An R&B Everyman

It's a confession that sounds like a contradiction, at least at first.

Especially when it comes from a dude with enough swagger to pen a song called "Sex With My Ex," where he informs a former flame that "Ain't nobody strokin' like me."

"I'm boring, which is cool," pop/R&B rainmaker Ne-Yo notes. "I'm not a drug addict, I don't have 17 kids roaming around or a wife that I just cheated on with 90 women. If me being a regular person means me being boring, then so be it.

"This year gave me the opportunity to sit back and really view the business for what it is," continues the one-time Las Vegas resident, whose given name is Shaffer Smith and who attended the Las Vegas Academy and Rancho High. "Nowadays, the unfortunate thing is that it's not all about the music. It's about what's going to sell magazines, basically."

See, the guy really isn't boring at all.

Forthcoming, opinionated and candid almost to a fault, Ne-Yo generally steers clear of the empty platitudes that pop stars sometimes trade in.

In other words, he doesn't feel the need to play nice.

This becomes doubly evident when the conversation turns to the state of contemporary music.

"I've come to the realization that I'm somewhat of a hater. It's OK," he says flatly. "Music is more to me than just something to listen to as you're driving to the club. This is my life. You cut me, and a note might come out of my damn vein. So when I hear somebody just completely disrespecting the art form to make a quick buck, it offends me personally. I can't fault them for making money, but just be prepared to not be able to make as much money when this fourth album comes out, because I'm going to remind people what real music sounds like."

Ne-Yo's alluding to his next record, which he plans to have ready by the middle of the year.

Beginning with his 2006 debut, "In My Own Words," which debuted atop the "Billboard" album chart, Ne-Yo dropped three records in as many years.

His most recent disc, "Year of the Gentleman," saw him begin to branch out a bit from ice-slick R&B for a slightly more urbane, sophisticated sound predicated on less poppy arrangements and a more subtle sensuality.

"I wanted to step outside of what was becoming the very common and somewhat boring walls of R&B and try something a little different," he says. "Of course, we caught a little backlash for it in the very, very beginning, but people eventually caught on. I figure it only takes a minute for people to go, 'OK, well, this isn't the type of song I normally listen to, but it is a good song.' And at the end of the day, that's all that matters. It was definitely a risk. It was basically stepping away from what's worked."

Nevertheless, Ne-Yo, who performs today at the Palms, remains contemporary R&B's everyman.

He plays the Lothario from time to time in his songs, but unlike someone like, say, R. Kelly, he's not a rock star-type who people pine to live vicariously through.

Instead, he's inherently more relatable with an approachable air about himself, which is one of the attributes that's most distinguished his career thus far.

"The thing about this business is that there's two kinds of fans," Ne-Yo says. "There's the fans who want to relate to the artist and want to feel like, 'Oh, this guy is just like me.' And then there's that fan who looks at a Jay-Z and his life and how cool he is and goes, 'Damn, I wish I could be that.' I think that those are the fans that I have yet to really touch. So, maybe that's something to think about going into this fourth album."

For Ne-Yo to try and fashion himself into more of a larger-than-life figure, however, seems counterintuitive to his core appeal.

Still, if his persona remains in check, the same thing can't be said of his ambitions.

"Hopefully we can get back to a place where music is valid again, where it's quality versus quantity or glitz and glamour," he says. "Take the smoke and mirrors away and just get down to the real raw goodness of music again. That's what I'm going to try and do."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.