Let's make Holberton one of the biggest schools on the face of the planet.
— Ne-Yo
Getting involved with the Boys and Girls Club helped keep me and my sister from getting in trouble.
I'm a fan of FKA Twigs, The Weeknd. I love that kind of ambient R&B. I feel like it's just another soldier in the war to blur the lines and make things to where it's good music and bad music.
I recall my mum tried to teach me how to fry chicken once, and I almost burned down half the kitchen... I don't think I have the patience for cooking.
A lot of times, when artists are rushing to put out projects, it's on some financial tip because they want to make money. But for me, I'm not in any rush.
We are in a good place. Her name is Crystal Renay. She has much promise. Yes, much promise. Quality.
Me being an artist working with dancers and seeing how hard they work, they are the first to show up and the last to leave. They work just as hard, if not harder, than me - and they never get credit for it.
I've spoken before on how the art of storytelling has been lost a bit. I definitely feel 'Empire' is helping to reprogram us back to that place where we pay attention and invest emotionally in the records and the artists.
Sammy was the only one that looked like me, so I naturally gravitated to him. Sammy made it cool to be black at a time when, let's just say it, it wasn't very cool to be black. His name was on the front of the building in lights, and he had to go in the back. But you never saw him sweat.
I grew up in Las Vegas. My mom worked in pretty much every casino on the Strip.
'Stomp the Yard' was a great film. It was a great film, great opportunity. It's the reason I live in Atlanta to this day, that film. But as far as acting goes, it wasn't very challenging. I played me.
With Jay-Z, it's hard not to be amazing.
For me to be here at album number six, it's kind of a way to say, 'Thank you for allowing me to be here... to still be around.'
In my mind, I was still Chimere's father. I was there when he was born. I saw him when he first came out. I held him. He was my kid.
Huge 'Scandal' fan, and I have been since the beginning.
I don't want to call myself a perfectionist, because perfection is imperfection.
For starters, I wanted to do an acting role in a movie that had nothing to do with the music business or in which I would play a singer or a songwriter. When I act, I don't even want to be thought of as Ne-Yo.
I feel, as an artist, that we don't do enough to appreciate our fans. We are in this position because of the fans, and it's really a blessing.
I know everyone says attention spans are shorter now, and if you can't get them in the first 20 seconds, you lost them. But I honestly believe if you give someone something worth slowing down to really pay attention to, they will.
I've been a huge Adele fan since I heard her album '19.'
There's no recreating what Michael Jackson and Diana Ross did in 'The Wiz'. We're trying to figure out who these characters are in 2015. How would these times change their motives, change the things they would say and do?
I am blessed to be doing what I do. So if I have to be at a photo shoot, do an interview, or make a TV appearance, I am not going to sit around whining and complaining about how I don't want to get up early or I don't feel like talking.
Of course, there are some things you keep personal and private because you're a human being. But on the other side of it, I ain't got time to be hiding nothing and all that. It is what it is.
Me and Drake gonna be neighbors if Donald Trump becomes president.
I think people are getting into these 'Empire' songs because of the emotional investment they have in the characters. You kind of feel like you know the songs already because you just watched them play out in front of you with these characters.
My first song was 'So Sick,' which was my first number one as an artist, and I turned the mic around to the crowd, and they sang the whole song. Every lyric. That was my first experience with the power of music.
I like to learn through doing. Let me make a mistake, and then critique me on what I did so that I learn that way.
It's really rare that an entire genre of music allows an artist from a different genre to come and live there.
Beyonce's the kind of artist where you're not gonna see it till it's right.
R&B is my home. It's who I am. It's who I've been. It's the first genre I fell in love with. It's the reason why I've been able to do other genres of music.
Chimere's not mine. That hurt 'cause I had attached myself to this guy, you know. This is my son. I'm looking at him, and I'm picturing I'm gonna be old, and he's gonna be - this is my son! It's not my son.
Guilty pleasure implies that it's something that I feel guilty for watching... people tell me I should feel guilty for watching because I'm too old to watch it, but I don't give a damn: I love everything on Cartoon Network from 'Adventure Time' to 'The Adventures of Gumball', 'Teen Titans'... all those shows that are for my kids, I like those!
When 'Red Tails' came along, all I knew was that they were the first African-American fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force. I had no idea how deep the story went or about all their amazing achievements. There were a few Tuskegee Airmen on the set to make sure everything was as authentic as possible.
A Las Vegas show is all-round entertainment. Which means there's some singing, some dancing, some magic, some drama - everything is rolled into that one performance.
My mom has always been a caregiver, and she's perfect in this role leading my foundation.
All genres of music have to evolve, grow, and expand in order to maintain. I don't think there's anything wrong with the growth of R&B. I welcome it.
I'm the type of guy to put the water on the stove and then walk away and 10 seconds later be like, 'Come on, boil'!
I want to connect with my fans the way Mary J. Blige's fans connect with her.
I'm never going to complain about doing my job. I love what I do!
You know what? At this point in my career, at this point in my life... I'm 34 years old; I don't have time to be hiding.
I'm trying to bring something new to the Tin Man. He may be the one without the heart, but he's the most heartfelt guy there. It's a more manly heartfelt, a 'don't feel sorry for me' - type of heartfelt. I don't want to say tougher, because that just sounds stupid. But the Tin Man is a man's man.
Doing as much as you can for as long as you can - that's the motto.
I'm not a natural. I had to teach myself - or be taught - everything I do. I just spent hours and hours in the mirror mimicking Michael Jackson.
I would've given my right arm to do something on the 'Ray' film, the movie about Ray Charles.
I'm trying to escape the shackles of a pen and a pad. I've sat in sessions with Jay-Z where he doesn't write anything down. He'll come up with the most incredible triple entendre, all in his head - it's amazing.
I've always been the person to look at any turmoil as temporary. I recall times where my mom was working five and six jobs, and there's still no food in the house.
One of the very few things that I actually read about myself on blogs that got to me was people saying, 'Ne-Yo doesn't do R&B music anymore.' Just because I stepped off the porch to explore doesn't mean I don't live in that house anymore.
People are bringing a lot more of that funk element into their music, you know, with Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson - that's one that you never thought you would hear something like that on the radio again 'cause it just sounds so much like the Back Bay and what they were doing with music back then.
Who directed the video 'No More Drama' for Mary J. Blige. I was actually kickin' with J. Lo talking about some music that we're gonna put together, and we were talking about great directors. She said she really, really liked that video and was wondering who directed it, so yeah, I looked it up!
My initial attraction to 'Red Tails' was the opportunity to play a character that was not me. 'Stomp the Yard' was a great film, but I played myself there.
