Ne-Yo continues to prove that he’s a force to be reckoned with, both as an artist and now as a label executive. The singer, and now Motown’s new senior VP of A&R, returned to the charts on Nov. 24 with “R.E.D.” His fourth studio album debuted at No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, moving 66,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“This is actually the first album that I paid attention to the fact that I have two very dominate fan bases,” Ne-Yo told Billboard.com at his Walmart Soundcheck session. “I have my die hard R&B fans here and then I have my die hard dance and/or pop fans here. And then we have the people that rest in between those two points. With this album I needed to make sure that everybody that called themselves a Ne-Yo fan had something to latch on to.”
Ne-Yo, ‘R.E.D.’: Track-By-Track Review
It’s hard for Ne-Yo to choose a “favorite” song from “R.E.D.,” but if he had to it’d be the bonus track, “Alone With You,” dedicated to his daughter Maddie.
“It’s the song that I dedicated to my daughter because the first night we brought her home, this was the only thing that would keep her quiet,” he sharedof the Salaam Remi produced song and inspired by The Beatles. “She was screaming her head off. The bottle wouldn’t work. The changing of the diaper wouldn’t work. The toys wouldn’t work. So we turned this song on and for whatever reason, complete silence.”
Visit Walmart Soundcheck for more with Ne-Yo, including a live performance.