Ne-Yo Reloads R&B

When he was five, R&B hitmaker Ne-Yo wrote his first song -- a tribute to mustard. "I bust into my mom's room and turned the TV off to do a big presentation," he says. "I was a big fan of mustard." Now twenty-three, the singer-songwriter has moved beyond condiments, penning tunes for top-tier artists like Mary J. Blige and Faith Evans -- including the biggest radio hit of 2004, Mario's "Let Me Love You" -- but his philosophy remains the same: "I just write songs about things that I know." Now, he's keeping some of those songs for himself. On February 28th, Ne-Yo released his first album, In My Own Words, which is on track to debut at Number One on the strength of the Top Ten single "So Sick."

SOUND "I do R&B music like the stuff I listened to, like Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, Guy and Jodeci," he says. "Not so much hip-hop-R&B as the traditional R&B sound, which is the big hook with harmonies, rich melodies and lyrics that are talking about something." Ne-Yo sings in a silky tenor, versatile enough to voice a bump-'n-grinder like "Mirror" ("I love makin' love in front of a mirror/So that I can watch you enjoyin' me") or an anguished ballad like "Time." Although he's signed to rap haven Def Jam, the album's only guests are Peedi Peedi and Ghostface. "I told [Def Jam bosses] L.A. Reid and Jay-Z that I wanted the album to be majority me, because this is my introduction to the world," he says.

VIVA LAS VEGAS Born in Arkansas to a family of church musicians, the young Shaffer C. Smith moved to Las Vegas with his mom after his parents split. As a teenager, he hooked up with a production company and managed to sell songs to boy-band Youngstown and R&B singer Marques Houston, quickly earning a reputation as a stellar songwriter.

HEARTBREAK HITS Ne-Yo owes his breakout success to devastating heartache. "So Sick," the video for which is in heavy rotation on MTV, tells the story of a man so crushed by a breakup that he can't listen to the radio ("I'm so sick of love songs/So tired of tears"). "It's a true story about the first girl I fell in love with and the way I completely screwed that up," he says. "It's something that everybody's been through in some way. That's what makes a hit song."

THE ONE Ne-Yo got his name from a friend who observed that he sees music in his head in three dimensions, the way Keanu Reeves' Neo sees the Matrix. The spelling was changed for legal reasons.

TWO-TIMER Despite his growing fame, Ne-Yo hasn't stopped writing for other artists. He's currently working on songs for Beyonce, Omarion and Fantasia, and hopes to keep up careers as both songwriter and performer. "I'm gonna do both," says Ne-Yo. "I'm never gonna stop writing songs, and I'm gonna record songs as long as my throat, my body, will allow me to."