Ryan Leslie

Anthony Ryan Leslie (born 25 September 1978; Richmond, Virginia, United States) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and entrepreneur. Working predominantly in contemporary R&B and hip hop, he has released six studio albums and written and produced songs for artists including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Chris Brown, Diddy, Fabolous, LL Cool J, Kanye West and Usher, building a parallel reputation in later years as a technology entrepreneur and financial educator.
 

Early Life

Leslie was born in Richmond, Virginia, and moved frequently as a child owing to his parents' work as Salvation Army officers, eventually graduating from Bear Creek High School in Stockton, California, in 1994.

He went on to Harvard College, graduating at just nineteen with a degree in government, concentrating in political science and macroeconomics, and was chosen as one of four seniors to serve as Harvard's Male Orator during the university's Class Day ceremonies.

Leslie grew up immersed in music, playing cornet as a child in the Salvation Army band, and taught himself piano along with the ability to read and arrange music by ear. At Harvard he sang with the a cappella group the Krokodiloes, and it was a friend playing him a Stevie Wonder CD during his freshman year that redirected his ambitions toward music; he began spending time in the university's recording studio and, while still a student, started producing tracks for local Boston artists.

Career

After graduating, Leslie worked community service jobs in Boston to support himself while spending nights in the studio, before moving back home to his parents in Phoenix and persuading them to take out a $15,000 loan so he could build his own production studio.

 In the summer of 2003 he landed a production internship with producer Younglord, and within his first week produced "Keep Giving Your Love to Me," later recorded by Beyoncé for the Bad Boys II soundtrack; the soundtrack's supervisor, Sean "Diddy" Combs, was impressed enough to offer Leslie a management contract. Under Combs's guidance, Leslie worked on Bad Boy Records projects for artists including Loon, Cheri Dennis, B5, New Edition and Danity Kane, and co-produced a record for Britney Spears.

Also in 2003, his attorney introduced him to music executive Tommy Mottola, who became a mentor and offered Leslie a publishing deal with Aspen Songs and a recording contract with his Universal-distributed imprint, Casablanca. Leslie began recording an intended debut album, Just Right, releasing the singles "The Way That U Move Girl" and "Used 2 Be" (featuring Fabolous), but the album was ultimately shelved amid creative differences with his label.

In 2005, under the mentorship of both Combs and Mottola, Leslie signed then-aspiring model Cassie Ventura to his own imprint, NextSelection, in a joint venture struck with Combs's Bad Boy Records the following year; he wrote and produced her entire eponymous 2006 debut album, including the single "Me & U," which spent twenty weeks in the Hot 100's top forty, peaked at number three, and was certified platinum, ranking as the fourteenth most successful song of that year on Billboard's year-end chart.

Leslie returned to the studio to rebuild his own debut, releasing the singles "Diamond Girl" (December 2007), "I-R-I-N-A" (November 2007), "Addiction" (featuring Cassie and Fabolous, August 2008) and "How It Was Supposed to Be" (March 2009), the latter accompanied by two videos, a rock version and a military-themed version that marked Leslie's directorial debut, co-directed with model Tyson Beckford; his self-titled debut album followed on Universal Motown on 10 February 2009, receiving a 2011 Grammy Award nomination.

He released a second album, Transition, that November, before departing Universal Motown toward the end of his four-album deal, later explaining that he saw the label's proposed 360-degree deal restructuring as an opportunity to strike out on his own. His third album, Les Is More, delayed from an initially planned 2011 release, arrived in October 2012 and featured Fabolous, with a European edition featuring French rapper Booba on a remix of "Swiss Francs." His fourth album, Black Mozart, recorded independently over a week in Vienna, Austria, in December 2012, was released to members of his "Renegades" fan club on 31 August 2013, and was documented in an accompanying film of the same name; a fifth album, MZRT, followed in July 2015, and an EP, Fleurier Flows, in January 2019.

After close to a decade away from new full-length music, Leslie released his sixth studio album, You Know My Speed, independently through his own Black Phoenix Enterprise label on 2 February 2024, featuring ten songs and a guest appearance from Bobby V, and supported it with a European tour that March. Beyond his own catalogue and his work with Cassie, Leslie built NextSelection Lifestyle Group into a music-media company alongside online marketing partner Rasheed Richmond.

In 2015, drawing on the direct-to-fan release strategy behind Black Mozart, he founded SuperPhone, a direct text-messaging marketing platform that has since been used by artists including 50 Cent, Raphael Saadiq, Talib Kweli, Miley Cyrus, Zayn, Silk Sonic, Ava Max and Cardi B, and has drawn support from investors including Ben Horowitz. In April 2021 he launched WealthPlan by Ryan Leslie, a personal mentorship programme focused on investing, trading, tax strategy, business credit, real estate and venture capital, operated under his umbrella company, Black Phoenix Enterprises.
 

Personal Life

Leslie has named Stevie Wonder as the single greatest influence on his music, alongside musical heroes including Michael Jackson, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Quincy Jones, the Beatles and D'Angelo. Throughout his career he has placed a strong emphasis on direct engagement with his audience, building much of his early fanbase through his blog, YouTube channel and social media, at times offering fans free iPods, backstage passes and dinner invitations, and he was an early and vocal advocate for digital distribution and streaming over physical media well before the industry's wider shift in that direction.

In October 2010, while on tour in Cologne, Germany, Leslie's laptop, containing unreleased productions, was stolen from his car; he offered an escalating reward that eventually reached $1 million for its return. The laptop was eventually returned by a Pulheim garage owner, Armin Augstein, though Leslie maintained that the missing intellectual property was not recovered and initially disputed the reward; Augstein was ultimately awarded the $1 million, plus a further $180,000 in interest, following a lawsuit resolved in 2012.

In more recent years, Leslie has become an outspoken advocate for financial literacy, particularly within Black and Brown communities, frequently sharing his own investing story, including turning an early stake in Apple stock into a multi-million dollar return on the advice of a mentor, as a way of illustrating the principles behind his WealthPlan mentorship work.
 

Current Activities

Leslie continues to run his SuperPhone platform and his WealthPlan mentorship programme under Black Phoenix Enterprises, combining his continuing music career, including live performances following the 2024 release of You Know My Speed, with his work as an investor and financial educator.