Ryan Leslie graduated from Harvard at age 19 and gave the prestigious oration speech at that university's commencement ceremony in 1998. He almost went the premed route, but you won't find him in a lab coat behind a microscope. These days, he's a YouTube star, has L.A. Reid and Diddy in his corner, and he's written and produced tracks for Beyonce ("Keep Giving Your Love To Me"), Britney Spears ("The Answer") and Danity Kane ("Ooh Ahh" and "Touching My Body"). He's also behind a handful of Cassie's hits, and he's at the helm of his own label/ lifestyle brand, NextSelection.
Recently, Ryan Leslie stopped by MTV to kick off a brand-new series called Track Stars, which takes you inside the studio to show you how a track gets born.
Watch Ryan Leslie share some of the production secrets of his sparkling new single, "Diamond Girl," off his new album, which drops this August.