Urban is a genre that is very broad. Just google Raphael Saadiq and you will see his music is mainly soul mixed with R&B, alternative and even jazzy influences. His music sounds much better and has more quality than most of the stuff The Dream and Tricky produced in the last years, including BFL.

I rather see Nicole experimenting with people and broaden her discography with actual good music than for her to do an other album in the urbanpop lane of PCD or the more straight forward pop on Killer Love.

If she would work with Raphael Saadiq, Mark Ronson and maybe some other more under the radar producers, writers and artists she actualy could deliver an album in her own lane.She tried to do that with BFL but didn't had the budget or support to actually deliver (atleast imo.) the album lacked good productions at points, and the lyrical content also lacked at points.

DHYB is cute, probably her best pop song along with Cold, but it is not really material that will bring you far in the long run. Nicole is on her best vocally atm in a long time, I rather see her working with people with a more alternive vision with a more free spirit than for her to end up with The Dream, Tricky, Darkchild, will.i.am, Sean Garrett or others of the top producers of the last years.

At this point she has nothing to lose and it is too late for her to be a global pop siren who snatches #1's left and right.

Don't expect a lot of ***** popping ****ty songs from Nicole from now on. She's taking a more mature direction with her music. She can still have fun songs an stuff but i doubt that's her main focus.

I agree. It's obvious she'll probably never get huge mainstream success again, but she has talent so she can much more easily get respect by working with more obscure, but respected artists. There's no point in trying to repeat the PCD formula (which I think Killer Love essentially was in the pop climate of 2010, which was dominated by RedOne and Stargate).

Exactly. Sales and mainstream, chart topping success should stop being her main focus. She should start pandering to the critics. Release quality albums that can get her noticed and maybe even get her some Grammy nominations. There are so many critically acclaimed artists who don't sell millions of records, yet are respected by the industry. She should focus on that.
This is why i think doing Cats on Broadway is a MUST for her. It's a chance to gain some new respect in the US. Judging by the reaction she had in the UK, people will have to give her credit whether they like her or not. It will definitely help her create a new name for herself as an artist and maybe even be noticed by important people. Just look at Lady Gaga. She started off as this eccentric pop act, and this year, she managed to turn it all around and gain HUGE respect as an artist, with one performance at the Oscars, a role in AHS and that Till It Happens To You song. She got a Golden Globe, and is nominated for an Oscar. If Gaga can do it, so does Nicole.

If she doesn't do Cats, or goes back to PCD, she's going to destroy EVERYTHING that she's been trying to do the past coupe of years, which is for people to take her serious as an artist.

She should announce the revival of Cats on Broadway a few weeks before the Grammy's, and perform Memory at the ceremony with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, as a promotion for the Broadway revival. I'm sure Andrew has the connections and power to do that.
She needs that ONE BIG performance on a huge televised platform in the US, like the Grammy's.