So with my current relationship, I’m really doing it the right way and realizing that, “Yo, you can really be (expletive) happy. I’m gonna be respectful of my lady in that she’ll never find out. I think back to some of the best relationships I’d ever been in, and even in that moment where I was just super happy, super cool with the girl that I was with, she cool, she ride for me, once she’s out of sight, if it’s something over here that’s ready to go, I’m gone. I had to take it upon myself to sit with myself in the mirror and go, “Have you ever really and truly given your 100 percent to any relationship you’ve ever been in? And the answer was, “No.”. To see what’s happening right now with #MeToo and Times Up and all that, I’m happy about it. Like a double whammy, like you gon’ have to work your (butt) off to get crumbs as a black woman. Black people, we got it bad, but the worst thing in the world to be would be a black woman. Women get a bad rep, and it’s been like forever that women been getting a bad rep.
What’s it like to see the #MeToo grow so rapidly? You know, I don’t want nobody kicking me out no hotel at 5 o’clock in the morning.ĪP: You’ve always been supportive of women. So even in the realm of that, there was always a small level of respect that you have to give just because it’s another human being. As a woman, you’re supposed to demand respect and if you don’t, well clearly you didn’t want it. Because I give respect the way you demand it. Ne-Yo: Even if it was a small level of respect. Even when I was moving around a bunch of chicks, groupies and all that stuff, I was never the cat kicking chicks out my room at 5 o’clock in the morning. Ne-Yo: If I was a bad boy before, I was the best version of the bad boy. Were you a bad boy before or have you always been a good man? But for people to listen to it and tell me that’s where it’s going to be and that’s the only place it can be, it’s like, “Why are y’all putting a cap on my (music)?”ĪP: You’ve been pushing this “Good Man” movement. and even yet and still, because the song is talking about being a good man or whatever the case may be, (it went) straight to the Urban AC.Īny blessing is a blessing, you know. The first single that we put out, “Good Man,” it’s not necessarily traditionally an R&B sound. Ne-Yo: Urban AC (adult contemporary radio), that’s where it falls. In an interview with The Associated Press, he talked about his music, the #MeToo movement and more.ĪP: People are wondering, “Where does that kind of R&B artist, like Ne-Yo or Mary J. Everything is so monotone and super bass heavy. “Just kind of something other than what’s going on right now. “I needed every song to feel like a hug,” he said.
Ne-Yo said with “Good Man” he wanted to make music that felt “warm.” I just feel like that helped me realize where my place is in this thing. And mind you, I ain’t knocking nobody, I’m a fan of a lot of it. “It’s gotta be about sex and money and how much drugs you sell. “It’s like almost taboo to talk about love all of a sudden,” added the Grammy winner, who has written hits for Beyonce and Rihanna.