Fame & Fortune: Charlene Keys
Tweet sings for the music, not the bling bling

In the Lana-Turner-discovered-at-Schwab's category of show-biz myth is the tale of the young, determined singer who is chewed up and spit out by the harsh mistress of celebrity, hits rock bottom, and then -- just as she decides to chuck it all -- is discovered by a power broker who makes her a star.

For the singer Charlene Keys -- otherwise known as Tweet -- that myth is very real.

Tweet struggled for success for years as part of Sugah, a girl group she was tied to for five years with no income or future, leaving her unable to provide for a young daughter who lived with Charlene's parents. Finally, feeling like a failure with no future, Tweet was on the verge of suicide when she received a fateful call from old friend and R&B superstar Missy Elliott. Elliott arranged an audition for Tweet with the CEO of Elektra Records, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tweet's debut album, "Southern Hummingbird," went gold, producing a No. 1 single, "Oops (Oh My)" in the process. Tweet recently released a new single with Elliott, and her follow-up release, "It's Me Again," was released in March 2005.

Bankrate spoke to Tweet about the harsh financial lessons she learned on her way to star status.

Bankrate: You were locked into a bad production deal early on. What happened there?

Tweet: It was a deal with DeVante (Donald "DeVante Swing" DeGrate) from Jodeci. We were signed to him for a number of years, and that's what it was. I wanted to leave, but it was difficult, because he had us in a tight hold. I decided to leave, regardless, at the end of '99. We recorded our album five times or more. Each time there was something different, either the reels would get lost, or he would owe a record company money. We would have to go back and record it again.

Bankrate: Over what period of time was this?

Tweet: From '94 or '95 until '99, working on the same album.

Bankrate: How were you living during this?

Tweet: Financially, we were basically depending on DeVante. There was nothing financially, because he didn't have anything. If he had something, we didn't know about it. We moved to different cities where we couldn't get jobs, things like that. So we had to depend on him. We had nothing.