Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Harvard Hip-Hop Hustler

Every once in a while I'll post some movie reviews or stuff about shows that I love (i.e. Making the Band 4), but I think this is the first time I've posted about a particular music artist. So here's to a Not So Small Talk first, and right now I'll have to say that Ryan Leslie is NSST's artist-of-the-moment.

A quick rundown of Ryan Leslie, aka R-Les:
-Best known for producing Cassie's hit single "Me & U", but has produced tracks for Beyonce ("Keep Giving Your Love to Me"), New Edition ("Hot 2Nite"), as well as other artists including Danity Kane, Britney Spears, Donell Jones, etc.
-His Youtube Channel is within the Top 40 Most Subscribed Channels
-He sings/raps/produces/plays various instruments
-Scored a perfect 1600 on his SAT's, entered Harvard at the age of 15 and graduated at 19

Here he is in typical Ryan Leslie fashion recording "Addiction", the second single off his self-entitled album. The man is a one man band - I think his talent speaks for itself:



Before he started taking the music business seriously, here is an interview with him at age 14 before his departure to Harvard. This guy is the epitome from geek to chic lol. Hella flashback to the 90's:



Finally, here is probably my favorite video. Ryan thought his interview at The Invasion Radio Show was going to be your typical one until he saw they set up a keyboard for him. The results were improv at its finest - here he is playing over Lil Wayne's "Lollipop". R.Les over Lil Wayne any day, sorry guys!

1 comment:

Just Ray said...

back in the day that style was poppin with the thick glasses wave and the cut in the hair shits dope