All my musical influences came from my mom, who did everything to music. She played it for 24 hours and 7 days a week in our house. So that’s where my love for music came from. Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith, best known as Ne-Yo, was among the many artists who dominated the 2000s with his voice, music, and love for hats. It was a nostalgic time, but who was Ne-Yo before he was an international pop star? Where did his passion for music come from, and why?
Ne-Yo’s Childhood
Ne-Yo was born in Camden, Arkansas, on October 18, 1979, to Shaffer Smith Sr. and Loraine Smith. As much as I would like to say things were good and great, they weren’t, though they weren’t terrible either. After Shaffer Sr. took a bow out of Ne-Yo and his sister’s lives, Mama Loraine moved them all to Las Vegas. Fortunately for Ne-Yo, this did him more good than harm.
Growing up in a house with his mother, five aunts, grandmother, and sister, he learned that emotions weren’t wrong. He would cultivate that in his later projects that we know today and in his childhood songwriting. For a while, Ne-Yo had pent-up aggravation from not having his father. Instead of becoming destructive, Mama Loraine would encourage him to put it in his music.
Mama Loraine’s influence on Ne-Yo didn’t stop there. Listening to the young boy, she wanted to aid him in developing his gift, so she took Jackson’s Off the Wall and Stevie Wonder’s Hotter Than July albums and told him to train his voice with theirs since they all had similar tones. Because of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, Ne-Yo learned to appreciate his voice. Later, he would say,
” I had to learn to appreciate my voice. Through his (Michael Jackson’s) voice, through Stevie Wonder’s voice… My mom used to listen to the O’Jays, and you know, Teddy Pendergrass, and very heavy, thick voices, and I didn’t have that… I hated my voice because I wanted to sound like what my mother listened to. My mom’s been my hero my whole life, so I wanted to sound like what she wanted to hear…”
Down the road, Ne-Yo would be able to use his vocals and start to become the Ne-Yo we know, but first, he had to become GoGo.
Envy and GoGo
In high school, Ne-Yo decided to join Las Vegas Academy as a visual artist. However, to even get into the school, you had to audition. Being a shy kid and unwilling to get embarrassed and rejected, he decided not to sing. Instead, he did art, which was fine, considering he had been painting and drawing as long as he had been singing.
The school would perform a “Pops Concert” talent show every year. In Ne-Yo’s eleventh-grade year, he decided to participate in it and sing. (Actually, the real story is that he and his friends planned to moon the crowd, but he ended up shocking the crowd another way.) At this point, nobody knew Ne-Yo could sing- if they knew him at all. When he did, he shocked the crowd and was offered a position by a friend in the R&B band Envy. That is when his new and first stage name, GoGo, was born.
Envy did talent shows around Las Vegas, winning and losing some, eventually leading Ne-Yo to want to take the music seriously. Finally 1997, after graduating high school, one of the band members, Corey Clarke, had gotten them a chance to perform at the Appollo Theater during Amateur Night. That would’ve been a dream come true if the dream hadn’t turned into such a nightmare. Long story short, due to miscommunications, lack of experience, and nerves, the band was booed, but luckily not off the stage. Although it was pretty close. Ne-Yo later says about it,
“We sang ‘Playas in the Hood’ by Donell Jones, and ’til this day, every time I see Donell Jones, I apologize to that man for murdering his song up on that stage.”
By the time the group got backstage, they were crushed. They thought this was their chance to get recognized; however, there were other attempts.
Envy had a game plan. They were to go to Los Angeles, California, to sing outside the offices of Capitol Records until someone offered them a record contract. Everything went according to plan, except instead of getting a record contract, they received a threat from the executives to leave, or they would call the police.
In 2000, it was clear that the band wouldn’t last, and Envy broke apart. Everyone went their separate ways except Ne-Yo, who decided to linger in L.A. As far as he was concerned, he wasn’t going anywhere. He remained in L.A. to work on his music career, though he was no longer GoGo. He was starting to become Ne-Yo.
References
Encyclopedia.com. (2024, March 19). .” Contemporary black biography. . encyclopedia.com. 18 Mar. 2024 . Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/ne-yo
Kellman, A. (n.d.). Ne-yo songs, albums, reviews, Bio & More. AllMusic. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ne-yo-mn0000846634
Who is Ne-Yo? everything you need to know. Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements. (n.d.). https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ne-yo-12833.php
YouTube. (2008, May 7). Ne-Yo talks about not having a father!. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ol2d7wbnfU
YouTube. (2010, September 29). Ne-Yo and Corey Clark(from american idol) getting booed on Showtime at the Apollo. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMvVUYPEOX8&t=14s
YouTube. (2023, August 20). Ne-Yo: Before I got famous my group got booed at the Apollo, we cried after the show (part 18). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIq92LIg0Ps&t=1s