Ryan Leslie

“One of the next rising stars.” - Tommy Mottola

“They try to put me in a box—it’s impossible!”- Ryan Leslie proclaims as he opens his Top 40 R&B hit “Diamond Girl,” the hit debut single from his highly anticipated self-titled U.S. debut.

It’s impossible to imagine a box expansive enough to contain the singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, Internet visionary and chief executive of NextSelection Lifestyle Group.

The Harvard graduate is a performer at heart, a prolific musician with his own infectious brand of R&B pop.

While an international following awaits the release, he keeps fans satisfied by documenting his wizardry and the restless road towards his release date on his YouTube channel RyanLeslieTV,which boasts more than 21 million video views!

At age nine, Ryan taught himself to play the piano...

At 15, Ryan scored 1600 on the SATs and was accepted to Harvard University.

After graduation and attempting to follow his own dreams by selling beats in Boston, the hard work paid off when Leslie landed an internship with New York producer Young Lord during which he produced Beyoncé’s “Keep Giving Your Love To Me” for the Bad Boys II Soundtrack, which led to a meeting with Sean “Diddy” Combs and a very busy 2003. “Britney Spears, Beyoncé, New Edition, Loon, Cheri Dennis, B5, Danity Kane— any and everything he threw at me, we did,”Leslie says of producing alongside Diddy. “And we sold records.”

Combs went on to sign Leslie’s flagship artist Cassie, the Princess of NextSelection, to Bad Boy in 2006, releasing her No. 1 mega-hit “Me & U,” written and produced by Leslie.

Leslie’s strong core following is a direct result of his talent and communication with fans directly. RyanLeslieTV is a controversial site that takes fans behind the scenes with over 40 videos of Ryan’s remarkable creative process. Ryan shares his life with his fans…whether it’s on Myspace, Video blogs, or a short film he has shot based on the song “Diamond Girl.”

Ryan Leslie has two singles, leading up to his current hit “How It Was Supposed To Be.”
• “Addiction” Featuring Cassie and Fabolous • “Diamond Girl”
Both enjoyed success at radio, with a #1 Most Add at Crossover for “Addiction,” adds at BET and VH1 Soul, as well as press attention from “BLENDER Top 100”, “BET Top 100” and rated as “Next Showman” and “Top 20 Songs of the Year” in Vibe.

An exceptionally shrewd producer, songwriter, performer, businessman, and self-promoter -- he hired someone to film nearly all of his activities, which were diligently edited and uploaded to YouTube -- Ryan Leslie began making music as a teenager, scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs before he was old enough to drive, and graduated from Harvard at the age of 19. He got a foothold in the music industry within four years of graduation; by the end of 2005, he had written and/or produced tracks for 702, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Carl Thomas, and New Edition, and an album of his own was completed but shelved. A year later, he was the architect behind Cassie's "Me&U," a number one R&B single that also reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100; Cassie's subsequent album, produced almost entirely by Leslie, narrowly missed the top of both the Billboard 200 and R&B/hip-hop albums charts. Leslie then recorded another album of his own, which was scheduled for a mid-2008 release date. "Diamond Girl," its lead single, debuted on the charts earlier in the year, while successive singles "Addiction" and "How It Was Supposed to Be" also set the stage for a self-titled album, released in February 2009. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide