The idea of someone packing up their life and fleeing to the Big Apple to pursue their love of “the biz” sounds ambitiously poetic. Many many late-teenagers do just that, and they often greet us at bars, restaurants, and just about every other place that has absolutely nothing to do with their passion. While the concept of “making it” always delivers overwhelming doubt, there are isolated moments in time where someone actually has that intangible something. One such instance is the story of Bad Boy/Next Selection recording artist, Cassie.

Before “Me & U” became a club and radio anthem, Cassie was a high school graduate bidding adieu to her life in Connecticut. She relocated to New York City and had a brief stint in modeling. After a chance encounter with production prodigy Ryan Leslie, Cassie inked a production deal with Leslie’s Next Selection, signed to Bad Boy, and the rest as they say is history.

She is currently settling into this whirlwind now known as her life, and preparing for phase two: the release of her debut album. Cassie took a moment out of her hectic new life to recall her first few months in New York City. She tells us about her already established fanbase, the power of the Internet, and the fairy tale story of how she made her dreams come true.

AllHipHop.Com Alternatives: You’re being referred to as “the next Aaliyah.” How does that feel?

Cassie: Amazing! It couldn’t be any better than that, ya know? When I was on MTV for the first time, they told me that, and I didn’t even know what to say. That was like the best compliment I’ve ever had. She is definitely one of my idols.

AHHA: You relocated from Connecticut to New York. What were your first couple of months like living in the city?

Cassie: It was a little bit of a struggle, little bit of homesick, a little bit of ,“What am I gonna do? What if I don’t book any jobs?” I was worried because I signed a year lease on an apartment downtown. It was exciting…it was just a lot at once. I took it all in, and then I realized basically in six months what wasn’t for me and I eliminated it. If people went out a lot, it was like I couldn’t handle all that.

I still go out with my friends and stuff, but it was like we were going out every night, and just doing way too much like staying up and dancing when we had work the next day. When you’re 18 years old, it takes you a little while to realize all that. But, the first few months were like a whirlwind. I barely remember it.

AHHA: Wow. You know, there are so many girls and guys alike, who pack up and move to New York to pursue their dreams and most don’t even make it. What do you think it was about you that separated you from the rest of these people?

Cassie: I’m really competitive [laughs]. I have a lot of drive. I don’t know if that separates me, but it definitely plays a big part in why I have gotten as far as I have, and have accomplished so much. You can’t give up at any point, you can’t ride on anyone’s coattails; at the end of the day you’ve gotta do it yourself. People say it’s who you know, but it’s also what your personality’s like, because if you don’t come off the right way to certain people they’re not gonna accept you. So, there were just a lot of things, and at the end of the day, I really cannot pinpoint what did it for me. I don’t know what I did, but I’ve just remained myself and in the hopes that I’m just gonna keep it real and people stay listening and keep wanting to hear my music and see who I am.

AHHA: What was it like modeling when you were first in New York?

Cassie: It was a lot of fun. I took it for granted to a certain point, because I wanted to do something else. Then the whole music thing started and I got so into that I didn’t even want to model ever again [laughs]. I was looking at pictures last night, and I really miss it. It was a good time. I still have all of my same friends from it, so I’m not too far from it. I spent a lot of time on my own and learned a lot about myself while I was by myself.

AHHA: On Ryan Leslie’s blog, he bigged you up as being the only artist he’s worked with who got on TRL and actually shouted him out. How did you end up hooking up with him and Next Selection?

Cassie: I actually met Ryan when I first got to New York, but we didn’t really talk too much. Then my friends and I went out to Miami for New Year’s 2005 and he was out there performing for one of our friend’s parties. We were helping him do the casting call for a dancer for his performance on top of this pool. I already knew the dance because I had seen the performance so many times, and when it came down to it, everyone was like, “You do it! You know it.” And I ended up doing it.

From that moment on, Ryan and I were like best friends. I could tell him anything. He is so much fun. When we started working – it was probably in January – because my mom wanted us to record a song, I got super frustrated with the song. So he recorded the second verse, and it actually turned out to be a cute duet. That was “Kiss Me.” He’s just one of the funnest guys I know to hang out with.

AHHA: You’ve signed to Bad Boy and Diddy has this track record of crazy hits like Biggie and Faith, but also has a lot of misses. Did you have any reservations before signing with Bad Boy?

Cassie: I actually never have been asked this question in an interview, and that’s really cool that you did, because it’s usually asked by kids. Kids notice. There were a lot of factors as to why I signed [to Bad Boy] because I did have other deals on the table. I got to hang out with Puff and see what he was all about when I was in Miami. He actually really talked to me about what he wanted to do. I didn’t hear that from anyone else. It wasn’t like, “Oh, we’re gonna make you a star!” It was all planned out, kind of, in his head. Then it came to be, because the single got so big.

I’m really happy that I [signed to Bad Boy]. At this point, I have great management, I’m signed to Next Selection too, Ryan’s production company, so I have a great production company as well. It’s just a great group. I don’t know how it is for everyone else at the label. I think the Making The Band girls [Danity Kane] are so talented. I got to watch them record with different producers when they were in Miami. They are so focused. Cheri Dennis is so amazing. There are artists on Bad Boy that are really gonna do it this year for sure. [Yung] Joc! First week album sales 150 [thousand]. It’s gonna turn around, definitely.

AHHA: What can we expect from your debut?

Cassie: I’m super excited about my album! It comes out August 8th. What I found hearing through the Internet with MySpace and my blog was that even people who don’t listen to R&B or Pop liked my music. They mixed “Me & U” with techno for them. There are so many remixes of “Me & U” that there could be a “Me & U” album! It’s seriously like I did everything. I have a down south joint, I rap, I do the R&B thing, I do the funk thing. I have the rock’n roll one with some friends of mine that have a band. It’s a lot of fun, and I put everything I had into it.

I didn’t know how to make an album and what the elements were, because I’m a brand new artist. They kind of told Ryan and I, “Ok do it.” I am just so excited for it to come out and people to hear it and pick their favorite songs. I know which ones the girls are gonna like and which ones the guys are gonna like. It’s exciting to see what’s gonna happen.

AHHA: Which song do you hold the closest to your heart?

Cassie: There is a song called “Not With You.” I told Ryan what I wanted to write about. At that point I was traveling a lot for promo and rehearsals. I was feeling super bad that I couldn’t be there to do the hook. They actually came up with the hook, and it’s about a girl who is totally in love with her boyfriend, but has trouble trusting him. And that [situation] happens everyday. So they did the hook, and when I got in the studio with Ryan, we went back and forth and recorded it so quickly. That was one of the quickest songs I ever recorded because it came from me, and I know what that feeling is like. There’s another track called “Ditto” that I hold close to my heart as well, and it’s about falling in love for the first time. It’s nothing like “Me & U” at all, but it’s fun. Falling in love for the first time, that feeling you can’t replace. Ever.

AHHA: What is your thought process with songwriting?

Cassie: Well I haven’t written a complete song yet. I’ve written everything with Ryan, so he’ll give me my credit, but it’s mostly the ideas and concepts I’ve come up with so far. I’m learning to write as I go along. The first few songs we recorded, [Ryan Leslie} wrote, and then after that it was ideas I came up with, and so it built up to, “No I wanna say this” or “No I’d never say that.” Now I’m actually learning how to write complete songs. Right now with the management, the label, it’s about making a hit. It’s gotta be something that the people can relate to, so that’s what I’m trying to grasp right now, but it’s definitely a thought process with what I’m going through. The album is about the emotions of a 19-year old girl [laughs], but it covers a whole age group, both male and female.

AHHA: You mentioned before the whole MySpace and blogging thing. Sometimes when an artist becomes so personable with fans, the fans get the wrong impression like a friendship is solidified. Have you experienced any downside to leaving yourself so open to the Internet like that?

Cassie: When I do blog, it’s often, and then I won’t for a while because I get busy. I’ll blog on my personal page and my MySpace page. I think the way I write –I don’t know if people just don’t know sometimes that it’s just a bulletin, like it goes out to all of my friends or just to them- but when I explain something, I really have to explain it. Some people just don’t get it and they get offended like, “Why are you saying this to me.” I’m just like, “Look don’t advertise on my page if that’s all you’re doing there” [laughs].

The down side is that when people meet me they think they really know me. It’s good, but it’s kind of scary at times. I was in rehearsal before I shot the video, and some guy walked in my rehearsal and was like, “Hi Cassie!” I’m like, “Yeah. Hi?” Then he’s like, “Oh, we’re friends on MySpace, so…” It’s kind of weird in public when I see people and they’re like, “Heyyy” and I’m like “I’m sorry!” I don’t know every one of my friends on my page. I wish I did, but I can’t.

AHHA: Oh hell no! He just walked in?

Cassie: He walked right in. My choreographer was like, “What is going on?” I don’t know. I can’t control these people!

AHHA: I was reading in your blog about an original video for “Me & U” that leaked.

Cassie: Well what happened was before I got a deal, the song was kind of building on MySpace, but what I personally felt was, “Where is this gonna go?” I just didn’t expect it to go anywhere. At the same time, I was at a point where I felt like I needed to be so different. For me to different, I felt like I needed to be grown. That wasn’t the ticket. I didn’t wanna do it anyway, but I tried to make it work and it didn’t. Little X was like, “Look, come to Toronto. We’ll shoot a low budget video.” I went with Ryan, so I wasn’t there by myself. I saw it [the video] and was like, “No. This isn’t me.” [Little X] was like, “Ok let’s edit it and do it again.” He edited it, and it didn’t change anything. I was like, “Look, I can’t do this. I’m sorry. It’s not me.” About a week later it was leaked on the internet…uncut. Everything was just raw. I was so embarrassed. I didn’t expect this.

A lot of fans just asked questions like, “Why would you do it anyway?” I’m thinking, “Look, I didn’t really expect my career to go anywhere to be completely honest with you.” That’s what I did. It’s over. That’s the worst thing you can find on me. It was definitely a mistake on my part, and I wish I’d never done it. I thought I redeemed myself with the other video, but a lot of people like the raw version more than the new one. I don’t really know why [laughs].

AHHA: Well you know it’s a good sign, and you’re destined for fame when you already have people walking on your set and scandals coming out about you!

Cassie: I know right! [laughs] Whatever!

AHHA: What would you say is your main objective in making music?

Cassie: What is comes down to is making music that hits on points that people are really dealing with in their lives so that they want to listen to your music and they feel like they’re in touch with you because you’re feeling the same thing. That’s really important to me. I have a lot of young young fans. I really want them to hear me out and also get up and dance. I recorded a song called “Miss Your Touch” and it’s really funky and fun to dance to, and one of the first songs I had. My little cousins love it. They have no idea what it means, but they dance to it like nobody’s business. I just want to touch people, so they love the music and can dance and sing along.

After he juggling business classes at Harvard with the process of teaching himself how to make records, Ryan Leslie finally broke into the big leagues as a producer in 2003 when he signed a management contract with Sean “Diddy” Combs. The 25-year-old Atlanta native has extended his musical genius to everyone from Beyonce to gospel recording artists Virtue. Leslie’s passion for his craft impressed label executives from L.A. Reid to Tommy Mottola and Diddy, who have all solicited music from him for their top stars.

From developing a welfare-to-work technology curriculum for the Urban League, to leading his own music production company Next Selection Lifestyle Group, it’s clear that Leslie’s forte is making things happen. It’s no wonder that he has manned the task of facilitating the emergence and growth of R&B newcomer Cassie, with the help of his unlikely muse – the internet.

Because Leslie’s such a people person, he spent some time with us, sharing his views on the music industry, his struggle onto the music scene and watching his brainchild bring monumental success.

AllHipHop.com Alternatives: If you had to choose, would you rather sing, write or produce?

Ryan Leslie: Literally, I couldn’t make a choice ’cause if I had to choose I’d be bored with my life. Number one, I get very little sleep. If I spent 20 hours singing I wouldn’t be fulfilled creatively. I’m multi-dimensional and I like to mix it up.

AHHA: I understand Tommy Mottola is your mentor. How did you get hooked up with him?

Ryan: I give a lot of credit to people working with me from the beginning – Ed Woods and Glen Niles. They both have played an incredible roll in connecting me to my current mentors, Tommy Mottola and Diddy. They both shaped the person I’ve become. They were both mentors of mine in college coming up in the industry, so it’s such a great honor to work with them now. Tommy’s one of those guys that moves quickly, so my first meeting he offered me a publishing opportunity. It all just started immediately. [It] didn’t take long. Same with Cassie. First time Tommy met Cassie, [he] immediately signed her to a management deal.

AHHA: You’ve been working with Diddy for a while now. Was that something you aspired to do, or did it kind of just fall into your lap?

Ryan: The day I met [Diddy] is the day the relationship started. I had songs on a CD. He fell on one song which was “Hot 2 Night,” which ended up being used for New Edition, and he liked it. From that day I was signed to him and managed and mentored by him. What I would say to everyone reading this is… people feel like I got a lucky break, but before I met with [Diddy] I was selling beats for $200 a pop. Like I always say, luck is equal to preparation plus opportunity. I honed my craft for five years before seeing any real results. And now I’ve been fortunate to work with some of my biggest inspirations in the music industry, from Beyonce to Britney Spears and Diddy. But at the end of the day I feel like I haven’t achieved half of what I am set out here to achieve. I have a lot more work to do.

AHHA: Cheri Dennis has been on the scene for over four years now, but she’s just coming into her own and gaining widespread popularity with her debut single “I Love You,” which you wrote and produced. Do you think waiting to bring her out has helped her success as far as the response from the public?

Ryan: Everything happens in its own time. We actually cut that record in fall of 2003. Just like with my musical career, I had recorded a lot of music and even though I signed to Universal Records in ’03, I never had a record dropped. Cheri’s management got together and signed on this record that we all really believed in and just exposed it a little bit. Once DJ’s took to it, the people were the ones who really made it a hot single. At the end of day, timing comes down to when people have a demand for something. She’s always been as talented and as beautiful as she is now. So I think Cheri’s time is now and any other time wouldn’t have been right time.

AHHA: You have a new artist, Cassie, which you manage and produce for. What makes her different then, let’s say a Cheri Dennis, a Ciara, or any other beautiful, young women who can hold a note?

Ryan: I’ll tell you one thing, Cassie has also been a go-getter and she is literally rising to the opportunity that’s being given to her. At the end of the day, she understands that money is the necessary step to making a career, which a lot of people don’t get. She came to New York and got on her modeling grind in a serious way. She knew she had to get her money right before she just jumped on the first deal given to her.

Another unique point is that her success has been born through the internet, MySpace in particular. She averages 200 song plays a day, she’s multi-ethnic – her vice isn’t like an Aretha Franklin or Mary J. Blige. For instance, her first single is just such a simple voice in the midst of all the bells and whistles you hear on the radio. She’s across genres, across ethnicities. Yahoo made her the most searched female artist above all, and I think she really represents those people that are looking her up. And with my company, Next Selection, we’re all about that cross genres, cross ethnicities, smorgasbord of talent.

AHHA: Do you think that her being multi-dimensional made it easier to push her on MySpace?

Ryan: The value of online entertainment is that it extends beyond the boundaries of the U.S. and that’s great – we’re very proud of that. Cassie’s one of the most viewed music pages on MySpace, and the artists to the right and left of her are white, not urban, and I think it really has so much to do with her accessibility. Like when she stepped on TRL with her video camera. Like on the way to a radio interview, someone stopped and asked her if she read their message on MySpace. She didn’t have to know them. And we really instilled in her the importance of her fans. I don’t know how many other times Christina Milian or Ciara have personally done those kinds of things, but Cassie really is one of kind.

AHHA: Your media company, Next Selection, tell me about it’ birth and your goals with the company.

Ryan: I’ll tell you like this, I always knew the internet would play a big part in my entrepreneurial career. When I graduated school I realized I wanted to create an iTunes type of service. The initial problem was that I was using Internet Explorer instead of proprietor software like [iTunes] uses. I really decided, like Cassie, that I would need money to create this, and I knew I had this knack and talent for music. So that was my gateway for making money to make this happen. So in the fall of last year we decided to be the first to break a pop, urban cross-over act, online, and that’s how it started.

Once I signed Cassie last spring, I started cassieworld.com. And with my own website, I decided that we would switch our company to a media company and not just music. As a young business man it seemed clear to move into business so I could make enough money to have a significant impact on the socio-economic status of our country. I’m really excited about our next venture. I’m actually working on my release with Universal so I get to work on my own thing for a while.

AHHA: These days everyone wants to be a singer, everyone wants to be a producer. How do professionals weed through the good, the bad and the ugly?

Ryan: MySpace is a great training ground for taking your project into your own hands and controlling it. Your song plays and hits are based on how much you grind. So people should look into that and we, in turn, look at that to see the drive a young artist has.

AHHA: Now I know you’re also working on putting your name out there as an artist, and people don’t realize that no matter whom you know, it isn’t always easy. So what’s going on with you?

Ryan: Wow! What’s going on with me is going to be crazy. I’m getting my rights as a recording artist back, and then we’re going to get a revolutionary model where people can receive music. I can monetize my artist career by not selling any records at all, and practically giving it all away. I know this will be a risky endeavor, but we’ve already broken down several barriers with Cassie’s record. Five months from signing with Bad Boy to having a record in stores is amazing. So we’re really turning the music industry on its head.

AHHA: You’ve worked with a lot of artists, who haven’t you written or produced for that you want to?

Ryan: I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to be able to work with all of my heroes. Next, I think I’d either like to work with people who’ve had the greatest influence in music, like Quincy Jones, Prince, and Stevie Wonder – people I couldn’t get that knowledge and insight from anywhere else. On the flipside, I’d also like to work with those new artists that haven’t been discovered. I really want Next Selection to be synonymous with finding that new, raw talent; that new spice.

AHHA: What’s been the best part of all of this so far?

Ryan: Watching the dream of a young person, Cassie, come true in a medium that we, me and my team, are pioneers of.

To some in the pubescent world, Lionel Richie might simply be the retired father of tabloid favorite Nicole Richie, but his legacy couldn’t be more understated. An iconic figure with an impeccable track record that is rooted deeply in the 1970’s, Richie was initially the lead singer of the Commodores. His acclaim and fame rose to mythic levels with songs like “Easy,” “Three Times A Lady” and “Brick House.”

When it appeared that it could only get better with the Commodores, he went solo. He moved four million units of his self-titled solo debut in 1982, and his star rose with the release of Can’t Slow Down and Dancing on the Ceiling, both of which yielded timeless hits like “Say You, Say Me” and “Hello.” He and his then-wife, Brenda, also adopted a 3-year-old toddler named Nicole.

The Richie light did dim somewhat in the ‘90s, which is expected after selling 18 million albums, performing at the Olympics and co-writing “We Are The World,” an enormous relief effort for Africa.

Now, the versatile and wildly talented crooner returns with a new collection of songs called Coming Home. The opus has the legend collaborating with new school legends like Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadiq, Dallas Austin, and Chuckii Booker. Read all things Richie, and how he feels about the nation’s infatuation with that daughter of his.

AllHipHop.com Alternatives: Mr. Richie, how are you?

Lionel Richie: I’m fantastic. I got to get used to that name – Mr. Richie.

AHHA: It’s good to speak to you; I’m long time fan of yours.

Lionel Richie: Well I had to laugh. Your opening phrase is Mr. Richie. That’s the only thing I had to get used to working with Jermaine Dupri and Sean [Garrett]. They kept saying you know Mr. Richie, I said guys just say, “Yo Rich” or something for a minute.

AHHA: Yeah, it’s a sign of respect.

Lionel Richie: It was total respect, I must tell you. I was totally respected on this album.

AHHA: Okay, well now that you mention those guys, you know I heard the single. I really liked it. It has, it’s very mature, but at the same time it doesn’t sound old or anything.

Lionel Richie: No, it sounds real. The only thing I told these guys throughout the entire process, I said it’s got to sound believable. If it doesn’t sound believable we are definitely going down the wrong road. When I knew we were down the right road is when a guy came into the room while we were mixing and he said, “Is that one of your songs?” And that was the compliment because it sounded that comfortable. To me, you nailed it when you said what you just said. That’s the selling point to me – how do you pull off Lionel Richie, contemporary in 2006? Got to be real.

AHHA: Right, you have a lot of young guys [involved with the project] Are we gonna get a mixture of things? Jermaine Dupri is best known for his Hip-Hop. Obviously he’s done other things with people like Mariah.

Lionel Richie: You’re gonna be so shocked because you haven’t heard the rest of it, huh?

AHHA: No.

Lionel Richie: That’s good. Okay, then this is gonna be good. It was a mutual admiration society, because I actually gave them permission to mess me up. What I said to them was, “What does Lionel Richie sound like in 2006?” Right, take all I’ve done, take “Sail On,” “Brick House,” take “Zoom,” take all this stuff – what do I sound like? And the joke was we discovered that the old sound is the new sound. We didn’t have to go that far in left field. We discovered that actually they know more about the old school than I can remember.

AHHA: Right, students.

Lionel Richie: Students, that’s what I’m talking about. I know [Jermaine’s] father. It was one of those situations where we almost had a family reunion on one hand and with half of the, with the kid now and of course Jermaine came and he just said, “Get out the way y’all, I know exactly what I’m doing” and bam, here’s the record.

AHHA: Well it sounds great.

Lionel Richie: To me, to me it’s really the best marriage between old school and new school. I told them, “I’m going to bring Lionel Richie to the table, that’s my job. I’m going to make it sound like me.” There were only two questions we asked throughout this entire process. The question I asked was, What do I sound like in 2006?” And all they wanted to know was, “How do you keep a record on the radio for 30 years?”

AHHA: Right.

Lionel Richie: They say, “We can get hit records all day long, how do you keep it on the radio?”

AHHA: You know that’s one of the criticisms of contemporary music is it doesn’t have that, those legs.

Lionel Richie: No legs. And so what came to me was the fact that what’s happened now, we removed R&B radio as we used to know it off the radio. Hip-Hop and rap became such a strong medium that when you saw record companies actually taking their R&B department and saying, “We don’t have one anymore.” Because radio had adopted Hip-Hop as the, that’s the bible. What we’re doing right now is bringing actually melody back to beat. And it’s believable – it sounds so familiar because it represents R&B.

AHHA: You sound really excited. What was your last project out?

Lionel Richie: In America [domestically], four years ago, five years ago. Outside of America we put out four albums since then but because we had so many company changes and because the company has actually been through so many different personnel that when L.A. Reid got onboard, and the joke with L.A. Reid was I gave him advice about 22 years ago as to how to get in the business. And he’s now Chairman of the Board of the record company, now how you like that one?

AHHA: Right. Now he can pay you back a little.

Lionel Richie: But he’s been there for me in bucket loads because you mentioned the excitement in my voice. To me the only reason I’m in this business is because I still love the excitement of something new. It’s always going to be changing. I keep telling my artist friends all day long, because they kept saying, “Man I hate what it’s changed into,” and I said “It’s always gonna change. What we have to do is be able to change with it and or at least be believable in it.” Understand right now I’m just enjoying the run.

AHHA: You also worked with Chuckii Booker. I haven’t heard that name in ages.

Lionel Richie: Chuckii Booker is the baddest brother on the planet. And what I love about him is he’s my music director, has been my music director for five years. Before that he did the Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation tour, and then he did the Tina Turner tour… All of a sudden I realize, here I am in the studio, I’ve got the best, and I actually have another artist with me as my advice and counsel.

Half of the tracks that we did were Chuckii Booker’s. All the Sean Garrett stuff, that’s Chuckii Booker, you know. [He] has played on Dre’s stuff, has played on Snoop’s stuff – name it. He’s been the best barometer for me on how to bridge the gap between the old school and the new school, so having him on board was the true service.

AHHA: We know you from the Commodores, as well as being a solo artist. What’s the major difference between the two – performing with a group as opposed to performing solo, and what did you like or dislike about each?

Lionel Richie: Well I am forever [indebted]. I like being in the group – I love it. The only thing that makes you angry about a group is you have to have a group vote, everybody has to feel the same way if you’re gonna get something done. Now if you’re solo, you just do it the way you feel it and that’s it. If I had my choice, I like a group any day of the week, because when you’re in a group you can blame somebody for doing something wrong.

When you’re solo it’s all your fault. The rest of it is just pure elementary camaraderie – in other words, it’s not so much that the Commodores were a great band and a great group, but they were also a family, they were brothers. You know we were that close. You lived together. You hang out together. You know you spend your life together. Those are things, just priceless, you know.