Before Ne-Yo was considered among the most successful R&B entertainers of the 2000s, he was one of the genre’s most important songwriters. The artist—born Shaffer Smith—is best known as the emotive voice behind hits like “So Sick” and “Miss Independent,” but he was also the brain behind a handful of early successes for powerhouse vocalists like Jennifer Hudson, Rihanna, and Beyoncé and staples for legendary hitmakers like Celine Dion.
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Equipped with an intuitive songwriting talent, he crafted some of the decade’s most ear-worming tunes. Check out a few of them below.
1. “Do My Thing” – Estelle feat. Janelle Monáe (2012)
Written by Ne-Yo, Tyler Reynolds, Miykal Snoddy, and Warren Zavala
My road, it ain’t your road but trust I know just where I am going / My flow it ain’t your flow, but trust I know, I know just how I’m flowing / I’ma do my thing, hip-hop hitmakers Estelle and Janelle Monáe trade off lines in the 2012 groove “Do My Thing.”
Ne-Yo not only helped pen the upbeat tune, alongside fellow songwriters Tyler Reynolds, Miykal Snoddy, and Warren Zavala, but he also played a hand in producing the Estelle album on which “Do My Thing” appears.
2. “Let Me Love You” – Mario (2004)
Written by Ne-Yo, Kameron Houff, and Scott Storch
You should let me love you / Let me be the one to / Give you everything you want and need / Baby, good love and protection / Make me your selection / Show you the way love’s supposed to be, Mario barters in the 2004 classic “Let Me Love You.”
Written by Ne-Yo in collaboration with Kameron Houff and Scott Storch, the hit song was one the artist later regretted giving away. “’Let Me Love You’ at the time that I wrote it, I wasn’t trying to be an artist,” Ne-Yo shared in an interview. I was completely content with just being a songwriter but I think back on that song and I look back and think had I been trying to be an artist at the time that’s definitely one I would have held on to.”
3. “Spotlight” – Jennifer Hudson (2008)
Written by Ne-Yo, Mikkel Eriksen, and Tor Erik Hermansen
Well, I don’t like / Living under your spotlight / Just because you think I might / Find somebody worthy, vocal powerhouse Jennifer Hudson wails in her 2008 R&B hit, “Spotlight.”
Appearing on Hudson’s debut album, the Ne-Yo-penned tune went on to receive a Grammy nod for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. Ne-Yo with the songwriting-producing duo Stargate—made up of Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen—not only crafted the song but produced it also.
4. “Irreplaceable” – Beyoncé (2006)
Written by Ne-Yo, Amund Bjørklund, Mikkel Eriksen, Espen Lind, Beyoncé, and Tor Erik Hermansen
You must not know ’bout me / You must not know ’bout me / I can have another you by tomorrow / So don’t you ever for a second get to thinking / You’re irreplaceable, Beyoncé sings in her early smash hit “Irreplaceable.”
The R&B staple was one of Ne-Yo’s songs that he had originally intended for himself but was later happy about the Beyoncé take on the tune, saying in an interview, “I initially wrote that song for me but that song taught me a really valuable lesson about lyrical content and the way its perceived in regards to gender.
“That exact same song with exact same lyrics that is sung by a man comes across a little different than it does being sung by a woman,” he added, “so when Beyonce sings it it’s empowering and it’s uplifting to women, and its like girl power and all of that. If a man sings it comes across kind of brash, mean and insensitive so I made that decision on my own and I decided to give that to a nice strong woman who pulled it off.”
5. “Take a Bow” – Rihanna (2008)
Written by Ne-Yo, Mikkel Eriksen, and Tor Erik Hermansen
But you put on quite a show / Really had me going But, now, it’s time to go / Curtain’s finally closing
That was quite a show / Very entertaining / But it’s over now / Go on and take a bow, Rihanna sings in her enduring bop “Take a Bow.”
The 2008 hit was penned by Ne-Yo again alongside the duo Stargate, and this would not be his first or last time crafting a success for Rihanna. He also played a songwriting role in several of her other classics like “Good Girl Gone Bad,” “Unfaithful,” “Russian Roulette,” and her David Guetta collab “Right Now.”
Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images
