How Ne-Yo Became One of the Most Successful Songwriters of Our Time (Ep. 49)
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How did Ne‑Yo’s childhood and family environment spark his love for music?
Beyonce heard it, she heard the first few seconds and was like, Yep. I mean, this is not a song for a man. This is a song that a woman needs to sing. Jay Z said something very specific to you. Yeah. Man, why you get a damn song away? Give me everything took months to come together. Easily one of the biggest songs, and we never won a Grammy for it because of when we turned it in. Couldn't even get nominated. See ya. I just don't understand why you're not bigger. And she was like, Nah, I wanna go to Taco Bell. And I was like the dinners. I'm trying
to understand
Understand that. You get a record deal, they give you a recording budget. That recording budget sits on a credit card. At this point, I'm I'm rebelling, like, well, I'm not I'm not doing nothing. They're like, all right, fine. Because the record label doesn't care because at the end of the day, you're a tax write-off. And if you do nothing at all, they still get all their money back. And I'm just I'm depressed. I heard you were living in a van. Oh yeah. Just trying to find some meaning in life. Cause at this point, we wake up every day, try to figure out what we were gonna eat that day. That was it. Imagine wanting something your whole life and you get right to the door and the door creaks open and then pow slams in your face and you're right back at square one.
How did you go from someone who is unsure about yourself to gaining that confidence? You know, I I kinda
so think of the sound, so tight of tea.
Welcome back to Behind the Wall to an episode I've been looking forward to for a very long time with one of the great songwriters and artists of my childhood. Please give it up for Neo. Yeah. Neo, so excited to have you today. I am very excited to chat with you to specifically at because So many songs that you've written and been a part of and sung. and and help to craft. are songs of my childhood that I love listening to as a kid because we didn't I didn't have we didn't have a ton of money in our family. So a lot of the songs I listened to were from the radio.
Yeah.
And a lot of those songs I listened to as a kid without understanding what the songs were actually saying. So when I started to write more and more, I started really listening to the lyrics specifically for you. And I think that you are incredibly talented at concepts, at lyrics, but also like super catchy melodies and finding the lyrics that fit. So I'm super excited to chat with you today because my goal is to shine a light on the people and stories behind music, but also to help the next generation of songwriters, of music creatives and creatives in general.
Absolutely. I dig that. I dig that. And thank you. Thank you very much for that. I appreciate it, man. I um I you know what's crazy? I never wanted to do anything else. Just with with my life, career and all of that, you know, kids grow grow up and say they wanna do this, they wanna do that. I I always wanted to do music. Now mind you, I didn't know if I was gonna be in front of the microphone or behind the microphone or just the writer or the singer. I had no idea, but I knew it was gonna be music. Yeah. Like I made that decision at like nine years old. Like whatever the hell it is It's gonna be music and I just never looked back. Like never gave myself a plan B, you know what I mean? Like if it didn't happen it was gonna be
Man, uh, do you want fries with that or something? And then also
doing music at the same time.
Well yeah. I mean music would have been like my pastime as I worked fast food or something to to feed myself. But yeah. That's the only that's the only thing I've ever wanted to do and I I've been blessed beyond anything I could have ever, ever dreamed or imagined with this whole thing. It's been Been twenty years since my first album, man. That's amazing. I'm still touring with we're selling out arenas and whatnot still. So that's it's a blessing, bro. It's a true blessing.
Do you remember what it was that when you were nine? Like what convinced you to do music?
Um Nothing made me feel the way music made me feel, you know?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How did Ne‑Yo’s childhood and family environment spark his love for music?
0:00–9:54
2
What was life like for Ne‑Yo living in a van while trying to launch his music career?
9:54–24:26
3
How did Ne‑Yo discover that record‑label budgets could become tax write‑offs and affect his creative freedom?
24:26–38:59
4
What is Ne‑Yo’s process for turning a simple beat into a hit song like “Let Me Love You” or “So Sick”?
38:59–1:08:53
5
Why does Ne‑Yo compare modern AI‑generated music to the loss of human emotion in songs?
1:08:53–1:42:11
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Behind The Wall
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