On the left is Ryan Leslie and on the right is rapper/business man Jay-Z.
Ryan Leslie was born Anthony Ryan Leslie on September 25th 1978 in Washington, DC and raised in 8 cities across 2 continents . He is an American record producer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and rapper from Washington, D.C. Founder of the media company NextSelection Lifestyle Group, Ryan Leslie has produced singles for a number of artists in a variety of genres, ranging from R&B/hip hop to pop to gospel. From 2005–2006, he had his most commercial success to date with NextSelection/Bad Boy/Atlantic recording artist Cassie and her single “Me & U”. Leslie’s debut album, Ryan Leslie (2008), features the songs “Diamond Girl”, “Addiction”, and “How It Was Supposed To Be”. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2011. Ryan Leslie`s parents are Salvation Army officers who frequently relocate for work. Ryan Leslie‘s family is practicing Christians. He has lived in various states, cities, and countries. At an early age, Ryan Leslie taught himself how to play the piano. He developed the ability to recite music, as well as arrange chords to create songs. At the age of 14, Ryan Leslie scored a 1600 on his SATs, a perfect score, while attending Bear Creek High School, in Stockton, CA. In 1993, he applied to four University of California campuses as well as Stanford, Yale and Harvard. In his application essays he explained his interest in matriculating from his junior year in high school without having earned a diploma. He was accepted to all except for Stanford. He ultimately decided to attend Harvard College. At the age of 19, Ryan Leslie graduated from Harvard with a degree in Government, concentrating in Political Science and Macroeconomics. During the undergraduate Class Day ceremonies, Ryan Leslie was selected to be the Harvard Male Orator, one of four seniors who deliver orations to the graduating senior class. As a child he grew up playing cornet as a child in the Salvation Army band. He later switched to piano At Harvard, he joined the Krokodiloes, an a cappella group. Leslie suddenly saw a new future for himself when a friend played him a Stevie Wonder CD freshman year. “I became obsessed with him,” says Ryan Leslie. “I wanted to chase that man’s career.” Thus began the transition from premed Poindexter to R&B Romeo. Leslie became a constant presence at the on-campus recording studio. Fellow student Chiqui Matthew remembers Leslie making beats at every free moment. “He was on a different level of intensity. Most of us were pretty realistic—we’re Harvard students; this music stuff is fun, but this isn’t the future,” says Matthew, who now works with credit derivatives at Goldman Sachs. “But Ryan always had a ten-year plan about how he was going to take over the music industry.” While still a college student, Leslie began producing tracks for local Boston artists. Meanwhile, Leslie was beginning to mold his own image, too. “He had this pseudo-sexual, thugged-out Lothario thing,” says Matthew. “I never really bought it. He seemed more like a music nerd to me”. During his freshman year at Harvard, Ryan Leslie devoted many hours per week to creating and developing music in a studio basement on campus. He taught himself basic production skills and also developed a musical style of his own. As the semesters progressed, Ryan Leslie spent more and more time in the school’s studio molding his craft. He also performed many events around campus and was a part of the school’s all male a cappella group The Krokodiloes. Due to the conflict with music and school, Ryan Leslie was put on academic probation three times during his college career. He has said in many interviews that during those college years, he became accustomed to getting 2 to 3 hours of sleep per night. To earn disposable income during these years, Ryan Leslie sold instrumentals to local artists in the Boston area. After graduating college, Ryan Leslie urged his parents to allow him to go in to the music industry. They told him that he could have a better future considering he graduated from college at the age of 19. Ryan Leslie insisted that he was going to pursue his musical interests for two years and if he did not like it he would stop. Ryan Leslie remained in Boston because of its music scene. He took on community service jobs to help support himself and would spend nights in the recording studio working on his music.Eventually, he moved back home with his parents in Phoenix where he convinced them to take out a loan for a production studio so that he could pursue music full-time. He vowed to his family that he would pay back the $15,000 loan one day, even if it meant going back to school and getting a more traditional job. For the next several months, Ryan Leslie worked towards developing a distinct sound. During this period, Ryan Leslie said that he ate and slept very little. In the summer of 2003, Ryan landed a production internship with producer Younglord. He has said in interviews that he considers this 30-day internship the jump-start of his career in the music industry. Within the first week, Leslie produced the song “Keep Giving Your Love To Me” that would later be performed by Beyoncé for the Bad Boys II soundtrack. The soundtrack was supervised by Marc “Dombolo” Styles & Sean “Diddy” Combs, who were impressed by Leslie’s production style and offered him a management contract upon meeting him. Under the management of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Ryan Leslie worked on various Bad Boy Records projects, including releases from Loon, Cheri Dennis, B5, New Edition and Danity Kane. During that time, Ryan Leslie co-produced a record for Britney Spears. Also in 2003, Leslie was introduced by his then attorney Ed Woods to Tommy Mottola. Mottola soon became a mentor of Ryan Leslie‘s and offered him a publishing deal with Aspen Songs and a recording contract with Casablanca, Mottola’s imprint distributed by Universal Music Group. Under the mentorship of Mottola and Combs, Ryan Leslie signed then-aspiring model Cassie Ventura to his imprint, NextSelection in 2005. Cassie Ventura song “Me & U” in 2006 became a major hit on the Internet, and a video for the song was rushed into production, but withdrawn when it was deemed too risqué (sexually suggestive). “Me & U” peaked as the No. 3 download on iTunes, and those sales pushed it to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the meantime, Sean Combs heard “Me & U” in a club, and Ryan Leslie convinced him to partner his Bad Boy Records with Leslie’s own NextSelection imprint for the release of Cassie‘s debut album, Cassie, in August 2006. Firmly established and working with industry heavyweights, Cassie appeared on AskMen.com’s list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women in 2008, at No. 62. As Ryan Leslie and Cassie Ventura spent more time together in the studio, Cassie became closer with Ryan Leslie . “Cassie was my girl in New York City. We were going out romantically, and we made a song and put it out just for fun,” Leslie said regarding their relationship. Their relationship strengthened as Cassie‘s whirlwind of success in the music world expanded. “I love Cassie, I love her. I fell in love with her, I fell in love with her music, I fell in love with her family”. However, Cassie broke off their relationship and moved on to Sean “Diddy” Combs as they began to work more frequently. However, Cassie is still signed to NextSelection, though the two have not spoken in some time. “To be honest, we don’t really speak. We are still cordial. I saw her at Kanye’s Bowery performance and I said ‘Hello’ to her. You always have the curiosity about what would happen if we got back in the studio, but it’s a matter of scheduling and timing. If it ever happens, I am one hundred percent open to it”. Ryan Leslie awards include: 2013 / Black Ivy Alumni League – Pinnacle of Success Award, 2011 / Grammy “Best Contemporary R&B Album” Nominee, 2010 / Soul Train Music Award “Best New Artist” Nominee, 2010 / Harvard AMBLE Vanguard Award, 2009 / BET “Best Male R&B Artist” Nominee and 2009 / BET “Best New Artist” Nominee. Ryan Leslie can be contacted at c/o NextSelection, 45 Broadway, Suite 2230, New York, NY 1006, [email protected]. He is a successful Grammy-nominated producer (who’s worked with Chris Brown, Kanye West and Rick Ross) and he definitely was not just a heralded recording artist who landed two albums on the Top Ten of Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Au contraire, the new and improved Ryan Leslie, version 2.0, is in full entrepreneurship mode and strategizing to become hip-hop’s next billionaire. In an exclusive one-on-one sit down with Music Times, Ryan Leslie opened up about his new label and artist-to-fan platform Disruptive Multimedia, his five-year plan for attaining all of life’s riches, and settling down without slowing down. “The purpose of the entire platform is so I can actually own the relationship that I have with the people that support me,” Leslie says of his latest venture, which launches on July 4. “You know, traditionally that relationship is owned by third parties: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, any number of platforms and now I can very confidentially say that every single person that supported my last record, they own the relationship they have with me.” In June, Kanye West applauded Ryan Leslie ‘s forthcoming business venture. “Beats sales were driven by culture and artists and Apple saw that,” West said during an interview in Cannes when asked about the successful $3 billion sale of Beats Electronic. “Of course they wanted to team up with the guys who were bridging culture and technology, it makes sense.” West added, “I think it is ridiculous giving any celebrity a creative director role of anything. There is only like three guys who I think could work like that, and that’s Ryan Leslie, me and Will.I.Am, because we care about it. We’re inside of it.” Ryan Leslie with Disruptive Media, the “Diamond Girl” singer promises to select a few artists to invest in per year to help launch their careers and create a business off of their musical talents. “I’m also starting a record company,” he explained. “So people you see use my platform and are extremely successful on it, I’m going to be making an investment in an artist, or two, or three every year that I feel is worthy of an investment in their success. So I’ll be making an investment in their project—in their business, so to speak. We build a infrastructure that teaches people how to build a business around their art and it allows me to make it very clear, well-informed decision about who’s going to be successful based on their hustle, and I want to reward people’s hustle by making an investment in their project.” After releasing three albums, Ryan Leslie (2009), Transition (2009) and Les Is More (2012), under Universal Motown Republic Records, Ryan Leslie independently released Black Mozart in 2013. Focused on success, the dexterous musician trained himself to sleep three hours per day, only taking 30 minute naps in between without missing a beat; recording, producing, or traveling the world. As for lagging anytime soon for wife and kids, the “Diamond Girl” singer says that his lifestyle will still be infused into his family one day. With the success of producer/rapper Dr. Dre multibillion Beats headphones deal to Apple, Ryan Leslie is aiming for prosperity creating a “linchpin of success in the digital age” through Disruptive Multimedia. Ryan says that monetary success is not his true goal. Finding the true riches in life is.
Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4th 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Jay-Z was a school friend of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. Jay-Z is widely known by his stage name Jay-Z (sometimes stylized as Jay Z, or JAY Z). Jay-Z is also know by his first and last name Shawn Carter not Sean Carter. Some of his nicknames include: S-dot, Young Hov, Jazzy, S. Carter, Jay, Hova, Jigga, Jiggaman, Iceberg Slim, Lucky Lefty and Joe Camel. He is an American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur. He stands 6′ 2″ (1.88 m) inheight. He is one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in America. In 2012, Forbes estimated Carter’s net worth at nearly $500 million. He is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records, while receiving 17 Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations. Consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was ranked number one by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006. Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album (2003), are considered landmarks in the genre with all of them featured in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. As an entrepreneur and investor, Jay-Z co-owns the 40/40 Club, and is the co-creator of the clothing line Rocawear. He is the former president of Def Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of Roc Nation. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sports and is a certified NBA and MLB sports agent. As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with 13. Jay-Z also has had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, one as lead artist. On December 11, 2009, Jay-Z was ranked as the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and 50 Cent. He was also ranked the 88th greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone. Jay-Z married American R&B singer Beyoncé in 2008. They have a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter, born January 7, 2012. In the business world, Jay-Z has also established himself as a successful entrepreneur like his fellow hip hop moguls and friends, Russell Simmons, Dr. Dre and Sean “Diddy” Combs, who also have business holdings such as record companies and clothing lines. In an interview, he stated that “my brands are an extension of me. They’re close to me. It’s not like running GM, where there’s no emotional attachment.” He is the founder of the urban clothing brand Rocawear along with Damon Dash. Rocawear has clothing lines and accessories for men, women and children. The line was taken over by Jay-Z in early 2006 following a falling out with Dash. In March 2007, Jay-Z sold the rights to the Rocawear brand to Iconix Brand Group, for $204 million. He retains his stake in the company and continues to oversee the marketing, licensing and product development. He also co-owns the 40/40 Club, an upscale sports bar that started in New York City and has since expanded to Atlantic City and Chicago. In 2008, the 40/40 club in Las Vegas was closed down and bought back by the hotel after attendance steadily declined. Future plans will see 40/40 Clubs in Tokyo and Singapore. In 2005, Jay-Z became an investor in Carol’s Daughter, a line of beauty products, including products for hair, skin, and hands. In September 2013, his stake in the Barclay’s Center was sold for $1.5 million. Jay-Z serves as co-brand director for Budweiser Select and collaborates with the company on strategic marketing programs and creative ad development. He provides direction on brand programs and ads that appear on TV, radio, print, and high-profile events. He is also yet to expand his 40/40 Club sports bar in as many as 20 airports, as he makes deals with his business partners, Juan and Desiree Perez. He is a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA team, having paid a reported $4.5 million for his share, which declined in value to $350,000 in April 2013. He encouraged the team’s relocation to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (from New Jersey) in the 2012–2013 season, at which point the team took on the Brooklyn Nets moniker. In October 2005, he was reported in English media as considering buying a stake of Arsenal F.C., an English soccer team. He has also invested in a real estate development venture called J Hotels which recently acquired a $66 million mid-block parcel in Chelsea, New York. Jay-Z and his partners are contemplating constructing a high-end hotel or an art gallery building on the newly acquired site which has the potential to go up about twelve stories. Through his company Gain Global Investments Network LLC, he had an interest estimated between 2 and 7% in the Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) consortium, which in January 2010 was awarded a contract to operate a 4,500 slot machine racino at the Aqueduct Race Track. Jay-Z became interested in the project after New York Governor David Paterson who awarded the contract said there had to be an affirmative action component to the ownership. Jay-Z initially approached Steve Wynn who was also bidding on the contract. On March 9, 2010, Jay-Z and Flake withdrew from the project and Paterson recused himself from further involvement. On November 16, 2010, Jay-Z published a memoir entitled Decoded. In April 2011, it was widely reported that Jay-Z had outbid executives at Universal Records and Jive Records to acquire independent record label Block Starz Music. Jay-Z is also credited as the executive producer of the basketball video game NBA 2K13, where he worked on the look and feel of the game along with its soundtrack. On April 2, 2013, ESPN reported that Jay-Z will be launching his own sports agency, Roc Nation Sports. The sport management group will work as partners with Creative Artists Agency. In conjunction with the agency’s launch, New York Yankees’s second basemen Robinson Cano has left agent Scott Boras to sign with the company. Sources have made mention that Jay-Z himself is planning to be a certified sports agent, first in baseball and eventually in basketball and football. In order to represent clients in basketball, he would have to give up his small share of the Brooklyn Nets. On April 18, 2013 Jay-Z officially announced through his Life + Times website in a press release that he will be relinquishing his ownership in the Brooklyn Nets. The shares were eventually sold to American singer, rapper, actor and entrepreneur Wilber Pan, making Wilber the first American of Taiwanese descent to own a US professional sports franchise. Jay-Z‘s cited Wilber’s athletic background as a team captain of his high school basketball team and playing in college, his multitude of musical styles, influence in the Taiwanese American community, as well as his business acumen and portfolio, including him being the founder and chief executive of a software company Camigo Media and a co-founder of streetwear boutique N.P.C (New Project Center) as reasons why his bid was successful. Jay-Z and Beyoncé performing “Crazy in Love” on November 15, 2009. Jay-Z is married to American R&B singer Beyoncé. In 2002, Jay-Z and Beyoncé collaborated for the song “’03 Bonnie & Clyde”. Jay-Z also appeared on Beyoncé’s hit single “Crazy in Love” and as well as “That’s How You Like It” from her debut Dangerously in Love. On her second album, B’Day, he made appearances on the 2006 hits, “Déjà Vu” and “Upgrade U”. In the video for the latter song, she comically imitates his appearance. The couple generally avoid discussing their relationship. Beyoncé has stated that she believes that not publicly discussing their relationship has helped them. Jay-Z said in a People article, “We don’t play with our relationship.” They kept a low profile while dating, and married quietly in April 2008. It became a matter of public record on April 22, 2008, but Beyoncé did not publicly debut her $5 million Lorraine Schwartz-designed wedding ring until the Fashion Rocks concert on September 5, 2008 in New York City. Jay-Z and Beyoncé were listed as the most powerful couple for TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2006. In January 2009, Forbes ranked them as Hollywood’s top-earning couple, with a combined total of $162 million. They also made it to the top of the list the following year, with a combined total of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009. State Property (2002) as Untouchable J with Dame Dash and Beanie Sigel as “Beans”. Jay-Z has a documentary film on him called A Genius Leaves The Hood: The Unauthorized Story of Jay Z. JAY Z & Beyoncé “RUN” trailer for their tour which is a trailer for a fabricated movie.To promote their tour, a faux movie trailer video was premiered in May 2014 entitled “Run” (stylized as “RUN”). The video, filled with multiple celebrity cameos, features the couple in a variety of Bonnie and Clyde style, action and gun packed situations. Jay-Z has been link to other female celebrity such as rapper Foxy Brown, singer Mýa also spelt Mya and also singer Rihanna. Jay-Z in the early 2000`s had a beef with rapper Nas. The two now work together and are cordial. Jay-Z also has a brand of shoes called the S. Carter (S dot Carter) which is named after himself.
Jay-Z and Ryan Leslie are famous people that look alike. Both these men are successful and have a driving force to become successful. Jay-Z and Ryan Leslie are both around 6 feet tall, have light brown skin complexion, similar facial features and a welcoming personality, not to mention they have the same smile.