospel singer, a civil rights activist who was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


The CAA-repped Barrino, who's biggest post-Idol gig to date was playing Celie in the Broadway version of The Color Purple, will portray Jackson on her journey from abject poverty in New Orleans to her rise as a global figure in gospel and early supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr. The singer died in 1972 at the age of 60.

The 26-year-old performer also played herself in the 2006 Lifetime biopic Life Is Not a Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story, which was based on her 2005 autobiography.
The film will be directed by Euzhan Palcy (A Dry White Season) from a script by Jim Evering, and goes into production in April in Pittsburgh and Chicago for a December release.

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