Like most aspiring producer/songwriter/singers, Ryan Leslie started out making his own records as a teen because he couldn't afford to pay for studio time or producers when he wanted to record his demo. Counting self-contained producer/artists like Stevie Wonder and Prince as his heroes, it's been a long ride from being a 19-year-old senior in college who had no music contacts - to overseeing studio sessions with the likes of Diddy, Usher, Britney Spears, and many other of today's top stars.
The road was not easy, as anyone who has tried to make it in music would understand. When he graduated from Harvard in 1998, Ryan started out selling beats for $200 to anyone who would buy - a questionable career move for an ivy-league graduate. He stayed in the Boston area for a while, taking on a community service job to make ends meet, and spending his nights in the recording studio. Eventually, in the summer of 2000, he linked with a young artist named Corey "Latif" Williams, and he produced a song that won a contest sponsored by Teen People magazine, earning them a performance at the famed Apollo theatre in Harlem.
A few months later, in 2001, the two had generated enough buzz as a producer/artist duo to score Latif a record deal with Motown. Though initial excitement in the project was strong, the album they made together in thirty days took two years to get released. In the meantime, Ryan returned to a suburb of Boston and began to experiment with making his own records again.
Times were tough, the advance money from his work on Latif's album ran out, and in late 2002, after nearly a year grinding with little to no money coming in, Ryan was forced to move back in with his parents, who were living in Phoenix. Though he was devastated, he remained determined, and after a long talk, his father gave Ryan a glimmer of hope, offering to max out the family's credit cards to buy the keyboards and recording software needed to create a modest project studio. Moved by this vote of confidence in his potential, Ryan vowed that he would do whatever it took to repay the nearly $15,000 worth of equipment - even if it meant going to law school and getting a job more suited to his academic pedigree.
For the next five months, Ryan locked himself in a room, eating infrequently and sleeping even less, spending countless hours formulating a distinct sound that would prove useful when in the spring of 2003, his music career took an unexpected turn. Encouraged by his long-time music lawyer and advisor, Ed Woods, Ryan got on a plane to New York to take a 30-day contract as a music production intern for former Bad Boy Hitman Younglord. One week into his internship, a record they created together became "Keep Giving Your Love To Me", a song performed by Beyoncé for the Bad Boys II movie soundtrack. That record led to a meeting with Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was supervising the project.
Honored by the opportunity, Ryan played a few of the instrumentals he had created while in Phoenix for Diddy, and there was one in particular that caught the Bad Boy Records CEO's attention. Though it was a simple track, consisting mostly of a conga loop and a guitar riff, the magic in the music emerged when Ryan played a song he had written and recorded to the track, called "Hot 2 Nite". Thoroughly impressed, Diddy offered Ryan a producer management contract on the spot, and the song became the first single for New Edition's Bad Boy album.
Diddy immediately put Ryan on every project that came across his blackberry, and Ryan produced a string of records, including Loon's 2003 summer hit "Down For Me". He shared his unique talent with everyone from Britney Spears, B5, Cheri Dennis, Danity Kane, and many other Diddy-helmed projects. In six months, he had collected enough money from advances to be able to repay his father, and after sending a check home, he requested that his equipment be shipped to New York, where he set up a project studio in a one-bedroom apartment in Harlem.
Simultaneously during that time, Ryan inked a publishing deal with Tommy Mottola's Aspen Songs, cementing his relationship with two of the most legendary and notorious executives in the music industry. Under the mentorship of Diddy and Mottola, Ryan began to absorb the mannerisms of a savvy entrepreneurial music executive.
Soon the word began to spread of his unorthodox approach to record-making (eschewing programming and beat machines for real-time playing of instruments and on-the-fly song writing), and people began reaching out to Ryan for his "NextSelection" sound. He produced singles for Donell Jones ("Better Start Talking"), Cheri Dennis ("I Love U"), and dancehall legends Tanto Metro & Devonte ("News For You"). He also signed a recording contract as an artist with Universal through Mottola's imprint. Though he recorded an album for Universal in 2004 between projects for other artists, his production schedule kept him from paying any real attention to promoting a single.
It was when Usher called on him to produce some records for his new label, US Records, that Ryan, being the same age as Usher, became inspired to champion his NextSelection brand by developing an artist of his own. After writing and producing the title track "Private" for Usher's act One Chance's debut album, Ryan returned to New York and met a strikingly beautiful young artist named Cassie with a distinct vocal texture and a unique point of view. With the help of some coaxing by her mother, he convinced Cassie to record a song with him. Encouraged again by his attorney, Ed Woods, he played the record for Mottola, who immediately signed Ryan's young protégé to a management contract, urging the two to continue the recording process.
The next record he wrote and produced for her, a song called "Me & U", would prove to be a defining work in Ryan's career - earning him his first number one hit, and the opportunity to work as an executive producer alongside Diddy, who outbid 2 other labels to partner with him on Cassie's project. "Me & U" went on to be the biggest record at radio in the history of Atlantic Records (Bad Boy's distributor), and Ryan's dream to introduce the world to the NextSelection brand was achieved.
The success of Cassie's project also proved to be definitive in a different way for Ryan, who had partnered with a young on-line media entrepreneur named Rasheed Richmond to wage a ground-breaking internet marketing campaign using non-traditional media to raise awareness about Cassie, NextSelection, and the infectious song he had written for her. Thanks to their joint efforts, she became the first major new artist to break from social networking phenomenon MySpace.com, prompting so many internet searches that Yahoo crowned her the first "Internet diva".
Fueled by this momentum, Ryan's next moves will be made with laser focus on brand development and will be watched intently by an evolving music industry. He is building a management company, led by Sean Collins, a long-time friend and early supporter who invested in him during the early stages of his career, to develop and nurture budding production talent. He is expanding his on-line media properties with Rasheed Richmond to create a network of sites dedicated to entertainment content developed by NextSelection. He is assembling a roster of acts that will embody the characteristics of his signature 4 D's - drive, desire, discipline and dedication.
Most importantly, amongst all of his endeavors, he's campaigning as Ryan Leslie - the artist. With a goal to fill arenas around the world where he has already been performing for small crowds of die-hard NextSelection fans, he is pursuing the dream that started his foray into music in the first place: being an entertainer. His live show is explosive, channeling of the energy of a young James Brown mixed with the swagger of a modern day Marvin Gaye. The soundtrack to the Ryan Leslie experience is just as engaging. Fusing thick analogue synths, heavy drums and lush vocal harmonies, his double album, consisting of his best unreleased gems like "The Way That U Move", "Just Right" and "Used 2 Be", plus an entirely fresh crop of newly-inspired recordings, will be a collection of all the songs he wouldn't sell to anyone else, songs that he really loves, stories told in a way only he can tell them.
A look at Ryan's daily schedule, which usually starts on-line at 5am and continues (with meetings, calls, rehearsals and studio sessions) into the wee hours of the following morning, suggests that he may have too much on his plate to lead the life of an ordinary twenty-something year old. Thankfully, his approach to life is, arguably, extraordinary.
© 2006 NextSelection Lifestyle Group
I Choose You
Ryan Leslie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When I'm by your side that's when I'm feeling home
And my only attempt is to make you smile, I promise
So believe what I say when I say I'm real
'Cause there ain't no mistake in the way I feel
Baby open your heart and accept this love, I give you
Over the others, over my pride,
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
Over the others, over my pride
'Cause you're the best thing, in my life
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
Said I knew it was right, so I took the chance
Disregarded the challenge of the circumstance
Now your to big a part of me to let you go, I promise
So despite the way that I make mistakes
And despite the direction this love may take
You can always be sure of me just have faith,
Got you , this what is true
Over the others, over my pride,
Over the falls I have in my life
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
Over the others, over my pride
'Cause you're the best thing, in my life
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
In Ryan Leslie's song I Choose You, the lyrics express the deep love the singer has for his significant other. He mentions that being with this person has exposed him to new experiences and brought him a sense of comfort and belonging. His only aim is to make this person happy, which he promises to do genuinely. He praises the worth of his partner by choosing them over his own ego and other obstacles he may face. The love he feels for his significant other is unwavering, and he reassures them of his commitment to the relationship.
The lyrics reveal that the singer has disregarded obstacles previously in order to be with this person, emphasizing how vital they are to his life. He acknowledges that he has made mistakes before, but those experiences only serve to prove how much his partner means to him. Throughout the song, the singer emphasizes how he chooses his partner over everything else, including his pride and other options that may present themselves. The song speaks to the steadfastness of his love and how he will always choose his significant other, no matter what.
Line by Line Meaning
You introduce me to life, that I've never known
You bring new meaning to my life and show me things I never thought I would experience.
When I'm by your side that's when I'm feeling home
I feel a sense of belonging when I am with you, and being close to you makes me feel at ease.
And my only attempt is to make you smile, I promise
My only goal is to bring joy to your life and see you happy. I promise to try my best to achieve this.
So believe what I say when I say I'm real
Trust me when I say that my love for you is genuine and true.
'Cause there ain't no mistake in the way I feel
My feelings for you are unwavering and undeniable. There is no mistaking the depth of my emotions toward you.
Baby open your heart and accept this love, I give you
Please let me into your heart and accept my love. I am offering it to you with open arms.
Over the others, over my pride,
Despite other options or my own ego, I choose you above all else.
Over the falls I have in my life
Despite any setbacks or hardships I may face, I choose to prioritize my love for you.
I choose you
I am making the decision to commit to you and only you.
Said I knew it was right, so I took the chance
I had a strong inner feeling that being with you was the right decision, so I took a risk and pursued a relationship with you.
Disregarded the challenge of the circumstance
Despite any obstacles that may have stood in our way, I chose to ignore them and focus on my love for you.
Now your to big a part of me to let you go, I promise
You have become an integral part of my life, and I cannot imagine letting you go. I promise to treasure and value our relationship.
So despite the way that I make mistakes
Even though I may make mistakes from time to time, I hope that you can forgive me and understand that my intentions are always pure.
And despite the direction this love may take
No matter where our love may lead us, whether through good times or bad, I am committed to our relationship and holding on to what we have.
You can always be sure of me just have faith,
Please trust in me and have faith that I will always be there for you, through thick and thin.
Got you, this what is true
I have your back and promise to always be there for you, this is the truth of our relationship.
'Cause you're the best thing, in my life
You are the most important and cherished person in my life, and I will always choose you above all else.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: RYAN LESLIE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Boss Man
I play this song at my wedding then she walk out as the doors open up so beautiful...I love this song. 2years of marriage now still going strong everyday.
Sophia Ann
Ed Steward blessings on you ❤️❤️
Shoke Abu
I want to be proposed to with this song playing and also at my wedding. I love it
derrickondemand
My ex-girlfriend dedicated this song to me, and even though she's very far away, I still love her to this very day. More than any other woman I ever met in the world.
IntuitiveTuchii’s TAROT
When I get married I want this song at my wedding
LaTrina Johnson-Brown
THIS man is genius...he is consistently renewing my faith in innovation and originality in today's music. I LOVE YOU RYAN!
Serg S
The best love song ive ever heard in my life hands down Ryan Leslie is a genius and there is no other words to describe this guy keep doing your thing Ryan . You are true definition of real music keep doing your thing man
Jevaughn Palmer
Such an amazing song 🎵
mst8kn
One of my all time favorite RYAN LESLIE songs..Beautiful in every way, the words are amazing.. Good job Ryan
HOMIEiGoHard
This song is currently on repeat!