It's a muggy afternoon in New York City, 1:07 p.m. to be exact, but the cloudy weather doesn't overshadow the glowing presence of Ryan Leslie. The R&B singer arrives in the lobby at the William Beaver House by Wall Street with his colleague in a cool but rushed pace wearing dark shades to go with his very fashionable dark attire. Apparently coming directly from a previous meeting, Ryan appears caught up in a million thoughts before suddenly stopping mid-stride to turn and introduce himself: "Hi, I'm Ryan."
This wasn't the same musical genius who launched Cassie's career with her hit single "Me & U" in 2006 or just another successful Grammy-nominated producer (who's worked with Chris Brown, Kanye West and Rick Ross) and he definitely wasn't just a heralded recording artist who landed two albums on the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Au contraire, the new and improved Ryan Leslie, version 2.0, is in full entrepreneurship mode and strategizing to become hip-hop's next billionaire.
In an exclusive one-on-one sit down with Music Times, the 35-year-old opened up about his new label and artist-to-fan platform Disruptive Multimedia, his five-year plan for attaining all of life's riches, and settling down without slowing down.
"The purpose of the entire platform is so I can actually own the relationship that I have with the people that support me," Leslie says of his latest venture, which launches on July 4. "You know, traditionally that relationship is owned by third parties: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, any number of platforms and now I can very confidentially say that every single person that supported my last record, they own the relationship they have with me."
In June, Kanye West applauded Leslie's forthcoming business venture. "Beats sales were driven by culture and artists and Apple saw that," West said during an interview in Cannes when asked about the successful $3 billion sale of Beats Electronic. "Of course they wanted to team up with the guys who were bridging culture and technology, it makes sense."
West added, "I think it is ridiculous giving any celebrity a creative director role of anything. There is only like three guys who I think could work like that, and that's Ryan Leslie, me and Will.I.Am, because we care about it. We're inside of it."
And Leslie definitely cares. With Disruptive Media, the "Diamond Girl" singer promises to select a few artists to invest in per year to help launch their careers and create a business off of their musical talents.
"I'm also starting a record company," he explained. "So people you see use my platform and are extremely successful on it, I'm going to be making an investment in an artist, or two, or three every year that I feel is worthy of an investment in their success. So I'll be making an investment in their project—in their business, so to speak. We build a infrastructure that teaches people how to build a business around their art and it allows me to make it very clear, well-informed decision about who's going to be successful based on their hustle, and I want to reward people's hustle by making an investment in their project."
After releasing three albums, Ryan Leslie (2009), Transition (2009) and Les Is More (2012), under Universal Motown Republic Records, Leslie independently released Black Mozart in 2013. Focused on success, the dexterous musician trained himself to sleep three hours per day, only taking 30 minute naps in between without missing a beat; recording, producing, or traveling the world. As for lagging anytime soon for wife and kids, the "Diamond Girl" singer says that his lifestyle will still be infused into his family one day.
"Why would I slow down for family?" he said with a smile, "I'm gonna live hard with family too. So with kids, a significant other, we gonna live hard. I'm out here to live the hardest life I possibly can live. I mean, every experience I've ever wanted to have, I have the good fortune of having it. You can name your wildest dream and imagine nations, as a young performing artist, aspiring rock star, aspiring rock legend, cultural connoisseur, whatever I wanted to do, anyplace I wanted to travel, any experience I wanted to have, any relationship I wanted to pursue. I've been very very very fortunate to have been able to have pursue it—and it's been a long string of them—you know from a relationship standpoint, and I had a blast."
After a public break up with protégé Cassie and losing a lawsuit for not paying a promised $1 million finders reward over his stolen laptop he wanted back, the star still remains optimistic and sees life with a different viewpoint.
"I had an amazing time, I had an amazing outlook. I made money, I've blown money, I've been sued, I have built companies, lost companies, I've made friends, lost friends, made love, fallen out of love. I just live extremely hard, so anyone that's gonna link up with me to start a family they gotta be able to be on that same schedule and wanna live hard. We gonna travel, we gonna explore the ends of this world and we'll go to outer space too. I'm looking right now when my rocket ship is taking off as a civilian astronaut in the Virgin Galactic program. We're gonna live hard. Why would we slow down for anything?"
With the success of producer/rapper Dr. Dre multibillion Beats headphones deal to Apple, Leslie's aiming for prosperity creating a "linchpin of success in the digital age" through Disruptive Multimedia. Ryan says that monetary success is not his true goal. Finding the true riches in life is.
"I assume that in 5 years, I would of met and been able to have relationships where wealth of even more inspiring characters and personalities from whom I can learn, and I believe those experiences will lend themselves to an even richer life and even richer approach to business," he confessed. "So when I look at riches, it's not about money. I'm talking in terms of who can I laugh with, who can I live with, who can I share the experiences of life with, and have no worries. So I'm not worried about backstabbers, I'm not worried about dishonest people, people who trying to hurt me or harm me in any way. I'm talking about a richness of life and experience." He explained, "I'm talking about whether it's a barbeque or a black tie affair, I'm doing it with people, I'm enjoying it with people-family, extended family, friends, supporters that really care about me and who I can reciprocate that care for."
