Why He's No. 68

Year of the Gentleman was issued in September 2008, but not before another series of songwriting triumphs, including Rihanna's "Take a Bow" and Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight." He has also written for Marques Houston, Cassidy, Heather Headley, Mary J. Blige, Musiq Soulchild, Janet Jackson, and Leona Lewis.

Back Stage

Shaffer Chimere Smith (born on October 18, 1982 in Camden, Arkansas but raised in Las Vegas, Nevada) is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He is best known by his stage name, Ne-Yo. He is currently signed to Def Jam Records. He was previously best known for co-writing Mario's 2004 number one hit "Let Me Love You" before he began a recording career of his own in 2005. Ne-Yo's debut album, In My Own Words, was released in early 2006 and debuted at number one on The Billboard 200, selling 301,000 copies in the first week. During the same period, Ne-Yo's second single "So Sick" (produced by Stargate) became the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Ne-Yo also wrote Rihanna's Top 10 hit, "Unfaithful" and Mario Vazquez's "Gallery". Recently he was featured on Ghostface's single "Back Like That". While still in high school, Ne-Yo joined a punk rock group named Envy, going by the stage-name GoGo. After the group disbanded in 2000, Ne-Yo had substantive success as a songwriter. He co-authored songs for artists such as Ruben Studdard, Marques Houston, Faith Evans, Christina Milian, B2K, Chris Brown, Nivea, Tyrese, Rihanna, Jamie Foxx and Heather Headley, and helped with the musical arrangement on the Teedra Moses debut Complex Simplicity. After getting out of a record deal with Columbia Records that saw no released material, Ne-Yo decided to remain as a songwriter. However, a close friend introduced him to L.A. Reid, who signed Ne-Yo on the spot to Def Jam Records. The singer's nickname was given to him by a friend, Shawn Milligan, who stated that the singer could "see" music like Keanu Reeves' character "Neo" could see the Matrix in The Matrix film trilogy. Ne-Yo added the "-Yo" to match rap culture. In the May 2006 edition of Vibe magazine, Ne-Yo revealed that he has a Chinese grandfather. Ne-Yo said that growing up, his father Wiley would abuse his mother. The singer also has a son named Chimere.



Recording career: Def Jam released "Stay", featuring Peedi Crakk, as Ne-Yo's debut single in 2005, and his debut album In My Own Words was released in February 2006. "Stay" was well-received by the urban community, reaching number 36 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, but failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, "So Sick", was a larger success, reaching number one on the Hot 100 and the Pop 100, as well as the official UK chart. The singles "When You're Mad" and "Sexy Love" were produced later and "Sexy Love" recently became a huge hit, peaking at number five in the UK, reaching Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles, 2 on the Hot 100 Airplay and Hot R&B/Rap Singles. To date, In My Own Words has sold one million copies in the US and over three million worldwide. "Stay" will be released as the third UK single from the album in October 2006. More recently, Ne-Yo's writing credits can be found on Jamie Foxx's latest album, Unpredictable and Beyonca's single "Irreplaceable". He can also be heard singing the choruses to Ghostface's lead single, "Back Like That", from his fifth solo album Fishscale, and Remy Ma's "Feels So Good" from her recently released album There's Something About Remy: Based on a True Story. He also wrote Rihanna's second single "Unfaithful" of her album A Girl Like Me and Mario Vasquez's single "Gallery". Ne-Yo is also featured on a remix of Busta Rhymes' "Touch It". Furthermore he is currently working on tracks with Mario, Jesse McCartney, Fantasia and Britney Spears and on the soundtrack for the upcoming film Steppin' Up: Save the Last Dance 2, in which he will make an appearance. Ne-Yo has recently announced to Billboard.com starting work on his sophmore album due to release late 2007.

Forcaste

In My Own Words, the second album he recorded but the first one to be released, came out in early 2006 and reached the top of the charts, supported by the number one hit "So Sick." During the same year, he appeared on Remy Ma's There's Something About Remy and Ghostface Killah's Fishscale, and he had a hand in writing a pair of Top Ten hits: Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" and Rihanna's "Unfaithful." Because of You, his second album, followed in May 2007.