After working with Diddy in his Dirty Money trio and belonging to the now defunct Danity Kane ensemble, singer Dawn Richard is ready to go solo.

Although she has not decided to permanently walk away from Dirty Money, the New Orleans native is excited about stepping out on her own. Earlier this year, Richard released the mixtape 'A Tell Tale Heart' and is in talks with her label, Bad Boy Records, about the direction of her debut solo project. "We have a single coming in the fall," Richard tells The Boombox. "We're really excited about it. I've given six years, I put the time in."

The currently unnamed release will be strictly R&B versus what she did with Dirty Money, which was "train music" featuring a fusion of hip-hop, pop and electronica. "It's going to be R&B but raw," she explains. "It's going to be serious lyrics. I'm excited about it [but] it's going to be really hard." The project will likely re-team the singer with her group members -- Diddy and Kalenna Harper -- for features on the album.

Richard got her shot at stardom after auditioning for Diddy's third season of his MTV show 'Making the Band,' and was chosen out of thousands of hopefuls to be one of the four members to make-up Danity Kane. The group dropped their first album in 2006, which sold one million copies, but not long after their sophomore release, 'Welcome to the Dollhouse,' hit stores, internal disagreements caused them to dismantle.

The 28-year-old went on to work with Diddy on his Dirty Money project, and has since been traveling the world as a member of the trio. "More than anything I want people to hear me, I've been in groups and hearing just what I have to offer is going to be, to me, a challenge."

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