For some reason T-Mobile must be rubbing their hands at the free publicity they get from today’s favorite under 25 males. With the break up of Christina Milian and Wildin Out Nick Cannon being literally at the hands of a T-Mobile insider, a punch was thrown at Neyo thanks to a picture taken by a T-Mobile device.

After he was assumed to be gay, thanks to an imaginary testimonial during an Essence magazine interview which never happened and to an Essence reporter who doesn’t actually exist, suddenly to add ‘fuel to the fire’ a somewhat personal pic ended up on the internet of Neyo with an assumed video girl in a very intimate position. It was mentioned that the photograph was put out to end the ‘gay’ rumor surrounding him, but Neyo denies that profusely in this exclusive interview with HipHopDX.com.

Talking to him you have to admire his attitude to this situation. With fame there always comes hate, no matter how nice you are or how liked you may be and even though he still cant fathom out where the rumors came from, he gets that you just have to literally take the ‘rough with the smooth’ to stay ahead in the music industry.

Here he talks about ‘yes’ men, his role as Executive Producer on the MTV Save the Last Dance 2 soundtrack and just how his Momma had to check a person who talked bad about her baby. With a 2007 album release date to look forward to, Neyo definitely won’t be stuck for content to sing about after this year.

How hard has it been for you to deal with your success?

Not hard at all, it’s a blessing. I’ve been trying to do the music thing for a long time and everything is coming to fruition now and I am blessed. I thank God for everything.

A lot of people say there is a down side to reaping the benefits, you know a down side to stardom, would you agree?

Well one thing that I just got a strong taste of was the whole rumor situation. You don’t want to believe that there are actually people in the world that don’t want to see you succeed for whatever reason. You’ve never met these people, never done anything to them, but for whatever reason, they want to bring you down. I didn’t want to believe that there are people in the world like that.

Did you have any idea where the rumors came from?

No, they came out of nowhere. I don’t know why anyone would have something against me. I did nothing to anybody, it is what it is. I am looking at it as it something that comes with the territory. It is part of the same page, you know you have to take the good with the bad and just learn to let things go. Continued on page 2 »