Ryan Leslie the Return of Genius and True Swagger

Ryan Leslie - Producer, Singer, Artist, Rapper and CEO

Ryan Leslie is ushering in the return of the virtuoso for the recording industry. Producer, writer, singer, rapper and documented genius (having scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT and graduating Harvard at 19) Leslie's momentum is building quickly.

He successfully blends live instrumentation and sound capture into contemporary hot tracks blended with cool and CEO of Lifestyle and record label Next Selection, Inc., Ryan Leslie has created a star following on YouTube with one of the top subscribed channels for viewers by documenting his unique creative process for production. He's produced hits for Cassie, Britney Spears and Beyonce but now is emerging with his own album schedule for release in August of '08.




Uniquely, Leslie has taken the rumored jolt from his former love interest Cassie and her alleged relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs and channeled it into his music. "Diamond Girl" his latest single climbing the charts was an ode to Cassie that has taken a life of it's own as he's moved on. On his track I-R-I-N-A he turns an icebreaker melody that he freestyled to his non-english speaking Russian Model co-star of Diamond Girl and flipped it into a first class ballad that is radio worthy.

Most impressive about Leslie is the unabashed and proud return of true genius. A child prodigy that aced his SATs and entered Harvard at 15, graduated at 19, for me he's a refreshing contrast from Kanye West's approach of boasting "College Dropout". While the comparison ahead for Leslie and West is yet to peak, refreshingly on the music scene there is enough room for both in the spectrum of hybrid producer/artists that are joining the ranks of albums and latest signed artists.

Kanye West and Ryan Leslie in the Lab
College Dropout & College Graduate Collaborate on a Cassie Track

MTV's Buzzworthy recently featured a segment on Ryan Leslie where he provides background on his production of "Diamond Girl".



Leslie comes equipped with the aesthetics of today's recording artists, swag, style, spitting fire lyrics on dope beats. But beneath the trappings of what has defined successful artist is unadulterated genius, drive, inspiration and great music.

For more information on Ryan Leslie visit www.ns4life.com, www.myspace.com/ryanleslie. Subscribe to his YouTube channel by clicking here: www.youtube.com/ryanleslietv

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Broadcast to the world via Yahoo! Live

Last week I was researching live broadcast solutions for my client, former NBA Player, Jerome "Junkyard Dog" Williams and his website AutomotiveStreetStyle.com.

JYD hosts a Sirus Radio show and his website covers the latest in custom cars and the automotive industry. Automotive Street Style also has a TV Channel on Brightcove and also at http://www.automotivestreetstyle.tv/.

JYD hosted his own auto makeover show that showcased his custom design talents and was broadcast in the tri-state area on a show called "Make It Hot". To improve the content of Automotive Street Style JYD wants to broadcast shows live with his celebrity friends and auto enthusiasts from the state of the art broadcast studio he is building. I began to search the web and read countless articles on live streaming video and potential solutions.

I found Ustream.tv, which offers a broadcast widget. I also found that there have been large aggregates of webcam communities out there. Justin.tv was another great option to distribute information to the web, but overall it seemed a bit sophomoric for my client.

Then I came upon a gem of a solution in Beta, Yahoo! Live. Once again, Yahoo pushes the envelope on developing a user friendly interface to bring web broadcasting to the masses.

Yahoo!Live is a web broadcasting community that allows members to set up a channel with an intuitive chat environment and also video chat. Other chat members with cams enabled come up in a dashboard interface that allows them to talk via webcam mic's or external mics. In 4 minutes, I set up a channel for this blog at http://live.yahoo.com/urbanexpress.. Best of all, you can embed your live broadcast player into any web page. Allowing your channel to be spread virally.


JYD and I agreed to give Yahoo!Live a shot and setup a channel at http://live.yahoo.com/automotivestreetstyle. Look out for our live broadcasts coming soon.

Outside of finding a free solution that meets our need, Yahoo! Live connects people in unique ways allowing us to satisfy the voyeuristic tendencies that the web accommodates. Also you see the humanity of those broadcasting. Like the Digga Channel http://live.yahoo.com/digga one of Yahoo! Live's first broadcast channels depicting his life and also untimely death of his 3 month old son from SIDS (RIP Dame Lee II).

Also the welcome and flair of Bob on http://live.yahoo.com/bobpopotv2. Bob is a Flatbush Brooklyn based barber that broadcasts his life welcoming all visitors, engaging them and encouraging them to turn on their cams and enforcing his rules of civility. I'll admit I had to get past his Sharptonesque Perm and love for the bling, but he's willing to broadcast his entire life while he cuts and busts his occasional freestyle flow.

I don't know that I have gotten to the point of broadcasting video blogs or prepared content. But whenever I am ready. I know how I'll reach my audience for now via Yahoo! Live.

Congratulations Yahoo! team on a job well done. Also check out the Urban Express Live broadcast below. You never know when I may be broadcasting live.

Check it out and let us know what you think. Post you comments below.