leslie

Ryan Leslie is quite a multicultural singer born of his Chinese, Caribbean Dutch and African nationalities. Leslie proved himself to be extremely talented at a very young age. He taught himself how to play the piano, which eventually turned into creating songs. His intellect is not found in the everyday world. At 14, he got a perfect score on the SATs while attending high school in Stockholm, California.  He applied to all Ivy League universities and chose to attend Harvard. He graduated with a degree in Government, concentrating in Political Science and Macroeconomics at age 19. Although he chose those subjects to study, music had his heart and he noted that he had a strong obsession for Stevie Wonder and his career. Ryan also notes Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Prince and more as his influences. He quickly became a usual at the university’s recording studio and teaching himself the art of production. Before graduating, he had begun producing for local artists from Boston to make a bit of extra pocket change. Leslie began to shape his personal image in the midst of helping others. With such a growing interest in music industry, his grades suffered at one point. He was put on academic probation three times in his college career, so he had to find a better coping mechanism to balance his music life and academic life.  He straightened his act up quickly to graduate as young as he did. Leslie stated that he remembers only having two or three hours of sleep per night. Those sleepless nights were the recipe for a star in the making.

The summer of 2013, he landed a 30 day production internship with Younglord, which was the jumpstart into the music industry. In his first week, he produced a song that would eventually be performed by Beyonce on the Bad Boys II soundtrack and surprisingly, Diddy was supervising the soundtrack and was impressed by his skills immediately. He then was offered a management contract with Diddy. He soon began working with several Bad Boy artists like Cheri Dennis, Loon, Danity Kane, etc. Cassie in particular was a love interest of his but it soon ended and she is now dating Diddy exclusively. In 2009, the New York post published Leslie naming him “New York’s 50 Hottest Bachelors.” He is quite a bachelor and time can only reveal if he’ll make time in his busy schedule for his future queen.

Two thousand and seven was the start of his long awaited solo career. His lead single on the self-titled album was, “Diamond Girl” followed by “Addiction” featuring Bad Boy recording artist, Cassie.   The album Transition was next up followed by his most recent, Les Is More in October 2012. The smash hit, “Dress You To Undress You” is a very sultry song matched with a tasteful video. His blogs and YouTube channel have been the platform to building his fan base. He stated that his next studio album, Les Is More 2, will be available in March 2013. Also, he has his Black Mozart EP dropping soon too. His video, Carnival of Venice is available on WorldStar  His millions of YouTube views show that this next album will be an even bigger hit than the previous. Through persistence and willingness to work your way up along with an education to rely on, makes for a well-rounded, unlikely personality and there can only be one Ryan Leslie. -Free @InkStains_