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Ryan Leslie

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Ryan Leslie

Anthony Ryan Leslie (born on September 25, 1978, in Washington, D.C.) is an American music producer and singer. Founder of the marketing and media company NextSelection, Leslie is best known for his production work with NextSelection/Bad Boy/Atlantic recording artist Cassie and her single "Me & U". Ryan's self-titled debut album, Ryan Leslie released on February 10th and features the hits, "Diamond Girl", "Addiction" (featuring Cassie & Fabolous), and "How It Was Supposed To Be".

Biography

Early life

Ryan grew up all over the western United States moving frequently as his parents were ministers in The Salvation Army. While attending public school in Stockton, California at age 14 he found out his parents were moving once again. Rather than having to attend a fifth school, he decided to finish his junior year and then enroll in college. Leslie attended Harvard University in the fall of 1994 at 15 years old and graduated at the age of 19 with a degree in Government and Economics.[1] He now lives in Harlem, New York.

Producer

Ryan Leslie's production style mainly utilizes real in-studio instruments while still achieving the same style of beat machines. [2]

Leslie's production history spans several contemporary music genres, including hip hop, R&B, pop, gospel, and dancehall. Production credits include Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Cassie, JoJo, Danity Kane, Rhea, Alfred Abbas, Lea, Uness, Krys Ivory, Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Katharine McPhee, New Edition, Latif, Megan Rochell, M. Pokora, LL Cool J.[3] He is currently writing songs for Usher.[citation needed]

Singer

Ryan Leslie signed a recording contract with Universal Records when he was an unknown artist. In 2003, he began recording his debut album, to be entitled Just Right. He released two singles off the album, "The Way That U Move Girl" and "Used 2 Be" featuring rapper Fabolous but the songs did not chart. Due to the singles performing poorly in the U.S., the album was shelved for the U.S. market.[citation needed] In Europe the album was released on November 1, 2005.

Leslie returned to the studio in 2007, to begin recording his second album. The song "Diamond Girl" was released as a single in May 2008. The video had debuted on Universal Music Group YouTube channel the previous month. In November 2007, he released a video for a song named "I-R-I-N-A" via his own YouTube channel.[4]. His 2nd single, "Addiction" (featuring Cassie, exploded onto radio in the summer and fall of 2008. Ryan recorded two music videos but it was the "Making of 'Addiction'" video that became his most popular on YouTube, with more than 1.1 million views. His new single, "How It Was Supposed To Be", has two music videos: a rock version [5] as well as directing a military take on the song along with and featuring model, "Tyson Beckford" [6]

YouTube blogger

RyanLeslieTV is his official YouTube channel. His other channel, Ns4life, is a daily video journal about the NextSelection Lifestyle Group.

In October 2006, Ben Going posted a video questioning the legitimacy of Leslie's YouTube popularity. In the video, Going alleged Leslie had created fake YouTube accounts to increase his channel's ranking.[7]

The ensuing controversy resulted in YouTube temporarily removing Leslie from their "Most Subscribed" rankings. Leslie later released a statement via YouTube's community news channels denying any wrongdoing.[8]

After completing an investigation, YouTube reinstated Leslie's account.[9]

Discography

Albums

Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
U.S. Hot 100 US R&B U.S. Pop 100
2005 "The Way That U Move Girl!" — — — Just Right
"Used 2 Be" (featuring Fabolous) — — —
2007 "Diamond Girl" 95 35 — Ryan Leslie
2008 "Addiction" (featuring Cassie & Fabolous) 115 35 —
"How It Was Supposed To Be" — 71 —

Mixtapes

  • 2005: The Talented Mr. Leslie
  • 2006: The Official Next Selection Mixtape

Selected production credits

Guest vocals

  • "Can't Let This Go On" by Anaya
  • "Kiss Me" by Cassie
  • "Just One Nite" by Cassie
  • "Me & U (Ryan Leslie Remix)" by Cassie
  • "Sometimes" by Cassie
  • "U Think U Know" by Latif
  • "Ride 4 Me" by Lex
  • "Choose Us" by Nelson
  • "Serious" by Nelson
  • "6 Of 1 Thing (Remix)" by Craig David
  • "Don't Give My Love Away" by Matt Pokora
  • "Good Lovin'" by Slim
  • "Get Right" by Cory Gunz
  • "Precious" by Jim Jones

[10]

References

  1. ^ "Ryan Leslie Interview - - Part 2". About.com. 2006-06-22. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  2. ^ Ryan Leslie in the studio
  3. ^ Interview with Ryan Leslie
  4. ^ Ryan Leslie: I-R-I-N-A
  5. ^ How It was Supposed To Be (Rock Version)
  6. ^ How It Was Supposed To Be (Military Version)
  7. ^ "Producer Ryan Leslie Accused of Creating YouTube Accounts to Hype RyanLeslie TV", Mariel Concepcion, Vibe.com, October 24, 2006.
  8. ^ YourTube's 'A message from RyanLeslieTV' on YouTube
  9. ^ RyanLeslieTV is Too Legit 2 Quit on YouTube
  10. ^ Ryan Leslie is currently producing a song with Kid Cudi[1]

http://forgetthedresscode.blogspot.com/2009/01/ryan-leslie-x-kid-cudi-in-studio.html

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