We really ought to mention Ne-Yo here in the CMU Daily because he's this week's big news in the US. His debut album 'In My Own Words' has shifted 301,000 copies in its first week, sending it to the top of the album charts. Meanwhile, by resisting the normal procedure of releasing a single via iTunes ahead of an album release, Ne-Yo's track 'So Sick' is simultaneously at the top of Apple's download chart, helping to maximise the hype.
Ne-Yo's success is good news for Jay-Z - not only because he's signed to his label, Def Jam, but because he was the album's producer. Bigging up Ne-Yo this week, Jay told Associated Press: "He's naturally talented. Anytime when that happens, and talent wins, it's an honest blow for the music business. It's a beautiful thing." On the songwriting ability of Ne-Yo, who also wrote Mario's 2005 number one 'Let Me Love You', Jay continued: "his ability separates him from everyone else. He can sing, he can dance, he has the whole package, but on top of that, he's an excellent songwriter." On his own role in producing the album the Def Jam top man concluded: "My thing was to keep the album short and sweet. When an artist has his first album, they tend to want to put 21 songs on there. He doesn't take it personally. He'll just go in and do it. We took songs off the album and he had no problem with it."
So there you go. Jay has also been talking about his involvement in Nas' next album. As previously reported, Nas has signed to Def Jam after overcoming his long running feud with Jay. To prove the two hip hop giants really are now friends, Jay will take production duties on Nas' new album too.
The new album will be co-released by Def Jam and Nas' former label, SonyBMG's Columbia. On Nas' decision to form an alliance with Def Jam at this time, Jay says: "I don't want to sound disrespectful to Columbia, but I don't think there was no one in there who had true respect to work with him on his albums. I think he was just doing everything on his own, and it's hard to hear everything on your own."