Before Light Skin Keisha would go viral on Instagram for speaking her mind
Before LightSkinKeisha would start to run the game with her song Treadmill
And before her song “Ride Good” would have close to 20 million views at the time
of this recording.
Before she would help popularize the term PERIOD along with
the City Girls of course.
And Before she would have over 1.5 million followers on Instagram at the time of this
recording.
Keisha came up off of her personality on Instagram but with her latest releases, she’s proving
that she is here to stay with her music.
But before all of the fame, she had a pretty tough road that includes growing up with 7
siblings and a single mother, being homeless at one point and even working jobs at Steak
and Shake, METRO PCS and more.
We’ll get into all of her jobs and how she got to where she’s at today later on in
this video.
What’s going on good people in the comment section?
My name is Jeremy Hecht, I hope you’re having one Hecht of a day!
And today I’ll be your host taking you through the life and career of Light Skin Keisha prior
to fame.
Shoutout to my no sock gang and the toilet gang and shoutout to people in Atlanta, hit
me up in the comments down below!
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after you’ve finished watching this one.
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I’ve also got a trivia question for you that I’ll answer later on in the video:
“What song does Keisha use as her vocal warmup in the booth before she records her
songs?”
Leave your guesses in the comments down below and stick around for that answer.
Alright, LES GO!!!!!
Keisha was born in Atlanta on September 4, 1981, the same day as Beyoncé.
She was raised by her single mother alongside her 7 siblings and 2 god siblings that staying
over at different points in time.
But the oldest siblings would move out at different times so it was never all of them
in the house at the same time.
But still that’s a busy household, especially for a single mom to handle.
Her dad was a truck driver and Keisha remembers her dad being in her life when she was around
4 years old, but shortly afterwards they lost contact.
Her mom worked hard enough to make sure all of the kids had fresh clothing and new shoes
every year for school.
Keisha recalls times where the hot water was cut off, but her mom would wake up at 4am
just to boil enough hot water so that everyone could still take warm baths.
That’s dedication and it’s, that dedication that inspired Keisha to be so hard working.
Even since she was a little kid, Keisha had a lot of energy and her mom knew that she
was a natural at performing.
Keisha used to dress up in her mom and sister’s heals and dance around
the house.
Keisha told XXL that her mom would encourage her to sing from a young age telling her she
is a little superstar, so just sing!
Keisha gained a little confidence and started to freestyle in front of her friends at school.
Keisha’s inspirations were of course her birthday soulmate Queen Bey,
Trina because of how real she is, Naomi Campell because of her ability to move throughout
multiple industries, and rappers from Atlanta like Lil Jon and Pastor Troy.
But she also had a pretty diverse taste in music, loving Corinne Bailey Rae and Carrie
Underwood.
I love Corinne also, Girl Put Your Records, …
Uh, sorry I blacked there…
Back to the video…
Keisha was an all-star cheerleader, performing for 13 years during elementary and continuing
throughout high school.
She says cheerleading taught her a lot about stage presence.
And when it comes to stage presence, if you can’t tell by her personality, she had a
lot of it.
Her coach would always put her in the front and center position because of her energy.
Keisha graduated from high school and decided to get adult braces.
Bold decision but it seems like it paid off.
After graduation, Keisha worked multiple service jobs that included METRO PCS, Steak and Shake
and Applebees.
I used to work at Applebees as a bartender, but really my biggest contribution to the
organization was my enthusiasm for the birthday song.
They would literally stop everything and yell “Jeremy, we have a birthday” and I would
come running and hit that song like there was no tomorrow.
Happy Happy Birthday from Applebees to you, we wish it was our birthday so we could party
too, HEY!
Keisha says that she hasn’t eaten at Applebees since, which I understand but I go back occasionally,
I still love the Chinese chicken salad.
Apparently Keisha isn’t a fan of McDonalds also:
Can’t co-sign that one.
But after the Bees, Keisha was working at Topgolf.
She worked there for a few years in Atlanta making 700 dollars every two weeks.
It was based on tips though with a really low minimum wage and the hours were 8am – 6pm.
got bored, so she started talking to her camera.
Keisha started creating videos on Instagram while she was waiting in traffic.
It was in those videos that she started showing off her personality.
Some of those videos would get hundreds of thousands of views.
In terms of her rap name, the name actually came from
the movie Belly.
Although a lot of people have a problem with her calling herself light skin Keisha, and
if you look at the comments of a lot of her videos, many people call her Brown Skin Keisha.
But to the haters, she has said that it’s because she knew a lot of Keishas growing
Including this one, which was remixed on Twitter, YouTube and Dubsmash hundreds of times.
And Keisha even recorded a full version of the song called “Burnt P Lips.”
I won’t say it cause this is a family friendly channel
But her first official single was called “Weather.”
The song was inspired by another one of her early viral clips.
And the song has millions of streams now.
Finally, with how much attention her social media got her, as well as her new song, she
was able to quit her job.
She didn’t want to work for anybody else again in her life.
But while her videos were viral, her name was still relatively unknown.
Whereas when Cardi B was making Instagram videos on her come up, people knew that was
Cardi, Keisha was still just the woman behind some viral moments, but was not yet viral
herself.
Over time she grew her page to over a million followers and her name started to ring a bell.
She moved out of her mom’s house and was staying on her friend’s couches and in hotels.
After she was almost attacked by a homeless person while sleeping in her car, she decided
she needed a change.
It was actually IKEA that inspired her when her friend took her into IKEA to show Keisha
that there was an affordable way to live.
The next day she bought an apartment and some IKEA furniture.
LA Reid saw talent in Keisha and signed her to a deal with his new label Hitco Entertainment.
But don’t get it twisted, Keisha says she wants to be known for more than just twerk
music, she wants to provide the world with a body of work that they can sit with and
listen to.
One of the people crucial to Keisha’s come up is Coca Vango.
He would get her hotel rooms when she was struggling and apparently, they didn’t like
each other at first.
But now, it seems like they are very much in love.
But before Keisha gets into the booth there is one song that she has to sing:
And there you have the answer to the question from the beginning of the video.
Let me know in the comments who you want to see us document next.
And follow me on Instagram to talk more there and let me know what’s up!
Alright, thanks for watching, Dream Good, Live Better, if nobody has told you yet today,
I love you.
And I’ll see you in the next video.