Singer/songwriter Ne-Yo is moving from Def Jam to Motown Records, the company told Billboard.biz exclusively today. In addition, the Grammy Award-winning artist will bring his Compound Entertainment imprint to the venerable label and take on a creative role at Motown as senior VP of A&R. In that role, Ne-Yo will serve as a producer and mentor to the label's artists and also discover and sign new talent. "His track record of success at Def Jam will always be a benchmark," says Universal Republic and Island Def Jam Motown chairman/CEO Barry Weiss in a statement announcing the news. "But this move to Motown will provide new and inspiring challenges for Ne-Yo as both an artist and a key member of the new senior management team that is taking form at the label in 2012."Ne-Yo added, "I'm honored that I¹ve been given such a prestigious title and trusted with such responsibility; terrified because I know that playing this role in the fashion of one of my career role models, Mr. Smokey Robinson -- these are big shoes to fill. But trust, I can handle it."
Wedding bells and baby booties for the still in the closet r&b singer Ne-Yo. The singer is engaged to longtime girlfriend Monyetta Shaw, and the couple are expecting their second child together.
According to Us Weekly, the baby announcement was kept under wraps for most of Shaw's pregnancy. A source told the magazine the baby is expected as early as October, which is just two weeks away.
Despite being busy with her pregnancy, Shaw has also been working on a new boutique in Atlanta called "Emerlyn & Ester", set to open soon in the city's upscale Buckhead District.
Ne-Yo (real name: Shaffer Chimere Smith) welcomed his first child, daughter Madilyn Grace, back in November 2010 and was ecstatic about becoming a father. "Feels like I'm in luv for the first time," he tweeted at the time. "Welcoming that lil' girl to the world last night defined for me what 'willing to kill and die for' truly means. My world, my life, all hers."
Congrats, hope it all works out well.
Ne-Yo is pretty well known for wearing a hat. Usually seen in a fedora or cap, the R&B singer is debuting his own hat line to coincide with Fashion Week.
Collaborating with America’s oldest hat company Bollman, Ne-Yo tells TheBoomBox his brand is called "Francis Alargo" and says, "We're going to debut it at Fashion Week at Saks Fifth Avenue."
While most other celebrities launch generic fashion lines, selling everything from coats to jeans, it makes perfect sense the 31-year-old songwriter/actor is focusing on fashionable head pieces.
Lindsay Lohan has just sued Pitbull and Ne-Yo for a line in there hit, "Give Me Everything," for a disparaging lyric about her.
The line goes "Hustlers move aside, so I'm tiptoein', to keep flowin'
I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan."
Lindsay is upset, claiming in her lawsuit "the lyrics, by virtue of its wide appeal, condemnation, excoriation, disparaging or defamatory statements by the defendants about the plaintiff are destined to do irreparable harm to the plaintiff."
Lindsay, who claims in the lawsuit she is "a professional actor of good repute and standing in the Screen Actors Guild, is suing under the New York civil rights laws, which protects people from having their name exploited for commercial purposes."
The suit filed by Stephanie Ovadia seeks an injunction to stop all of the defendants from broadcasting the song. It also seeks unspecified damages. Ovadia is the same lawyer who filed the E*TRADE lawsuit on Lindsay's behalf, which settled for a confidential sum.
