Dressed casually in a white T-shirt, black jeans, and Kangol cap for a day of interviews, Ne-Yo still exudes a natty kind of cool his idol Sammy Davis Jr. would have recognized.
"I remember [my mom] brought home the Rat Pack [records], and I just instantly clicked with that whole vibe," says the man born Shaffer Smith of growing up with a mother who worked the casinos in Las Vegas. "They were just the coolest cats in the room, just because, not because they were trying to be."
If Rat Pack ring-a-ding-ding is the style and attitude Ne-Yo is after, the other piece of the puzzle is the urban dance-floor shimmer of early '80s Michael Jackson, on whose comeback album Ne-Yo is working. ("I have no idea," he says with a laugh about a potential release date.)
Sporting a courtly image has certainly worked for the singer-songwriter whose chivalrous approach has translated to a certain sparkle in more than a dozen hits he has penned for himself ("So Sick," "Because of You") and for others (Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," Rihanna's "Unfaithful") over the past four years. Four Ne-Yo-penned tracks now reside in the Billboard Pop 100: his own "Closer" and "Miss Independent," Rihanna's "Take a Bow," and his duet with the New Kids on the Block, "Single."
"Gentleman," on which Ne-Yo wrote all the songs and collaborated with producers like Polow Da Don, Chuck Harmony, and longtime partners Stargate, retains the sleek, pop-soul sonics of Ne-Yo's previous efforts but also heads off in a few new directions.
"I think that one of the key elements of being a gentleman is diversity, to be the kind of cat that can rock with anybody," he says, amping up his stump speech like a seasoned politician. "The music on this album is something for everybody. For the cat that listens to straight urban, there's a song on there for him. For the cat that dabbles in the pop world, there's a song on there for him. For the guy that listens to, I don't know, Daughtry, that doesn't even know my name, there's a song on the album for you."
