Ryan Leslie, c/d, s/d

listening to transitions and enjoying the hell out of the sound, the 80s yuppie twinkly keyboards and bass and stuff, he's such a great and distinct producer. unfortunately still a total nonentity as a frontman. i don't get how anyone could think he's an asshole: he'd have to impinge on you at all to get to that stage.

i mean come on, he's inarguably an asshole! it's whether or not it affects your reaction to the music that's the question

how long have we been arguing the point for you to suddenly throw out "inarguably"?

i agree with lex tho, he's largely a non-entity as a frontman - it would be like calling your comforter an asshole or something. it's just kinda there. idk.

asshole is maybe too strong a way of putting it but i still think what we all discussed on a rolling r&b of the past about leslie being cut from kanye cloth applies; certainly back in the day he used to run his mouth a lot more (dimly recall one particular whinge about not getting his dues where he took a pop at ne-yo!) but i guess that all impinges more on a rss reader than it does one's ears. not that that doesn't still count of course.

essentially with him in particular people are always gonna have very differing reactions to his persona, depending on a variety of factors - i doubt he'll ever be one for the outright definitives so the scope for interpretation is greater than your average.

i couldnt really ever say he's a non-entity as a frontman though - slight and amateurish sure, but there's as much to chew on with him as with anyone else.

I think he wants to come off like an asshole more than he actually is one. Arrogance is a common trait of the kind of stardom he aspires to! After all, what else is "I'm a lead man, you could be my co-star" but wishful thinking? And possibly his pickup line to Cassie all those years ago?

i mightve misremembered that ne-yo hypebeef or else they made up, why because ooh this look intersting

http://www.sohh.com/2009/09/fabolous_ryan_leslie_ne-y.html

OMFG wait how could i forget about that ultra-bateman interview with him a few years ago, hold up while i find it!

In the time I’ve spent with Leslie, he has revealed only two interests beyond his life as a musician and an entrepreneur. The first is buying custom-made clothes. The second is watching DVD biographies of industrial-era titans like John D. Rockefeller. Ask him to speak contemplatively, and he’ll quickly hide behind platitudes or shift the discussion to talk about the next goals in his sights. At these times, he pitches his tone less to the person sitting across from him and more to some sort of vast audience in his head. As though he were speaking into Daytona’s camera and dispensing advice to fans, like in his video-diary entry titled “A Word About Good Representation.” (This tone can sometimes contrast sharply with his surroundings: He once gave a lofty speech to me over a meal at Jimbo’s Hamburger Palace—the cash-only greasy spoon on Lenox Avenue where Leslie eats almost all his meals.)

http://nymag.com/news/features/24094/ , of 2006 vintage!

i never really got why terius was supposed to be an asshole either, as al says a certain degree of arrogance or sleaziness hardly merits a mention.

i'd wait for leslie's slight presence to grow on me but it never happened with the first album so...shrug.

At these times, he pitches his tone less to the person sitting across from him and more to some sort of vast audience in his head.

heh this reminds me of the incorrigibly sweet ciara

“This song is called ‘Open Toes,’ ” shouts Ferrera over the deafening beat. “It’s about hot shoes with open toes,” he yells.

lol still cracks me up

even though it was as usual only for the benefit of the delighted flute-clinking dinner party audience in soto's head this still kinda makes me laugh

― r|t|c, Tuesday, September 8, 2009 5:43 PM Bookmark

yeah j4gger sent that zing to me in an im, nice work

ok this one song where he says things like "did you come here to take my lonely?" and "this is real, baby, givin' you undivided" -- guy is taking dropping words out of sentences to fit the meter to nonsensical new levels. this motherfucker went to harvard.

yeah i had that gripe with his first album, not sure if i wrote about that but i didnt really notice it as much with this one. that kinda intellectual slumming should probably put me off but i tend to give him a pass because i find him so desperate as it is

anyway doesn't that second line you cited go "...givin you my undivided"? that at least makes sense

i'm just gonna say that i v much enjoy his rapping

so i was listening to this tonite & decided actually i love it

"sunday nite" is like the dopest tribute to having a gf ive heard in awhile

you are right about this album btw - one thing i love about his songs is that you can immediately tell how he thought about & constructed each song - each instrumental element is very distinct and deliberate & i'm glad that he didn't lose that when he decided to go funky - more than the-dream or ne-yo leslie feels like a composer to me

he seems more academic about music, if that makes sense (not to bring the harvard thing into the discussion but) - this prob won't register in this thread but he reminds me a lot of spoon - everything is economical, nothing is extraneous

not sure if i actually believe my composer statement when thinking about the 'love vs. money' suite

i'm equally mystified at how unpopular his music is and at why a major label is still releasing his albums - it's not even like he "launched" cassie's career or something seeing as she doesn't have one

he should do more producing for rappers too i think

yeah his tracks for Fab were dope, would love to hear him do more outside production

i haven't really connected w/ Transition yet, but i've yet to hear anything on it that i like remotely as much as "Valentine" and the singles off the first one

yeah nothing has cut as deep as "valentine" or "gibberish" for me either, though i really like "sunday night" and "something that i like"

I really like the record but it often sounds a bit like the lyrics and singing are a pretty major afterthought to all the neat production, like he could be singing fucking anything half the time.

For me the standouts are "Never Gonna Break Up", "You're Not My Girl", "Is It Real Love", and also "All My Love". The music in "All My Love" is really amazing, the bit in the outro with the strings coming in and out is unreal, should go on longer.

i'm gonna listen to it, but last time out i really just ended up playing gibberish on repeat, quicksand was pretty good in a micro-n.e.r.d. way but u no after that

I really like the record but it often sounds a bit like the lyrics and singing are a pretty major afterthought to all the neat production, like he could be singing fucking anything half the time.

yeah this is otm. forgot to mention "never gonna break up" as a fave too

this album is better i think

plays through more coherently - more interesting to listen to as a whole

this might b a little live blogg 4 me but that is one first snare and already this is meatier than the first one in a way i didn't think i wanted but yeah this already sound better tm, less thn a min in tho

voice layering sounds lusher and sound is thicker but its still just as sparse somehow also, arrangements get a bit buckingham in places

i think lyrics on a few of these are actually pretty great

i like how the 'interesting production' functions but its not weird/interesting enough that it would work on its own, like, without great songwriting & functional concepts like "sunday night"

well i think i like how it isn't partic *wee-ird* sounding but like has these strange headphone moments buried in it, but yeah, its not exactly the foregrounded appeal, more like little details and textures that r gonna b fun to find in the context of some pretty slick 80's style soul pop, i kno i've said phil collins b4 but

exactly

oh ok lol i thought i was disagreeing wit u sorta

is it ok 2 repost this here?

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo305/lejospopo/didntmeanto.jpg

okay but that guitar on you're not my girl, really?

how dope is that solo in that one song

lol i was disagreeing w/ ronan, trying to say the same thing you were xxxxp

i mean there r some great details tho, i just love how the sound of the keyboards pulls away from the speakers on some of the little descending runs on To The Top

every time i try to pay attention to the lyrics my mind just wanders away - really really really cannot get past his wallpaper nothing voice, no matter how pretty the arrangements

guess that is ur cross 2 bear

ronan is dead right abt all my love, which is prolly the showiest production, that bit where the piano replaces the synths!

yeah that end part is so amazing, and the synth back into the piano, there's just something in that shift back and forth as it fades out that works on some level beyond explanation for me.

i'm not saying the lyrics are terrible as such, there is some content there, the music wouldn't work on its own cos it's obviously song structured, but that doesn't mean the actual lyrics are then great. I mean yeah the lyrics are fine, I think there's just a few parts where they're in that zone of him saying he wants to bone someone in a v roundabout overly sensitive and thus ultimately sleazy way. eg "if it's a question of your pride, put that thing aside."

Wondering is that the source of the yuppy complaints cos that's how I'd think of "Intimate Connection" too.

it works lyrically 4 me like the strokes lyrics do which is, its pretty meaningless drivel on the surface but there are lines that jump out for almost no reason and seem great!