I think “Believing” in yourself these days gets over looked all the time when it comes to artists having a successful music career. A lot of times you may hear an artist say hard work pays off or they might mention their day to day grind. But it definitely takes having belief in yourself at times to overcome a lot of obstacles in the music world. Most of our leading artists were looked over or slept on such as Lil Wayne until his Tha Carter II album which got the attention of the masses to Jay-Z whom every label turned down so he started up with own label Roc-A-Fella Records or even 50 Cent who was dropped from his label Columbia Records and production company Track Masters after his fatal shooting.

That same “Belief” made artists like Ryan Leslie, who has written & produce hits for other artists, start his own label Next Selection. Not to mention putting his own money into his project and not leaving his career’s success up to the label he’s signed to or luck. Ryan Leslie is more than an artist he’s an accomplished writer who has topped the charts with Cassie’s #1 hit “Me & U” to being today’s leading go to producer for a hit working with acts from Rick Ross, Fabolous, Kid Cudi and Mary J. Blige to name a couple. You can even catch his Youtube channel and see him cook up his hits from scratch. I have followed the Ryan Leslie movement for a few years now and its good to see him finally get his shot.

24: After years of hard work and sacrifice how good does it feel to finally see your album in stores right now?

Ryan Leslie: To me it has laid the foundation of the contribution that I want to make to music. So it really feels like its all in a days work, you know what I mean. I’m definitely grateful and I know that this moment is significant to many folks that are out there grinding that would love to put an album together and has a collection that you can press up into a CD. What I think is interesting from my perspective is that I have been making records own my own since I was a teenager so I have albums and albums and albums worth of material and this is actually the second body of work I have delivered to my distribution company and gotten on the same page and put out. So you know I’m very grateful that we were able to get on the same page and really get this thing out, so yeah it feels good.

24: Personally I have been following you for a while now checking out your Blog and Youtube Channel but I feel like the “Diamond Girl” single really took you over that hill you were trying to climb, so I wanted to ask you did you think when you made that record it was going to get the reaction it did?

Ryan Leslie: Yeah, but you know what when people check out my videos or Blogs like you said if you really check it out you’ll see that I approach every record the same way you know. And it just so happens that I feel my records and I feel the music that I make are made pretty consistently and to me I just try to gage how other people respond, and people really responded to “Diamond Girl” and not only did the public respond to it but so did my internal team. When they heard that record they said man there is something special about it and bottom line ever since 2003 I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to get behind something. I had made some money as a producer from 2003 and to the end of 2007 so when I first put that record out I took my own money and said you know what I can continue to wait or I can make an investment in myself and jump start this record. That’s exactly what I did and I am very thankful that people responded the way that they did.

24: Tell me how did your record “Addiction” come about and what made you choose to get Fabolous on the record to go along side you and Cassie?

Ryan Leslie: Fabolous is a long time friend and supporter and was featured on one of my first singles and when I first played the record for him he immediately wanted to be on the record. He was actually on Tour with One Republic and he recorded that verse from his tour bus and sent it back. The way he came on the record was just so fitting, so shout out to Fab for coming through for both videos and for that song and showing me a lot of support and Cassie was just a no brainer she’s signed to Next Selection and the first artist with whom I made my first #1 record with.

24: What should fans expect when they download your album on Itunes and press play on their Ipod or when they purchase the CD at Best Buy get in the car and turn the volume up?

Ryan Leslie: Well, they should expect to hear an album that’s written, produced and arranged by one artist which I believe is my contribution right now to the game. The records speak for themselves and if anyone has any reservations I encourage them to go to my site www.Ryanleslie.com and you can go listen to the entire album and see all of the videos I have put out so far. It’s an album that I have put all of my passion and creativity and hard work into, making the best records I could make. I really hope people can enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

24: Was there any artist that you really wanted to work with but didn’t get a chance to work with for your album?

Ryan Leslie: Nah, not really you know I really enjoy on my projects to be selfish and be able to make the records I want to make and be myself and express myself. But if I had a dream collaboration though it would have to be Stevie Wonder and Prince.

24: You inspire many up and coming artists as well as producers/songwriters so I wanted to ask you who inspires Ryan Leslie?

Ryan Leslie: Man, I’ve said it over and over again my musical heroes such as Stevie Wonder, Prince, The Beatles, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, The Dream Team. There’s many others but for musical contributions those are the guys but I have so many different inspirations from other stand point like Richard Branson who was the founder behind the Virgin Brand, so definitely there are a lot of folks that has inspired me.

24: When its all said and done what do you want the fans and music lovers to say Ryan Leslie brought to the
game?

Ryan Leslie: When its all said and done what do I want people to say(Pause), You know I really don’t get into having a desire for having people to talk about me I just really get into being really competitive with myself and knowing at the end of the day I gave the best that I could give to the game, and what ever people say or feel it’s going to be up to them.

24: What advice would you give to an up and coming producer or artist trying to get into the music industry who doesn’t have any contacts but has the talent?

Ryan Leslie: I look at that and I hear that story a lot but I think that the internet provides a lot of opportunity for business people in the music world because it allows you the opportunity to have your own distribution pathway to your audience. Not to mention you can gage how people respond to you and Soulja Boy is a perfect example of that. This is someone who utilized the new media technology and social networking to build his own audience and after his audience grew people took notice. So I really don’t think there is an excuse anymore for artist to say I have not met the right people as yet or I just don’t have the exposure. I don’t really get into that I feel like if you have talent you have to understand how to put a “Team” together to take advantage of the opportunity you have to create your own base and your own audience and excite others to want to be in business with you.

24: Tell me what are some of the projects you’re working on as far as your production goes I know you recently finished working with Slim of 112 as well as being in the studio with Kid Cudi also ?


Ryan Leslie: Slim, Kid Cudi, Fabolous new album Jim Jones, Rick Ross and I’m going into the studio with Mary J. Blige. Not to mention 50 Cent just called me a couple of days ago so were trying to work out the schedules now also Wale new album. So I’m pretty booked up and I’m always looking to collaborate with new artist as well as my Next Selection artist. I signed a kid from overseas by the name of Bluey Robinson and a female from California name Chris Ivory we have Cassie new project and a whole lot in the work for 2009 and I’m also working on my second album as well.


24: I know the readers want to know if you will you be doing any touring this summer ?

Ryan Leslie: Yeah, I’m putting together something right now and doing a few spot dates so look out for me and my band to shake some things up. Everyone can stay tuned by going to my website and stay informed.


24: Do you have any finals words for the readers?


Ryan Leslie: I think we said a lot man, so the final words are, I’m on a campaign to be the worlds’ most accessible artist through my videos diaries, Blogs etc so you can go to www.ryanleslie.com for all of the above.