Keyshia Cole Fires Longtime Manager Manny Halley

Keyshia Cole has announced that she is parting ways with her longtime manager, Manny Halley. In a short statement released via her Twitter page Monday (Jan. 17), the 29-year-old noted Halley's unwillingness to move in a new direction as the reason for his firing.

"Would like for you guys to know that Manny Halley is no longer my management," she wrote. "Someone said if the people around u won't change, change the people around you,"

Although Cole failed to reveal just how the professional relationship dissolved, it has been speculated that the move was brought on by low sales of her latest album, 'Calling All Hearts.' The album which was released in December debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard album charts selling 128,000 units in its first week, far less than her previous release 'A Different Me,' which debuted in second place on the charts with 322,000 units in its first week. As of Jan. 9, 'Calling All Hearts' has sold only 181,300 units.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Cole admitted that releasing the lead single off the album 'Ain't Thru,' featuring Nicki Minaj, was a bad decision. Halley is said to have been at odds with Cole's label, Interscope Records, over the single and apparently pushed for its release. "The label didn't really want to drop the record because they knew ... that people wanted a more intense, soulful record from me about love and I really should have followed (their) direction," she said of the track which peaked at No. 54 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop songs charts. "I wanted that to be a statement record. It's like saying, 'I'm doing me, you know. I don't have no regrets for nothing that I'm doing."

Halley, who was often seen by the singer's side, appeared in Cole's BET reality show 'A Different Me,' which chronicled her professional life and struggles with her biological mother, Frankie Lons. At press time, a rep for Cole did not respond to a request for a statement.