Ne-Yo

Born Shaffer Chimere Smith on October 18, 1979, in Camden, Arkansas, Ne-Yo took his stage name from producer Big D Evans, who once joked that he sees music the way Neo sees the Matrix. He broke through not as a singer but as a pen for hire: in 2004, Ne-Yo wrote Mario's 'Let Me Love You,' which became an unstoppable force — nine straight weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The industry suddenly wanted to know: who wrote that?

His answer came February 2006 when his debut album In My Own Words dropped on Def Jam. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, moving 301,000 copies in its first week, and its single 'So Sick' reached number one on the Hot 100 that very same week — a simultaneous chart-topping album and single. The singles kept coming: 'Sexy Love' peaked at number seven, 'Because of You' climbed to number two. By the time 2007's Because of You landed (May 1, Def Jam), it too debuted at number one and won the Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album. The next album, Year of the Gentleman (2008), opened at number two with 250,000 first-week copies; its single 'Miss Independent' won two Grammys at the 2009 ceremony — Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

But he never stopped writing. While his own voice played across radio, his pen was behind Beyoncé's 'Irreplaceable' (which held number one for ten straight weeks) and Rihanna's 'Take a Bow,' and some of the era's biggest records carried his fingerprints. Three Grammy wins total; the fedora-and-tailored-suit look became his signature in an era of baggy excess — a gentleman in the 2000s meant something. By the back half of the decade, mid-2000s R&B radio wasn't just his; it was either his voice or his pen, and often both.