Put A Record On: Ryan Leslie's Prodigious Output

Ryan Leslie's first single, "Diamond Girl," conjures the image of an R&B Casanova who wills girls into the bedroom with the same ebullient, space-age synths and serenading that first lured them onto the dancefloor. And yet, Leslie is also the brains behind his pop star persona, making him both the puppet and the puppetmaster of this prodigious career.




The son of traveling ministers, Leslie graduated from Harvard before he turned 20 and taught himself songwriting and production by studying how Stevie Wonder crafted his tracks. This strict childhood is reflected on his album—there are mentions of liaisons, but most of the songs have an unusually tender, chivalrous edge. The cascading keyboards and sparkling production serve as the basis for many songs that are really about finding the girl you want to marry ("Diamond Girl"), breaking up ("How It Was Supposed To Be") and starting down the same slippery path again ("Quicksand").

"Addiction," another single, extends the breakup theme over slinky congas and a pulsing hook. The result is a strangely hypnotic composition, reflected in the accompanying black-and-white video directed by Diane Martel (Goldfrapp, Franz Ferdinand, N*E*R*D). In a welcome change from most other music videos, the clip features almost all dark-skinned models, who lipsync the track directly to the camera. Leslie's interest in models extends a little further than video aesthetics, however—he discovered model-turned-singer Cassie, and another track on his debut, "I-R-I-N-A," is named for the Russian model Irina Sheik: "I may not speak your language / but I know just what to say." Maybe Leslie is that preacher's son Dusty Springfield warned us about.

For more information see www.ryanleslie.com.

—Jessica Suarez