With the heavy radio play of the single “Diamond Girl” to the second hit single “Addiction” the artist, producer, songwriter and executive known as Ryan Leslie has been on the long hard path to stardom.

Many have seen him from his intimate videos on YouTube where he gained online stardom with millions viewing his page or subscribing to it. Some have even gone as far as calling him the R&B Kanye West. He has produced songs for Beyonce, Britney Spears and Usher. Creating the global marketing and media company, NextSelection Lifestyle Group he exemplifies the word talented and knows very well how to handle his time. With his efforts in many different outlets its surprising he had time at all to go through an interview, luckily he made the time.

HipHopDX: Now that it is actually coming, do you feel that your album should have come out sooner or is the time just right with a lot of people anticipating it?
Ryan Leslie: I would say that I’m not in any rush at all for my album to come out, just because of the climate of the music industry right now. It seems that consumers are really consuming music that is kind of disposable. You see that there may be a massive hit which only translates into minimum sales. And so for me, my album sales and my live concert tickets and any of the other ancillary income that’s gonna happen that results in me putting out an album, all of those things I think are contingent on me illustrating that I’m actually an artist that deserves to be supported through all of those outlets. For me, I am really just about building for as long as I can the respect of people who, like yourself, be introduced to me whether it be through a blog, my YouTube channel or MySpace. I want to earn the respect of those consumers because I’m doing this for life.

DX: Are you planning on touring once the album drops? I have heard about you performing at clubs…do you plan on continuing at small venues or are you going to try bigger venues such as joining a concert tour?
Ryan Leslie: I plan on going through all the steps that it would take for any artist to build up to stadium status. I’ve always enjoyed performing in clubs. Years ago, before my album had any anticipation at all in the States; I was doing little clubs in Germany and other parts of Europe like Paris and London. There is something really intimate about the club environment which I don’t think I’d ever want to lose, but, I do have a lot of creative and artistic ideas of how I want to express myself on a stadium level. One being with an orchestra or an orchestral arrangement of my record, therefore, I do want to do things at a larger stadium level too. Really, for the time being, I am doing the requisite radio promo dates which consist of me going to whatever club that the radio jock is spinning and I’ll perform my record from the deejay booth. But my real bread and butter as a performer is, I put together a seven-piece live band, three horns, bass, keys, guitar drums and also myself on keys that I really think represents me as an artist.

DX: Did you start off playing piano growing up, or did you learn it on your own time later in life?
Ryan Leslie: I just learned piano on my own. It really happened my eighth grade year. My parents, well my mother, had taken a job overseas at an international law firm. We were in school, at the Catholic school right down the street, and the teachers went on strike. My mother had shipped a piano to Europe. So, during the days when we didn’t have school I was going through my mothers, my mother is a classically trained pianist, I would go through her piano books or teach myself enough so that I could memorize the classical pieces that she would play as we fell asleep, my sister and I, and so now years later I can appreciate those eight-hour or nine-hour days that I could sit there and figure out or pluck out the notes and I’m still continually learning on the keyboard. People like Herbie Hancock, Roger Troutman and other great people who have played, like Stevie Wonder as well, continue to inspire me and I’m always discovering new chords and progressions. It’s been a lifelong learning experience sort of getting comfortable with the keyboard.

DX: Working with so many artists, such as Usher, Britney Spears and Beyonce, how does it feel to be the man behind the music that helps elevate other careers?
Ryan Leslie: Well for me, it has always been a learning experience. My life has been a learning experience. I’ve always been sort of an academic from the time I was very young, so, I really approach things academically, scientifically and working with artists of that caliber really just gave me an environment that I could study those people that were mega-stars. In so doing, I sort of learned what made them tick, what inspired them, what made them excited musically, what made them excited creatively. I was able to take from each one of those artists, take away something that makes me who I am as an artist now because I was able to see their struggles. This is for artists of any level, from Usher, ya know I was just out in L.A. working with him on his score for his performance on the BET Awards, literally just got in this morning from doing that the last three days, all the way to brand new artists like Cassie. I went on the road with her and I went through every stage with her from rehearsals, to shows, to radio shows, to interviews and everything, so, it has been a learning process and being behind the scenes elevating them, I think each artist as a vessel, really just to me, I think they elevate themselves. They elevate my music and they elevate me as well. Continued on page 2 »