So many albums come out in the R&B field that it's pretty easy to miss a newcomer (particularly since radio has fairly closed playlists), so what probably happened was, the stabbing incident got KeKe name recognition in urban markets and people checked out the album, liked it, and spread the word. It's kinda like how Pac got name recognition just for constantly getting arrested and then for his incendiary comments in Vibe interviews, then people tuned into his albums and discovered they actually dug his stuff (having Dre produce and rap on "California Love" obviously played a big part too).