A Britney backup conquers urban radio

With her debut single “Make Me a Song,” a beat-heavy track with powerful vocals, Kiley Dean is one of the hottest new acts on urban and hip-hop radio stations.

But she’s an odd fit: a perky, 21-year-old former backup singer to Britney Spears. And she seems even more of a misfit when she opens her mouth to speak.

“I’m this white girl that’s got this accent and I’m from Arkansas,” she says in a deep twang.

So what’s she doing with a song in high rotation alongside Nelly and 50 Cent?

Well, it doesn’t hurt that Dean is the latest protege of hip-hop producer Timbaland.

“I knew a lot of people starting out with Britney and everything,” says Dean, who hails from tiny Alma, Ark., and moved to teen-pop capital Orlando, Fla., at 9. “I figured that was the kind of music I’d work with. But I met Timbaland and thank God, because the bubblegum stuff is not really me.”

They met two years ago when Dean performed with Spears on the Grammy telecast in L.A. A year later, Timbaland signed a deal with Interscope Records for his own Beat Club label and took Dean under his wing. They, along with Walter Milsap, co-wrote most of the songs for Dean’s upcoming debut album, “Simple Girl,” due in the summer. Missy Elliott, Timbaland’s most prominent associate, appears in the single’s video.

It’s not the first time Timbaland has teamed with someone with rural Southern roots, having taken Bubba Sparxxx from small-town Georgia to the hip-hop charts. But Sparxxx (who also has a cameo in the Dean video) played up his overalls-wearing country-boy image for sometimes comic effect. Dean is not using her roots as a gimmick.

E Man, music director of Los Angeles hip-hop radio station KPWR-FM (105.9), likens Dean’s strong start to that of another (sometimes) blond singer who has done well in the urban market.

“When Pink came out, she was more perceived as an urban-rhythmic artist, and she ended up crossing over and became mainstream,” he says. “In the beginning, I think Kiley is following the same path, will be embraced on the urban side, and when she blows up she’ll be a pop artist.”

“Kiley’s rare blend of Southern roots and soulful genuine voice sets her apart from today’s pop music,” Timbaland says. “You can’t fabricate something that real and from the heart. The urban audience does not care that she is a white girl from Arkansas. Once they hear her sing, she is just Kiley Dean.”

Four sisters,

two chances

How often have you heard the head of a record company say he’s glad that a song didn’t get much radio play?

Steve Greenberg, president of EMI’s S-Curve Records, is very happy that “I Was Only Seventeen,” the debut single from his label’s the Beu Sisters, was largely ignored by radio stations when it was released last year. The reason: It left the territory fresh for a second big push starting in the next few months.

“If you get some radio and a bunch of stations all have the same story, that it got on but didn’t work, then it’s over,” Greenberg says. “But when no one played it in the first place, then no one can say they got burned playing it.”

He says that the original song release and the four Florida siblings’ album “Decisions” were victims of poor timing last fall, in part because of major changes taking place at Virgin Records, the EMI division that at the time distributed S-Curve.

With his label now handled by a new EMI wing, he’s giving the sisters nothing less than a full new release, with a new cover, a bonus track for the album, a Southern gothic video and a slight remix for the single.

What makes him think stations will play it this time?

“Three stations did play it last year, in Allentown, Pa., Nashville and Lafayette, La.,” says Greenberg, best known for signing and developing Hanson and the Baha Men. “In each case, not only was the song a Top 5 on that station, but a Top 5 SoundScan single in that market. We were three for three. We got it on three stations, and it was a hit on three. I believe if you do that, then if you get it on 30 stations, it will be a hit on 30, or 300 if you get it on 300.”

Small faces

* Wildchild, Lateef & the Chief, Kut Masta Kurt and Aesop Rock are among the progressive hip-hop notables appearing on “We Came From Beyond, Volume 2,” a compilation put together by Mike Nardone, host of the KXLU-FM (88.1) show for which the album is named. The album will be released in late summer by Razor & Tie Records.

* Joni Mitchell’s concert film “Shadows and Light” will be released on DVD on June 24 by Shout! Factory, the new company started by Rhino Records co-founder Richard Foos. The film was shot at a 1979 Santa Barbara County Bowl performance with Mitchell and a band that included jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Jaco Pastorius. The DVD, overseen by Mitchell, will add 15 minutes of footage plus a tour photo diary of pictures shot by Joel Bernstein.