Neyo wants respect and he wants it NOW!

Neyo’s never been the type to brag, rant or rave about anything. He’s probably one of the most humble artists in the entertainment realm, so when his interview with MSNBC surfaced yesterday, I was kind of surprised at some of his responses. Apparently the Arkansas native feels unloved in the R&B world, which to me, seems sort of left field. Is he referring to his R&B counterparts?

Last time I checked, homey was writing for Jennifer Hudson, Rihanna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and a flurry of others. Says Neyo, “I honestly don’t feel that it’s my music that’s under-appreciated. I think that it’s me that’s under-appreciated. As an artist, period. ‘Cause I look at it like — OK, two multiplatinum albums. Yeah. Grammy. Two years in the game. I won my first Grammy off my second album, right? Multiple, multiple No. 1s for myself and for other people. However, (I’ve) never seen the cover of Vibe magazine. Never seen the cover of People magazine. Never seen the cover of, you know, Rolling Stone magazine. And won’t. ‘Cause these people feel that for whatever reason, because I’m a fully functional adult and not a heroin addict, that I won’t sell magazines.”

I mean it’s pretty obvious America loves a train wreck, and its also PAINFULLY obvious Neyo isn’t one. To be honest, I don’t think homey shouldn’t have to judge his success based on not covering a publication, yet. Magazine covers or his current streak of success? I’d choose the current streak of success over a magazine cover ANYDAY!

Clearly, the big homey is aggitated and to be quite honest, it sounds like he wants to be the train wreck his label and management don’t want him to be. When asked if whether or not he poessess a mischevious side, he responded, “Yeah. And it’s not that I haven’t tried. But management, (the) label — they feel that I’ve created this image for myself, this box for myself. And they want to keep me in this box. And I’ve told them, “Y’all don’t understand there’s so much more to me that you’re not allowing me to show the world. Maybe if y’all allowed me to show these other sides of me, then (people) would pay more attention to me instead of saying, ‘Oh, Ne-Yo. Oh great music, great songwriter — what’s Little Wayne doing?’”

I guess this was his venting session because he also spoke on how he felt R&B was projecting a PHONY image, which influenced him to head back to his soulish roots. Neyo said of the previous stage of R&B, “That made me go back to my roots. That made me go back to the R&B I grew up listening to. The New Editions. The Boyz II Mens. Even farther back. The Temptations. The Billy Oceans and Smokey Robinsons. That type of thing. Where it was more about melodies and lyrics that actually had something to say. So I went back to that. So that’s where inspiration for the first record came from. And we was real scared with the first record ’cause it didn’t sound like what was going on with the radio at the time. Everybody was very much hip-hop/R&B. Everybody was very much Ciara- and Sean Garretted-out. No disrespect to Sean Garrett (writer of Ciara’s debut single “Goodies”), but I think he kind of fathered that era. And it was a cool little era for what it was. But it wasn’t necessarily for me.”

ZING!!!! Easy Neyo, Eassssssy lol!

What are your thoughts, ladeis and gentlemen? Is Neyo underated? Is he unappreciated? Is this another way to get people more intereseted?? YOU TELL ME!!!

Sincerely

Low “Remember Neyo, you should be successful by your OWN admission” Key

P.S. What IS Lil Wayne doing??? Hmmmm….be right back (Kidding lol)

TAGS: LowKey, Neyo

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