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You packed a lot into nine years haven't you? Does it feel like nine years? It doesn't. Somebody said the other day to me, "how does it feel a decade in business", and I'm like damn, just the word decade make your back hurt. I feel like an old man, but yeah man it's blessings, it's blessings. I'm happy about it. Obviously you're back with the new album Non Fiction, the brand-spanking new single as well 'Coming With You'. I think you're making a new genre with that song because it's a mixture of R&B, its got the dance, its got EDM, I think its got even a little hint of old-school hip hop/new jack swing to it as well. So I think right now we can call you a genre maker really can't we? [Laughs] I'll take that! It's all good. When I listen to that song, I can't even place it. Some songs you can place in a certain time zone, but this one is timeless, it could fit into virtually any time zone. That's kinda the goal with music, period. I mean some songs you do and you know exactly what it's for and who it's for, but then there's other songs and it's like this is for everybody, and that's what 'Coming With You' is. When I started this album, Non Fiction, I knew that I wanted it to be primarily R&B, but I knew at the same time I have a dance crowd, I have an EDM fan base, I have a pop fan base, and I wanted to find a song that toed the line between all of that. You got 120bpm which is what the dance crowd like, but then you still got the soulfulness, you know that's my voice doing that, you got that sample for the old school hip hop heads, so it's a little bit of everything for everybody. Let's rewind the clock a little bit man. The jump off really for you was writing for Mario. So tell me about how that project came about and how that obviously changed your life. 'Let Me Love You', produced by Scott Storch, it was one of our first times working together. I met him in a studio, met him in Dr Dre's studio as a matter of fact, round the time they were still kinda rocking together, and we just kinda hit it off, like right away. So he hit me with the "Yo, if you're ever in Miami, come through, let's do some work". I just happened to be in Miami, and he just happened to be working for Mario that day. I remember thinking when I first heard it, Mario ain't gonna be able to do this. Mind you I didn't know Mario, all I knew was the 'Braid My Hair' joint. So he went in, did the joint, knocked it out like in an hour, and I had to apologise to him, I was like "Yo my bad, I really didn't think that you was gonna be able to pull this off, not only did you pull it off man, we got something on our hands here". At the time it was one of the most played songs in radio history. And then came the album In My Own Words, obviously, the jump off, people know you as an artist with 'So Sick'. What I like about that song was that it showcased you as a visionary songwriter, because it's almost as if that song didn't need a video to get the vivid picture that you were painting. Was that the idea from the off? To a degree, I mean we have five senses right, and when it comes to music, as of right now, people only deal with the one sense, which is hearing. I feel like there's more to music, like music can be visual, you can feel music if it's done the right way, so I've always tried to do music that you experience as opposed to just the music that you listen to. You can listen to a damn car horn right, and that's not music, you know. I've always tried to make music that if you close your eyes and listen to the lyrics, you can see what's going on, you can feel it. You got six albums, In My Own Words, Because Of You, Year Of The Gentleman, Libra Scale, R.E.D and now Non Fiction. So a two-part question, what would you say is the most significant growth as a man and most significant growth as an artist? The most significant growth came around the third album, I pretty much found my stride, I was definitely a lot braver at that point. In the beginning it was traditional R&B, and then I dabbled in pop a little bit at that point around the second album, but I still kept it very traditional. I gotta say it was not an easy transition. 'Closer' was like the first song to let R&B cats know we can do this as well. I take credit for that, it's all good. Of course! You changed the game there man! I gotta say it wasn't an easy sell, it wasn't. I spent a lot of time over here after the second album, so when I got back to the States, I sat down with Stargate and said "let's try and do a dance record, but a dance record with a lyric that actually means something", cause a lot of the dance music, it's not even so much about what's being said, it's about the way the music is making you feel. So we tried 'Closer', we put it out, sure enough my fans did not get it initially. But then it was Jay-Z and my manager that was like "yo, nah stay on this record". So sure enough, stayed on it, took a minute but once they got past the fact that it wasn't just a traditional R&B record, and that it was just a good record, that's when people started understanding it, and moving with it. So you know that was my first little taste of experimentation and we just kept the ball rolling from there. That's when I stared realising that if I'm gonna be about music, it has gotta be all music, it can't just be R&B. I gotta jump off the porch and explore the neighbourhood. Let's get into the new album, Non Fiction, that's your sixth studio album. I understand that you used social media in a very unique way to gather inspiration and stories for this album. Tell me about how you did that and the story behind that. I basically reached out to my fans, via my Twitter mainly, asking questions about love, relationships, life, and the stories that I really dug I turned into songs for this album. I did that because I wanted to find a way to incorporate my fans into the creative process. This is album number six, this is damn near ten years in the game, and I know the only reason that I'm still here is because of my fans, so I needed a really special way to say thank you. I knew that I was gonna tell my story but I wanted to give them the opportunity to get some of their stories told too. So I'd say a good 50% of this album is based off of stories that were given to me by the fans. And I understand that you used to live next door to Trey Songz. So is there any inspiration from those parties on the album as well? I won't say that there's any inspiration on the album from that time, but there's definitely some songs that will be penned about those situations that happened around that time. It was a very fun time of life, I'll say that. OK, 'Money Can't Buy Love' featuring Young Jeezy, clocked up in excess of 2.5million views on YouTube. Tell me about the creative vision behind that track and the video itself. The track was actually given to me by Jeezy. He didn't produce it but he's the one that called me to the studio one day like, "yo I think I got your next single", and mind you I was like "man what does Jeezy know about R&B, Jeezy is street, Jeezy is hip hop". So I was kinda reluctant at first, but I went in there, heard the joint, jaw hit the ground. Joint was incredible, I did my parts, he did his, rest is history. I got together with my man Chris Robinson to do the video, and it all came together. That was kind of the introduction to this non-fiction thing, in the name of keeping it all the way real - you know my girl is in the video with me, and it came together right. And tell me about the vision behind your current single 'Coming With You'. I mean the track is fun, I kinda wanted the song to be about something fun. The song is basically just a guy courting a girl saying, "you know whatever's going on after this, wherever you going, I'm coming with you". There's nothing that I'm gonna say that hasn't been said before, so I'm always trying to find a more interesting way to say it as opposed to just saying it. Mind you there's definitely something to be said about just saying it. There are songs that kinda shine with the simplicity of the lyric but there are other songs where you wanna get a little bit more inventive with the way that it's said, just to keep the people interested. Tell me about the video, the hot girl parade I call it [Laughs] Again man, fun joint, we wanted to do something fun and colourful with the video. You know 'She Knows' was a little dark, that's a video we shot before, it was a little darker, a little more hood, so we wanted to do something kind of fun and upbeat with this one, so that's why the colours, and we on the beach, and the beautiful women. It's just one of them joints that make you feel good, so I wanted the video to make people feel good too. 7 41 Issue 72 / 2015 HIPHOP / RNB guestlist.net Global superstar and certified hitmaker Ne-Yo has either collaborated with or written smash-hit songs for everyone from Mary J. Blige to Beyoncé. This triple Grammy Award winner gave us international hits like 'So Sick', 'Sexy Love', 'Closer', and 'Beautiful Monster'. Not content with founding his own record label, Compound Entertainment, he's now the Senior Vice President of A&R Motown Records. He has starred in box office hit films like Red Tails and Battle Los Angeles, together with being one of the best storytellers to emerge in music over the last ten years. We sat down with the singer, songwriter, actor, performer extraordinaire who's fast approaching legendary status. " This is album number six, this is damn near ten years in the game, and I know the only reason that I'm still here is because of my fans. "