Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith took the stage name Ne-Yo and first made his mark behind the scenes as a songwriter, most famously co-writing Mario's 'Let Me Love You,' before launching his own career with the 2006 debut 'In My Own Words' and its chart-topping single 'So Sick.' A crooner in the smooth-R&B tradition, he built a run of 2000s hits on tidy melodies, conversational storytelling, and a light, falsetto-tipped tenor. He remained one of the era's most prolific songwriters, penning material for peers even as he charted his own singles.
Ne-Yo has said that when he first started singing he disliked his own tone until his mother put him on to Michael Jackson (and Stevie Wonder), and that studying the way Jackson used his instrument helped him get comfortable with his own voice. The crisp, percussive phrasing and airy falsetto of Jackson's pop-soul run sit directly under Ne-Yo's uptempo singles.
listen forCue Jackson's 'Rock with You' and then Ne-Yo's 'Because of You' — listen for the same clipped, dancing vocal phrasing riding a slick midtempo groove, each syllable placed like a percussion hit.
In the same account Ne-Yo credits his mother with putting him onto Stevie Wonder alongside Michael Jackson, pointing to albums like 'Hotter Than July' and to learning from how Wonder used his voice. That melodic influence surfaces in the bright, hook-forward joy of Ne-Yo's uptempo material.
listen forThrow on Wonder's horn-punched 'Sir Duke' next to Ne-Yo's 'Miss Independent' — both ride a buoyant, celebratory melody where the vocal keeps leaping into sunny, sing-along runs.
Wikipedia lists Babyface among Ne-Yo's musical influences, and the lineage is audible in Ne-Yo's role as a crooning singer-songwriter who trades in polished heartbreak ballads — the same lane Babyface defined across the late 1980s and 1990s.
listen forPlay Babyface's 'When Can I See You' and then Ne-Yo's 'Mad' — both are hushed, confessional ballads built on a soft-spoken tenor and a lyric that stages an intimate lovers' quarrel.