Keri Hilson in Pop Futures

If pop were traded on the stock market the best tip I could give you right now would be to bet it all on Keri Hilson. Not just because she's stunning to look at, or because Timbaland hand picked her as his personal grooming project and used her more than any other guest vocalist on his cameo-heavy Shock Value. Bet on her for the reasons I am. Because not only did she sing on Shock Value's best tracks ("Scream," "Way I Are," "Miscommunication"), managing to class up beautifully inventive songs soiled with the obnoxious thug posturing and inane raps of Timbaland and his friends, she co-wrote those same tunes. Which would make her the only mainstream diva figure that I know of who's authoring her own material.

This is the kind of story that's fun to tell, and she's going to get famous off people telling it. But I don't think it makes her a gimmick, and in my experience the hook is more than just pro-rating her singing and writing skills based on her good looks. Because I came to her the other way around: first falling in love with those handful of tracks on Shock Value and their female vocals, then noticing that they all featured someone named Keri Hilson, then learning that Hilson was a co-writer, then learning that Hilson has been writing hits for years for people like Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, Ludacris, Usher, and Ciara, and then finally seeing a picture of her.

I know that there's no such thing as overnight success, and that even being just a pretty face or just a pretty voice takes a ton of focus and hard work and disappointment before you can get to a point where you make it look easy. But there's something about Hilson's trajectory as a writer-first that is extra charming to me, and I really fall for the stories about her being all business and makeup-less concentration in the Atlanta studios where she came up producing.

In a minute she's going to put out her debut album, In A Perfect World, that will naturally feature production by Timbaland, as well as other Timbaland disciples like Danja, Xzibit and Polow da Don. The first single "Energy" is a bit rich for my tastes, with its glistening high hat programming and super-bright mix, but I've got affection for the way the bass doesn't drop in until the ending tag of the chorus. And that toasted synth that blasts in on the bridge is so goddamn pleasing I've forgiven the song's sins of perfection.

And that, in general, sums up my conflicted love for Keri Hilson. She's moving in some pretty slick waters and I can only hope she manages to keep letting her soulfulness peak through the airbrush treatment. So far, so good.

Keri Hilson - "Energy" [From In A Perfect World]

Timbaland - "Scream (Feat. Keri Hilson and Nicole Scherzinger)" [From Shock Value]

Timbaland - "Hello edit (Feat. Keri Hilson and Attitude)" [From Shock Value bonus disc]

Keri Hilson - "Where Did He Go"