Graduating at 19 from Harvard is no easy feat, but as you'll see, Leslie's extraordinary accomplishments do not end there. With no music contacts of his own, the only way Leslie could break into the industry was through his own initiative and drive. From working community service jobs, to moving back into his parents' home, to taking a loan from his father to buy adequate studio equipment, Leslie relentlessly rose to each challenge.
Finally, in the spring of 2003, Leslie caught his break. Interning at the time at Bad Boy Records, he found himself in a meeting with Diddy himself. It was at this meeting that Diddy was extremely impressed with Leslie's production and songwriting skills on his personal track "Hot 2 Nite." Then and there, Diddy offered Leslie a production management contract and that same track, "Hot 2 Nite," became the single for New Edition's new Bad Boy album. Since then, Leslie and his Next Selection production team have created numerous Billboard chart hits.
Of course, every legendary producer has his or her claim to fame. Leslie's claim can be summed up in one word: Cassie. Through non-traditional global marketing techniques and with the Midas touch of Next Selection, Leslie oversaw the rapid succession of his protégé. Immediately, Cassie and Next Selection dominated radio stations all over the nation with the smash hit "Me & U." Besides Cassie, Leslie has produced for Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Fabolous, Diddy and Loon among many others. Instead of slowing down, Leslie went on to further promote his Next Selection brand by creating a online journal, NS4Life.com, through which he could daily update fans and followers about life in the music industry.
In this exclusive interview, Leslie talks about his time at Harvard, producing hits and discovering Cassie.
P: Many believe that performing art colleges and large, metropolitan universities better suit students who wish to pursue careers in the music industry. Both Amherst and Harvard greatly differ from those two options. Did attending Harvard delay your aspiration to produce music?
R: Not at all. I actually changed my major to government and studied macroeconomics to afford me the time that a pre-med course of study would not. Pre-med was time consuming. Government was a major that allowed me to write great papers and still pass courses without attending class and sometimes even missing mid-term examinations. My parents and my advisors were very concerned that I was unfocused and I was put on academic probation three times during my college career. Nevertheless, I remained set on teaching myself the basics of entrepreneurship by running a barbershop from my dorm room and spending 30-plus hours per week in the studio unlocking the secrets of producing recorded music. My time at Harvard was crucial-and I advocate college as an environment to sharpen social skills and learn how to interact and survive within a matrix of interdependent relationships-appeasing authority, meeting commitments and still carving out the time to discover one's self. Mastering that balance allowed me to graduate on time, and still acquire the skill set which [has] served as the foundation for all that I do today.
Okay, let's talk about your "it girl" whose hit song is dominating the airwaves. You discovered Cassie in a nightclub during an ordinary girls' night out. What happened?
The entire room sensed the star quality. All eyes were on her. I simply made a mental note of her ability to nonchalantly and naturally captivate an audience and capitalized on the energy that she conveyed, offering her an opportunity to share it with the world, as she is doing now.
No one has had as much success with globally marketing his artist solely through the Internet as you have. Did you expect your marketing campaign to lead to the crowning of Cassie as the "Internet Diva?"
I do not embark on any campaign for the accolades. Rather, I believe that if the right mix of vision and execution sets the bar high enough, people will recognize and have reason to talk. I am very proud of the tireless effort that my young staff has put into the on-line success of this project, and the strategic vision that I and my partner in NextSelection Media, Rasheed Richmond, have been able to execute.
Did your global marketing success with Cassie lead you to create a live web journal? How do you even find time to update NS4Life.com daily?
The live web journal was and remains an integral part of our online strategy. It also serves as a personal memoir of my relentless pursuit of a new business paradigm for the music industry. Daily updates are more and more challenging to make as my schedule has been increasingly packed and I realize the necessity of sleep in my routine. Regardless, I do find the time to make updates for the simple reason that I realize the worth of this archive as a living documentary.
In one of your daily video journals on NS4Life.com, you invited an aspiring producer to sell himself to NextSelection. Having heard the producer's work, you instantly told him that "a certain level of caliber of self-evaluation" is expected of all NextSelection members. Could you explain what you meant by that?
By self-evaluation, I mean the ability to objectively exercise quality control when, as the creator of the music, you have the tendency to be biased. Business is consumer driven, and the consumer in the case of record production is the record label. As a record producer looking to make a living, your music product must be of a certain caliber. Until you have established your records as bona fide breadwinners, you must realize that the marketing of a song usually costs anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million, including radio, video and live promotion expenses. Your music must be compelling enough to convince a company to make that type of investment. I have allowed my consumers (various record labels) to choose the music that has afforded me the lifestyle that can be witnessed on NS4Life.com. Based on their choices, I have developed a certain self-evaluation system that allows me to gauge the strength of a record before I present it to a company.
From Beyoncé to Britney Spears to the legendary New Edition, you've already worked with artists that many producers would kill to collaborate with. Yet there must be an artist or two with whom you would love to work. What is your dream collaboration?
My dream collaborations will be with those diamonds in the rough that I have yet to discover. Aside those, I would love to learn production secrets from Prince, Stevie Wonder, DeVante Swing (of Jodeci), Teddy Riley, Quincy Jones, Babyface, Gamble & Huff and many others.
Okay, so are there any crazy behind-the-scenes stories about the music you've produced?
Let's talk about two records from Cassie's album-"Me & U" and "Just One Nite."
"Me & U": Hundreds of DJs claim that they were the first to play that record. I will say this-I was the first. Cassie arrived at the studio and I had already demo'd that record from scratch, full production and vocal arrangement. She arrived relatively late in the evening, and was anxious to go out. We finished the record in four hours. I showed up at the club where she had gone with her girls, and had the DJ spin the record. She and I were the only ones who knew whose record it was.
"Just One Nite": I was mixing "Miss Your Touch" at Right Track studio in New York and got a call that we only had one night to deliver the live harp version of "Just One Nite." Using a live harp was something I wanted to try and one of my staff found a harpist on the Internet and called her up at 10:30 p.m. She initially wanted to know what wedding we were planning. By 12:30 a.m., she was in the studio and by 3 a.m. we had the necessary parts recorded. You can see a clip of that process at http://www.ns4life.com/have-a-harp.
Let's change directions real quick and talk about back in the day. How did you, a contending producer at the time, feel pitching your beats to the legendary Diddy himself? I mean, I'm sure he was one of your inspirations when you were coming up.
I was prepared for honest feedback and felt very fortunate to have an audience with someone who was in a position to provide not only work for me, but also an outlet for that work. I am still awed that the music I was creating-and continue to create-merits the $100,000 to $1 million investment that I spoke of earlier. I have had six videos made for my records (New Edition's "Hot 2 Nite," Loon's "Down For Me," Donell Jones' "Better Start Talking," Cheri Dennis' "I Love U" and Cassie's "Me & U" and "Long Way 2 Go"). Bad Boy, via Universal and Atlantic, has fronted the money for five of those six.
Speaking of Diddy, I heard you convinced him to make his own MySpace page. Is it true he even asked you to forward him some friends?
One of the deal points in our partnership for the Cassie project outlined a consulting role I would take in making Diddy's online presence more robust. His MySpace and YouTube success[es] can be attributed to his staff executing NextSelection's eight-step online awareness campaign, step one of which is "hire Ryan Leslie and Rasheed Richmond."
To wrap it up, I'm going to go ahead and be nosy. You previously told a source that you want to "change the way artist get paid" and that this method has nothing to do with retail CDs. Can you tell us anything about this plan you have in store for the future of music?
After my interview with BRE magazine, which outlined the broadstrokes strategy of NextSelection's business model, I have made an effort to refrain from speaking about this until we have the right climate and funding to execute. You can check the BRE article via my MySpace profile: http://www.myspace.com/ryanleslie.