Last night I had the chance to attend a private meet & greet with the extremely talented Ryan Leslie at Twist in Buckhead about his new album, “The Transition”.
I will be the first person to admit that I really don’t know much about the man behind the now floundering recording star Cassie. Personally, his music never stuck a cord with me. That is until this evening.
Ryan along with his record label, Universal/Motown invited a handful of taste-makers of this great city to come out and chop it up with the reclusive artist. After meeting Leslie and getting a chance to take in snippets of his new project, “The Transition,” you almost instantly pick up on his love of music and most importantly, his love of women. Or should I say one woman.
“The Transition” tells the storyline of a secret love, Ryan cleverly refuses to reveal. Apparently after the fling ended, the result became a”Transition.”
Judging from what I heard, the 11-track set is full of futuristic R&B tunes that finds the fresh faced R&B-crooner sweet-talking his sweet hopeful. There’s just one problem – and its small so lets not harp- Ryan’s musical journey on “Transition” seems musically flat at times.
Often times when artists take on plural roles as writer, singer, producer and vocal arranger their project fails to evolve, which as a fan of music annoys me like a paper cut.
Personally, I would have like to have heard different musical influences other then futuristic R&B. Putting it plainly, Ryan’s music is ahead of its time and tries to changes the idea one has for what R&B music is supposed to be. However, at the end of the day if that’s my only complaint – then I really don’t have anything to complain about.
On the surface some may regulate Leslie to being a “regular artist” – a notion that you’d immediately brush off once you meet him. With a Harvard education, Ryan is certainly no dummy, and some would even argue that his introverted swagger contributes to his musical charm.
I fux with Ryan.Aside from the music, any dude who chooses to use the word “Commerce” when talking about selling goods and services of music is OK in my book.
Fellas if you want to have the ladies panties sliding to the floor. Get your ass to a retail store like DBS Sounds or Sound Shop and cop that disc.
Ryan Leslie’s “Transition” hist stores TODAY, November, 3rd. Make sure you go cop that disc. Have a listen to the album here.
See, I didn’t even talk about Cassie…But you can go to my twitter page to read up on what he had to say about her.
Shouts to I’na of The Star Fire Group and Terrell Henderson of Universal for the invite.
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