Keri Hilson isn’t ready to release the name of her third album, due out this year. But she’s offered some insight into the direction she is taking.
Hilson, who released her debut album, In A Perfect World, in 2009 describes her next album as a follow up to her second set, No Boys Allowed.
“No Boys Allowed was a tutorial,” Hilson told Hip Hop Media Training. “That was like a how to please a woman album. So men, if you’re confused. You think you might have some boyish ways? You might want to man up and check out No Boys Allowed. Then you’re ready for my next one.”
Hilson does admit, though, that her sexually explicit song and risqué video for “The Way You Love Me,” that received a backlash from her fans, was, in hindsight, even too racy for her own taste.
“Maybe, I don’t feel as sexy or as raunchy as ‘The Way You Love Me’ might have really portrayed,” she said. “There’s a part of me that, absolutely, I’m a woman, but I think that is probably the furthest from who I am that we’ve ever shown to the world.”
Hilson said her album will incorporate the energies of some of her biggest hits, including “Turnin’ Me On,” “Pretty Girl Rock” and the Kanye West collab “Knock You Down.”
Hilson revealed that she has been back in the studio with West, but for work with another artist. “I did go in the studio with John Legend,” she said. “I’m not sure if they’re going to use any of it. Went in with Kanye West with John Legend. I had a great time doing that.”
During her break from putting out new music, Hilson had an opportunity to work with Vin Diesel in the film Riddick due out this fall. The former athlete, who competed in swimming for the junior nationals and was voted her basketball team’s MVP during her senior year of high school, didn’t get to do as much acting in the film as she would have liked.
“I got to do very little action,” she said. “But I did get to show my athleticism which was a lot of fun and that’s what I wanted to do.” Hilson added that she felt comfortable on the set and learned a lot from Vin Diesel.