Ne-Yo..."Know Me"

His Def Jam debut, "In My Own Words," have topped The Billboard 200 and sold 1.4 million copies in the United States, 2006 was a very good year for Ne-Yo. Now, the singer/songwriter is jumping right back with a new album, "Know Me," due April 24. "The first single from the new album, "Because of You," recently began making rounds on radio. Ne-Yo hopes the second single will be a track titled "Call Me Crazy," which he describes as an "infatuation song, from when I was slightly infatuated with this one young lady." "I'm not 100% finished with the album, but it's definitely shaping up to what I wanted it to be,"
The 24-year-old Las Vegas native has also been busy penning tracks for other artists. He says he's chatted with will.i.am about contributing to Michael Jackson's new album ("But again, we keep missing each other," he notes), and is also tipped to write for new projects from Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Usher, Chris Brown and Jennifer Hudson, who is the only featured guest on "Know Me."

Ne-Yo...writing for pop's biggest names

Ne-Yo's created his own share of hits. He's also managed to pen hits for other singers.

With tracks and hits written for Beyonce, he's managed to tap into the world, mind and soul of a woman. How?

"I will not say that I know anything about women, nobody really does, but I may have a little more insight than the average guy...Any slight insight I might have into the mind of a woman, I owe it all to my mom...Growing up with her, dad checked out kinda early, so it was me, my mom, my sister, my grandmother and like three or four of my aunties all in the same house till I was about 16. Any experience they went through, I was right there with them. Be it breakups, meeting a new dude, I was right here listening to phone conversations".

Now, he's ready to pen songs for some of Pop's biggest names of the past.

"Some artists come to me and say, 'I love what you do, just do what you do. Try to write me a hit.' I try my best. If something comes out of it, it comes out. If it doesn't, it doesn't. It doesn't always happen. I'm about to start doing some stuff with Whitney Houston. I want to sit down and pick her brain and see where she wants to go."

Even Britney Spears sought after his help. However, her people had one request.

"One thing they told me was, 'No more songs about Kevin. She's got a 12-CD disc changer full of songs about Kevin. She don't need no more of those,' ...I was like, 'All right, cool.' It's come along nicely, I did about five or six for her so far. I don't know what she's going to keep, but it's coming along nicely. If I had to make a prediction, judging not just the stuff I've done, but the stuff I've heard she's done with other people, I think she's got a shot to come back. I really do."

New Ne-Yo......"Because of you" (Exclusive)

Ne-Yo is back with a new single, “Because of You.” if you wasn’t sure what the big deal was with Ne-Yo in the past, come to appreciate his ability as a writer. The boy can throw together a nice song. It’s diggable because it sort of gives a Michael Jackson feel, as well as a tad bit of the 90’s. Ne-Yo has definitely proven to be a success story from writer to artist. Everyone knows the real dough comes from writing.

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Ghost Writer

Ne-Yo recently revealed that contrary to popular beliefs, he wrote all the lyrics to Beyonce's current hit "IRREPLACEABLE". He also stated that Beyonce just added the harmonies to the song. Beyonce insist on claiming she wrote "IRREPLACEABLE" alone and needed help from no one.

This comes on the heels of Beyonce's recent Oscar snub. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences denied Beyonce a nomination as co-writer for the song "Listen".
In recent interviews, Bee claimed she "captured these feelings" during the filming of Dreamgirls and "immediately went into the recording studio" after filming ended. This implies that she was inspired by her character to run into the studio and put her feelings on record. She doesn't mention Ne-Yo's role in any of her interviews.