THE WA MAKEYS HYOUE FEEL uccess—at any age—comes with itsS trials: the comparisons, the doubts (both self-inflicted and otherwise), the rumors, the expectations. After penning No. 1 hits for Mario and Beyoncé, starring in the $61 million box office hit Stomp The Yard and releasing his platinum- selling debut, In My Own Words, Ne-Yo has had his fair share of all of the above. “I didn’t take it very serious,” says the 24-year-old singer, referring right away to a magazine article headline that labeled him a sex addict. “I could think of worse things to be addicted to. I wasn’t really trippin’ until my mom called me on it His first album went platinum and people really started thinking I had and his songs for other a problem. So I was like, ‘Yo, read the UN HALL; VNER; article. Don’t just read the headline.’” superstars reached the top of Ne-Yo says he understands there’s hat the charts. Back for seconds, really nothing you can do. “Take the and whole gay rumor, for example. If I come WORDS RASHA NE-YO wants you to know why PHOTOGRAPHY MAGNUS UNNAR; out and go, ‘No, I am not gay! How dare FASHION EDITOR ALEX SLAVYCZ; GROOMER YUKA WASHIZU; PHOTO ASSISTANT LISA RO they do this to me? Blah, blah, blah...,’ THIS page: CARDIGAN WESC; he is, simply, the best singing T-SHIRT AMERICAN APPAREL; BEANIE D&G; SUNGLASSES DIOR HOMME; they go, ‘Oh, he’s getting defensive. It OPPOSITE page: T-SHIRT 10 DEEP; TRENCH COAT must be true!’ And if I say, ‘You know songwriter of his generation... J. LINDEBERG what? I really don’t want to talk about it,’ they go, ‘Oh, look, he’s not saying anything, so it must be true!’ So what do you do? You just kind of play it for what it is.” 120 GIANTMAG.COM GIANTMAG.COM 121 “IF I COME OUT AND GO, ‘NO, I AM NOT GAY,’ THEY go, ‘OH, HE’S GETTING DEFENSIVE. IT MUST BE True!’” O; WN AND hat J. LINDEBERG; THIS page: T-SHIRT TANKTOP CALVIN KLEIN; OPPOSITE page: SHIRT SUPREME; JEANS TRIK SNEAKERS UMBRO BY KIM JONES; HAT HIS O Sitting in the bar at New York began churning out songs for A-listers cap—a hat always being a staple of his City’s posh London Hotel, the singer- such as Mary J. Blige and Musiq. His wardrobe. “Nothing I’ve ever done has songwriter born Shaffer C. Smith looks breakthrough hit came in 2004 with been an overnight thing. Everything exhausted. After being up for three days, Mario’s “Let Me Love You,” a song he always happens gradually in time, and I it seems the last thing he wants to do is co-wrote with Kameron “Kam” Houff figured that my first album would be no talk to another writer about any of his and Scott Storch. That, in part, led to exception. People would catch on when drama or his new album, Because of You. an impromptu audition with L.A. Reid, they caught on.” But then again, it’s all a part of the big- chairman of the Island Def Jam Music And they did. In My Own Words money entertainment game. Group, who signed Ne-Yo on the spot. It featured three Top 5 R&B hits, including It’s a game Ne-Yo has become very good wasn’t the most direct route to stardom, the chart-topping ballad “So Sick.” at very quickly. After his first recording but Ne-Yo says he wouldn’t have it any “It actually made me feel good that deal with Columbia Records stalled, he other way. it didn’t happen fast because normally turned his focus toward songwriting. “Everything I’ve ever done that was things that take off fast also come down With pen in hand, Ne-Yo (who was born worth it has always been a process,” he fast,” he says. “So it was all just a part of in Arkansas but grew up in Las Vegas) says, adjusting his navy blue Kangol my own subconscious plan to just have 122 GIANTMAG.COM GIANTMAG.COM 123 what I aspire to become”), Sammy write songs for Celine Dion and Whitney Davis Jr. (“He got onstage and was just Houston, among others. He’s said that electrifying”) and Stevie Wonder (“He’s he’s even written songs for Britney a man who can control your emotions Spears. through his talent”). You can hear “I am a songwriter at the end of the touches of all four throughout the album. day, not an R&B writer, not a hip-hop “Again, my main goal was to let people writer,” he says. “I honestly feel like I am get to know me a little bit more with this the type of writer, the type of singer, that record, and that meant doing things to can do a song with Reba McEntire and show people what makes me tick.” he then turn around and do a song with says. “So ‘Because of You’ sounds like Pretty Ricky. I have that in me to where something Mike might have done. [On I can do more than one thing, and that’s EVERYBODY’S maRKED the album] you hear songs that sound what I want people to know. Don’t come “ like what Prince might have done, what at me with just pop stuff; don’t come at ME AS THIS HitmaKER, Stevie might have done....I did that me with just R&B stuff because I have BUT I HonESTLY HAVE no throughout the whole record—just more than that.” paying homage to the people that I look For all his confidence—and the hits IDEA WHat A HIT IS. up to in the business.” he has to back it up—you wouldn’t think ” Those aren’t the only comparisons Ne-Yo has doubts, but he does. being drawn to the singer. Fellow “I am always second-guessing myself,” some longevity in this business, let it take heartthrobs Omarion, Usher and Chris he admits weeks later. “Second-guessing off gradually and stay in the air for a little Brown have all either recently released myself is kind of what keeps me on the while and then come down when I felt albums or will be releasing them later ground. Me always knowing that, yeah, like it.” this year. With R&B as a genre heating this song is good, but there’s always a Ne-Yo is obviously proud of his debut, back up, one might think there would better song; yeah, I am a decent dancer, but he says his follow-up is a more be bitter rivalries, but not so says Ne- but there’s always a better dancer; I am a accurate representation of who he is. Yo. “Everyone wants to make it this decent singer, but there’s always a better “With the second album, I definitely animosity thing, but there’s none,” he singer—just me knowing those things is went in with the mindset of letting [my says. “R&B cats—well, the majority of us what keeps me focused. fans] get to know me,” he says. “I’m in a at least—are under the same belief that “Everybody’s marked me as this better place mentally this time around. good music is good music and there is hitmaker, but I honestly have no idea If you went off the first record trying to room for everybody. what a hit is,” he continues. “I never figure out who I was, you would think I “The best way I can describe it is like know which songs are going to hit was this lonely, depressed dude that just being a boxer. Say I’m a boxer, Usher and which songs are going to flop or liked to have sex all the time, but with is a boxer, and Chris Brown is a boxer. whatever. I just write, and I pretty much the second record, it’s really more of my Outside of the ring, we hang out; we just leave it up to the people in my personality. It’s a lot more up-tempo, chill. But we all have it in the back of our company and label.” more upbeat.” minds that at some point you might have to get in the ring with one of your friends and knock them out because there can only be one champ. It’s not negative or cutthroat. It’s like, ‘I love you to do death, learly, Ne-Yo has his sights set on C There’s no denying Ne-Yo is an ’80s but I gotta do what I gotta do.’” one thing: his music. And although he baby. Because of You is packed with lush And though Ne-Yo wants that No. 1 says he has no expectations, he hopes ballads and groove-heavy tracks that spot, he’s the unique artist that doesn’t the album will be a “stepping-stone nostalgically play on the soulful sounds mind sharing the spotlight as well via his toward the right direction” for his career, of 20 years ago. In fact, the album’s songwriting—even if his management much in the same way that Off The Wall title-track lead single already has many doesn’t agree. was the set up for Michael Jackson’s drawing comparisons to a certain King of “They look at it like, ‘We’re trying to Thriller.