UnderRated - Ryan Leslie

UNDERRATED-So, he's super smart and a REALLY TALENTED PRODUCER, plus dude can sing and dress pretty damn well...stylish! But for some reason his songs dont ever chart!?!





Ok, so this is my first music related post! It's about someone who in my opinion is Underrated! Weird right? I know...

Anthony Ryan Leslie grew up all over the western United States moving frequently as his parents were ministers in The Salvation Army. While attending public school in Stockton, California at age 14 he found out his parents were moving once again. Rather than having to attend a fifth school, he decided to finish his junior year and then enroll in college. Leslie attended Harvard University in the fall of 1994 at 15 years old and graduated at the age of 19 with a degree in Government and Economics. He now lives in Harlem, New York. Ryan Leslie's production style mainly utilizes real in-studio instruments while still achieving the same style of beat machines.
Leslie's production history spans several contemporary music genres, including hip hop, R&B, pop, gospel, and dancehall. Production credits include Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Cassie, JoJo, Danity Kane, Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Katharine McPhee, New Edition, Latif, Megan Rochell, M. Pokora, LL Cool J. He is currently writing songs for Usher.

Ryan Leslie signed a recording contract with Universal Records when he was an unknown artist. In 2003, he began recording his debut album, to be entitled Just Right. He released two singles off the album, "The Way That U Move Girl" and "Used 2 Be" featuring rapper Fabolous but the songs did not chart. Due to the singles performing poorly in the U.S., the album was shelved for the U.S. market. In Europe the album was released on November 1, 2005.
Leslie returned to the studio in 2007, to begin recording his second album. The song "Diamond Girl" was released as a single in May 2008. The video had debuted on Universal Music Group YouTube channel the previous month. In November 2007, he released a video for a song named "I-R-I-N-A" via his own YouTube channel.

Check him out for yourself at myspace.com/ryanleslie