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With a No.1 hit already under his belt, the ‘So Sick’ star is rapidly becoming R&B’s most sought-after artist. The Situation sat down with Ne-Yo to see what’s poppin’.
At
the tender age of 22, Ne-Yo
possesses lyrical talent far beyond his years. Having already penned hits
for R&B and Hip Hop elites such as Mary
J. Blige and Faith Evans,
not to mention being the creative genius behind one of the biggest radio
records in history, (Mario’s
‘Let Me Love You’), Ne-Yo is taking the music industry by
storm.
The Def Jam rookie is now offering the world a chance to hear his vocal ability combined with his much hyped song writing skills with an album acutely titled ‘In My Own Words’.
Hey
Ne-Yo, nice to see you back in London. You look tired, have you been hitting
the clubs?
Yeah, I was at Kabaret last night. Ray J
and Pamela Anderson were
also there too. It was a good night.
I
bet it was! So congratulations by the way. Since we last met, your album
debuted at number one in the States. You must be feeling pretty good…
Oh yeah! I’m all smiles!
I
can see. So what’s next?
Well my next single is a song called ‘When You’re Mad’
and it’s about a relationship that I was in and this girl, she used
to have a look that she would give me when she was mad at me. That was
so god damn sexy!
(Starts laughing) So long story short - I wrote a song about it. I’ve actually just shot the video to it, right before I came out here. We shot it in Miami and Little X directed it. The video looks great. Little X is in the same school of directing as Hype Williams, so you know it’s just going to be hot.
Do
you think your personality shines through on this album?
I’d like to think so. Well the good majority of the album, I’d
say is about relationships between men and women. The reason I did it
like that was because I wanted the album to be relatable and what’s
more relatable to people than love and relationships, right? But there
is more to me than just my failed attempts at relationships; my many,
many failed attempts.
Aaaaaah….
Exactly. Thank you. It’s OK though, they’re proven to be very
good material for my album. But there is one song on this album that portrays
a certain side of me… that I can think of (smiles sheepishly)
Go
on?
Well, there’s a song on the album called ‘Mirror’ and
shows the freakier side of my personality. The song expresses how I enjoy
making love in front of the mirror. See, that’s a quite personal,
right?
Yep,
sure is. I don’t know how personal it is anymore though. How many
albums have you sold in the States?
Around 400,000 so far. Yeah, I see your point. It’s definitely not
personal anymore!
In
terms of being signed to a major label, do you feel you’re getting
enough say in how your music and image are portrayed in the media?
Yeah, absolutely. They actually make it a point to ask me. They want my
input and for me to be involved in my project. It was really cool actually
as L.A Reid and Jay-Z
basically gave me my recording budget and let me go, work with whoever
I wanted to work with, write with whoever I wanted to write with. So I
definitely get a say in what happens with my career. A lot of time, with
some of these labels, they try to change you into a puppet - they want
you to do what they want you to do. So it’s a good thing that I
have people behind me; people who are fighting in my corner. They actually
made it a point to go in there and say, ‘He’s not going to
be a puppet for y’all. We understand he can’t just do whatever
he wants to do, but he ain’t just going to do exactly what you want
to do either. So let’s find a comfortable medium, so that everybody’s
happy’. And that’s exactly what we did. Every decision is
now a group decision. It’s never like the final word comes from
the head offices. It’s never that - no.
R&B
has a lot of new faces - do you ever worry about the competition? How
do you think you stand out?
I don’t really worry about the competition, just because I honestly
feel that no one can do what I do better than I can do it. No one’s
going to do me better than me, right?
As far as how I stand out, I feel I have a slight advantage over a lot of these other cats, just because I write my own music. So you know when you hear a song from me about a relationship, or about a break up or about sex or whatever, it came from a real place, because I write about true-life experiences and things that really do happen to me. As opposed to some artists, where you hear them sing a song and you don’t know if you really believe it as that person didn’t write the song. Whereas you know with me, it’s 100% real; it came straight from the heart.
You
just mentioned how you write solely on personal life experiences. Do you
ever find subject matter sometimes limited especially being an R&B
artist?
Well you have to keep it relatable - and most people relate to love, break
ups and sex. But I personally feel that I am the type of songwriter that
can pretty much write about anything and make you feel it. But again it’s
a situation where the world has to be ready for it. For example, the world
isn’t ready to hear a song about a fist-fight or a sandwich, but
maybe in the future - you never know. It can be frustrating though as
in R&B, people have a set frame about what R&B is supposed to
be and when anyone strays away from that, it’s either accepted immediately
or rejected immediately. So it’s a big risk - there’s no middle
ground and with hip hop there are a lot more options.
Has
there ever been a song you heard and immediately thought, ‘Damn
- I wish I wrote that’?
Yeah, all the time. I wish I wrote Mary J. Blige’s current song
- as soon as I heard that I was like, ‘Damn! Why didn’t I
write that?’ But I just take it as inspiration to write a song just
as good. It makes me step my game up, so it’s all good.
Have
you ever written a song for someone and felt they didn’t do it justice?
Yep, Marques Houston.
Has
there been any artist you have met, that you really didn’t like?
Yep, Marques Houston!
Wow,
ok. Moving on then. Anything you want to let us all know?
You know lately, a lot people have been asking if there’s something
wrong with my head as I always where hats. So I would just like to let
the world know – there’s nothing wrong with my head. No marks
or bumps. I do have a weird hairline - it’s the one and only thing
my dad ever gave me, but I shave my hair anyway so you can’t see
it.
Why
don’t you take your hat off now and I can confirm that there is
nothing wrong with your head?
Nah, I can’t, I need a haircut!
See
now I’m suspicious…!
No honestly, there’s nothing wrong with my head… it may be
a little big but that’s all.
What
do you mean big? Big in ego or big in size?
Nah, big in size, never big in ego. You have to make sure you tell everyone
that I don’t have a big head OK?! Spread the word!
Ok,
I promise but I think you need to show the world yourself…
Ok, I’ll show my big head off to the world very soon. Let me get
a haircut first though!
Ne-Yo’s debut album, ‘In My Own Words’
is out now on Def Jam Records, as is the No.1 single
‘So Sick’. For more information, please visit
his official website, http://www.iam-neyo.com.
