Artistic Expression #2--Ryan Leslie

This is the second of many posts I'll be doing on artistic people that I find interesting or that move me in some fashion. The first post was a poem by Shihan...I think he is so dope, I seriously wish he would cut an album with straight poetry, no beats necessary.

This next one is Ryan Leslie. I hadn't heard of him until he put out Diamond Girl, and I've liked him since. This one is a clip of him producing his song "Just Right." I was browsing youtube this morning and I found this clip. What he does here puts me at a loss for words. To me its almost like watching a birth, he is essentially giving life to music. Its amazing....




Now was that dope or was that DOPE?? He is so talented. If Dilla (R.I.P) didn't already have the top spot in my heart as greatest producer ever R. Les would definitely take it. I'll give him Top 5 Dead or Alive tho.

Doesn't he look seriously dorky tho? LoL you can definitely tell he was a nerd as a child and just recently became "cool." The dorkiness still shows, but I actually dig it. For some reason I have a thing for artists...Cassie I must say you are an idiot.

Hopefully I'm not in any violation of any copyright infringement laws for posting this lol. I just wanted to show the guy some love.


This is another studio session I found to be amazing was R. Les making this beat "Sometimes". The full song is dope, although I think Cassie lacks the vocal abilities to do the beat justice.





Again his dorkiness shows lol. He has to be the biggest cornball in music history, but it works for him. The thing that stands out the most about him other than his superb artistic ability is his passion for the art form, which is what the music industry needs most. He has such a passion for what he does, it shows, and its contagious. For some reason he reminds me a lot of Prince and anyone who knows me knows how I feel about Prince (Purple Rain did it for me) lol.

This next vid is in heavy rotation for me right now. I'm really feeling this track, and the story behind how the song came about is what makes it so dope to me. I find it fascinating that someone can actually create a whole song that was initially a solution for a communication problem between Les and the leading lady of his video for "Diamond Girl" who was a Russian supermodel.





That brings my tribute to R. Les to an end. I find that guy to be quite fascinating and very talented. More talented artists coming soon.