Image by Getty Images via @daylife'
Ne-Yo' is only 30-years old, but he's already established himself as one of the elite song writers on the American pop and R and B scene. Born with the name Shaffer Chimere Smith, 'Ne-Yo' is also an accomplished singer, record producer, rapper, and film actor. However, it's as a song writer that he's collaborated with and written songs for a virtual who's who of superstars, including 'Mary J. Blige', 'B2K', 'Faith Evans', 'The Goo Goo Dolls', 'Rihanna', 'Beyonce Knowles', 'Leona Lewis', 'Whitney Houston', Celine Dion', 'Ciara', 'Enrique Iglesias', and 'Linsay Lohan'. Ne-Yo's parents, both musicians, split up when he was a toddler, and it was his mother, of African American and Chinese descent who moved the family from Arkansas to Las Vegas, Nevada.
There, Ne-Yo joined a four-piece band called 'Envy', which broke up in 2000, after which he recorded his first solo album with 'Columbia Records'.
But, he was dropped from their label prior to its release, and that's when singer 'Marques Houston' snapped up one of Ne-Yo's tracks called "My Girl", and re-recorded it for his own 2003 album "MH".
This got him noticed, and for the next two years Ne-Yo wrote songs for many top stars. His single "Let Me Love You" performed by American star 'Mario', topped the 'Billboard Top-100 list for nine weeks! It's been an uphill climb from there! 'Def Jam Records' president 'Jay-Z' quickly signed him to his label, and in early 2006 Ne-Yo recorded his debut album "In My Own Words"....with hit singles "So Sick", "When You're Mad", and "Sexy Love" all making the 'Billboard Top-100'.
Next came his sophomore LP "Because of You", followed by last year's "Year Of The Gentleman", an album from which Ne-Yo infers that the essence of a gentleman is absent right now in the music business. "Everybody's kind of rude and full of themselves, whereas a gentleman is couirteous, kind, and charming", he says.
This charming gentleman's latest album "Libra Scale" is due out in October, with the opening single "Beautiful Monster" having already been released this past May.
Ne-Yo's acting career features two movie roles in the 2007 films "Save the Last Dance 2", and "Stomp the Yard", with three other projects planned for later this year and in 2011. As for the unusial name Ne-Yo, it was coined by producer 'Big D Evans', who claimed that Ne-Yo sees music the same way that 'Neo" sees the matrix.
Evans kept calling him Ne-Yo, along with everyone else....and the name stuck! So have all of Ne-Yo's fantastic songs and lyrics.
Sincerely, PeteCam4
