Ne-Yo is ready to earn his spot back on the R&B scene and to let him tell it, now is the perfect time.
The "So Sick" singer recently had a chat with HipHopDX about the current state of R&B and Ne-Yo says he's pleased.
"R&B environment right now, it's very diverse," he said. "There's your traditional Hip Hop, traditional R&B and then there's the mixture of the two. A lot of young cats coming up right now. I feel good about the genre right now. I feel like positive moves are being made."
When discussing his forthcoming album with Billboard earlier this year, Ne-Yo told the magazine he's ready to get back to his roots.
"I had a little stint with the dance music and all of that, which I had a good time with- and I love the audience, I love them for accepting me doing it -but I had to go home on this one. Had to take it back to my roots, and not to say that there won't be one, maybe two songs on there that the dance crowd can get into, but the majority, the girth of the album, will be R&B."
The "Let Me Love You" singer told the magazine his heart has always been in rhythm and blues.
"I've actually been wanting to go back to my R&B roots for two albums now but [I didn't], just from the standpoint of being a pioneer, leading people into whatever the next thing was gonna be," he admitted. "There wasn't a lot of R&B cats doing songs at 120 beats per minute before 'Closer,' which I take full credit and responsibility for. That's all good, but it was an experiment. You experiment with something, if it goes good, cool, but you never forget where you come from and R&B is where I come from."
Ne-Yo's forthcoming album Non-Fiction is set to be released November 11.
