The Together Issue

he could have gone further in the academic field by taking his genius elsewhere, he simply replies, “not following my passion would have been a disservice to myself and to history.”

History, for Ryan Leslie, started in 2003 when he landed a production internship with producer, Younglord, who was signed at the age of 16 by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs as a part of his Hitmen Production Team. Within the first week of his thirty day internship, Leslie produced “Keep Giving Your Love To Me,” performed by Beyonce on the “Bad Boys II” soundtrack.

Sean “P Diddy” Combs, the supervisor of the project was impressed by the work of the young producer and offered him a management contract upon meeting him. Under his management, Leslie kept producing for accomplished many artists.

In 2003, he was introduced to Tommy Mottola (co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with Universal Music Group) who became a mentor, offering Leslie a publishing contract with Aspen Songs and a recording contract with Casablanca.

He says, “I wanted to be a mogul before I met those people and it’s precisely for that reason that I accepted mentorship from them” later adding, “I learned way too much to put into a magazine interview. Maybe one day I will write a book and people who are interested can pay for it.” It was under Mottola’s mentorship that Leslie signed Cassie Ventura, the then-aspiring model, under his imprint, Next Selection, in 2005.

While reflecting about the artist he had the best chemistry with, he simply says: “Cassie and I were the ultimate dream team in the studio.” Under his guidance, Cassie went on to become one of the fastest R&B acts in 2005.

After a first album that was shelved due