She received her Ph.D. and her M.M.E. from Indiana University, and her B.M.E. from Xavier University. She is the author of Rap Music and Street Consciousness, published in 2002 by the University of Illinois Press. She has conducted extensive fieldwork on rap and hip-hop culture in Mali, West Africa, New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and London. Her research has been published in major journals such as Ethnomusicology, Folklore Forum, Journal of American Folklore, and The World of Music as well as book chapters. In addition to her ongoing study of hip-hop music and culture, Keyes is conducting research on a piano performance tradition indigenous to East Texas and Southern Louisiana. Keyes is also a songwriter/composer and a pianist/flutist/singer who has performed and recorded with jazz clarinetist/educator Alvin Batiste and New Orleans rhythm-and-blues veteran Eddie Bo.