By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer Thu Apr 26, 4:40 PM ET
NEW YORK - As he sits in the back of an SUV ferrying him from one recording studio to the next, Ne-Yo reflects on the current state of R&B — and determines that the genre is suffering from serious malaise.
"People just forgot what it was supposed to be, what it was supposed to feel like, the essence of what it is," he says forcefully. "It's a vibe, it's a feeling — it's supposed to make you feel something, as opposed to, `Let me go eeh-eeh-eeh-eeh-eeh and put a beat behind it and see if people will dance to it.' Come on man. There's more to it than that."
Given that the singer is just 26, has only one album to his credit, and just released that last year, his pronouncements about what R&B should be may come across as a bit presumptuous.
But when you consider that that one album, "In My Own Words," became a platinum success with huge hits like "So Sick," and that he's written or co-written two of the bigger hits of last year, Rihanna's "Unfaithful" and Beyonce's ubiquitous "Irreplaceable" — you realize that not only is Ne-Yo qualified to make such a diagnosis, but that he may be the one who can provide the cure.
"He has a lot to say, he has so much to say," Island Def Jam Chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid says. "He's grown musically, he's grown as a performer, his grown into his image as a star."
And he has an increasing number of outlets in which to express his artistry. His sexy sophomore album, "Because of You," comes out next week, while on the songwriting front, he's working with Usher, Jennifer Hudson,
Whitney Houston,
Britney Spears and
Celine Dion, who, according to Ne-Yo (born Shaffer Smith), told him: "I am going to be the one person this year that is not going to ask for you for 'Irreplaceable.'"
Surely, Dion couldn't be blamed if she did. The ultimate brush-off song, "Irreplaceable" cemented itself at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 100 singles chart for 10 weeks. While Ne-Yo credits Beyonce for the song's vocal arrangement and helping with the song's melody, he penned the clever words, including what has now become a catch phrase: "To the left, to the left."
"Anybody that wasn't paying attention to Shaffer The Songwriter definitely started after they found out I wrote that song," he says.
But the main reason why Shaffer The Songwriter was being obscured is because he was being upstaged by Shaffer The Artist. With the release of his debut album last year, Ne-Yo became a bright new face on the pop scene: the ballad "So Sick" was a big hit, and it was followed by successful singles like "Sexy Love." The album has sold more than 1 million copies.
His success in music has even led to other opportunities: This year, he had a supporting role in the hit dance flick "Stomp the Yard," and he is reading other scripts.
"I've been blessed, because there are a few other writers trying to come out as artists and it hasn't happened as fast for them as it did for me, and I really don't know what to credit that to, other than I love what I do and I think that shows in my music," says Ne-Yo. "I've never wanted to do anything else but sing and music, music, music, music."
But just a few years ago, his experience with the industry left him so shaken he considered giving it up entirely. While Ne-Yo is now signed to Def Jam, he got his first break at Columbia Records, and had finished his debut album for the label when he started butting heads with execs over the direction of it: "I started rebelling. ... So they ended up shelving me for two years."
To get off the label, he ended up giving them the record and the songs he had recorded during his tenure there. But he was confused about what his future would be.
Then one day, he turned on the radio and heard the song that he had written for his Columbia debut, only this time it was being sung by
Marques Houston — somehow, Houston was given Ne-Yo's song.
"It kind of added insult to injury ... I'm not good enough as myself but he's good enough to sing a song that's definitely not him?" he recalls. "I was listening to it like, `Aw, see, he didn't even hit that note like I did!'"
But the frustration over hearing Houston sing his music eased as others started looking for the songwriter behind the Houston song. Soon, he was writing for others.
"I looked at that like, `OK, I definitely want to do music but God has made it perfectly clear that he don't want me to be an artist, so maybe he wants me to be a songwriter, so all right, let's try the songwriting thing.'"
And it worked. Among the songs he wrote was the megahit "Let Me Love You" for Mario. Still, the desire to be a singer was still there — and it revealed itself after a chance meeting with then Def Jam executive Tina Davis, now manager to another platinum R&B singer, teen sensation Chris Brown. After listening to one of Ne-Yo's songs, she told him to perform on the spot — and he took her up on it. A half-hour later, he was in front of Reid, with a record deal to follow.
Despite the huge success he has enjoyed since his record debut, Ne-Yo insists that the songwriter in him will always be paramount: "If I just had to choose one, I'd probably choose songwriting."
Of course, now he doesn't have to. In fact, his biggest problem these days is trying to divide his time between his own career and writing for others.
He does have his priorities, however. While recording "Because of You," he refused to write for any other male artists: "I'm not going to give somebody else the hit that's supposed to be mine."
But that doesn't mean that he won't write for the perceived competition. He's penning songs for Usher's next record, as well as buddy Chris Brown's project. While some have dissuaded him from doing so _"don't give someone your gun to shoot you with," he recalls being told — he has a different view.
"Say my album comes out, I debut at No. 1, I stay there for two weeks, three weeks. Usher's album comes out, goes to No. 1, which knocks me down to No. 2. Chris Brown's album comes out, he goes to No. 1, knocks Usher down to No. 2, which knocks me down to No. 3," he says. "If they all go to No. 1 with a song I wrote, doesn't that make me No. 1, 2 and 3?"
