'I said what I said,' Ne-Yo on his positive comments about R. Kelly music

Record ID: 1681907

  • Title: 'I said what I said,' Ne-Yo on his positive comments about R. Kelly music
  • Date: 21st July 2022
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 20, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MUSICIAN, NE-YO, SAYING: (ON PRESSURE TO HAVE SAME SUCCESS AS FIRST ALBUM) “I mean, it's there, it's there. But I just don't allow it to be so heavy. You know, like my, I think my definition of success is kind of changed a little bit. It's not so much about selling a whole bunch of rec
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2022 19:53
  • Keywords: music ne-yo neyo r. kelly singer
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Music,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA002355721072022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: U.S. singer Ne-Yo is letting his music speak for itself with the release of his 8th studio album “Self Explanatory”.
    The three-time Grammy winner said making music at this point in his career is easier and comes with less pressure.
    “I think my definition of success is kind of changed a little bit. It's not so much about selling a whole bunch of records and getting a whole bunch of awards. Now it's about, am I satisfied with what I've put out into the world? You know, is it, is it representing me to what it is supposed to? And if that and if I can answer that question yes, then that's a success for me personally,” he explained.
    Some of the 13-track album was penned during the pandemic, which he said gave him the opportunity to sit still and realize the relationships he was taking for granted.
    One of the more personal songs, “Don’t Love Me”, which began as an open letter to his wife, outlines the mistakes he made in his marriage.
    The singer said he released the song because it’s amazing and it helps others in similar situations.
    “I feel like if I could write something like this and put it out there, you know, kind of just letting the world know that I'm human and I'm flawed and that that's okay. Then maybe somebody else potentially dealing with something similar could, you know, feel the same way… And then that's the, that's the road to fixing whatever is wrong.”
    Recently Ne-Yo’s comments on convicted sex offender R. Kelly’s music created a lot of chatter on social media, the singer said he isn’t worried about the opinion of others.
    “I feel how I feel it. Listen, the man did what he did, and he's in jail - he's in prison serving a sentence for it. That ain’t got nothing to do with the fact that he mad - he wrote some amazing records. Can you deny it? Can you? You can't deny it. You can't deny that them records are amazing even now, even still, knowing who he is and what he is and what he did.”
    He added, “God forbid, I fell into a situation where the world didn't like me as a person. You can't - but that can't take away from the fact that I've created some amazing art and gave it to this world. And that's how I feel about it. And anybody that feel a way – that’s kind of your problem, not mine.”
    After accomplishing most of his major goals, Ne-Yo revealed that working with Stevie Wonder, touring to more parts of the world and seeing his children become pop stars remain on his bucket list.
    “They love music,” he said of his children.
    “They have a song for everything that they do. It’s the ‘We Don’t Want to Go to Bed’ song ‘What We Having for Dinner’ song. They sit at the table and make beats and just sing songs all day long. And they all have perfect pitch. They all have perfect pitch. So, another thing that's on my bucket list now is to - is to just watch, you know, my sons or my daughters get to where I got. I want to see that. I want to see that happen,” said the father of five.
    (Production: Aleksandra Michalska, Alicia Powell)
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