DX: I like your song "I-R-I-N-A." I read the blurb about how you came up with the song and it lead me to think, what gets your creative juices going?
Ryan Leslie: I really just let it flow. No matter what time of day or night, if something inspires me or I hear something in my head I have enough command of my little studio or my portable music creations software on a lap top where I can put down an idea. Sometimes I gotta sing it into a voicemail or sing it into a Quicktime on my computer. I capture those moments because those are the inspired moments. Then I can get to the work of producing the best record around them that I can. It really just comes spontaneously and I just try to be as open and perceptive to those ideas as they come.

DX: In the midst of you working on this upcoming album you are still working with other artists as a producer. Who have you been working with in the midst of it all?
Ryan Leslie: I am going to be working with and collaborating with Fabolous [click to read] on his next album; just got off the phone with Busta Rhymes [click to read]; Omarion stopped by the studio when I was working with Usher, and we talked about working together; a couple of joints with LL Cool J. Like I said, for me, it’s about things happening organically. LL happened to be in the same photo studio as I was. I was shooting pictures for a magazine and he was in the adjacent room shooting some album artwork, heard the music, we connected and two days later we were in the studio. Like I said, I was working with Usher on some things and next thing you know Omarion stops by the session, I played him something which inspired him, we’re gonna go back in and work. Busta Rhymes heard my record “Addiction” on the radio [click to listen]; he did his own remix of it, reached out to me so I will be doing some work with him. He has his own label, and it’s really for me I try not to force anything creatively. If you do good work, it's sort of a calling card for other artists to either be inspired or respond to the music that I’m making. I sort of pick my collaborations based on a great vibe that I get.

DX: You sound like you never sleep…do you sleep at all?
Ryan Leslie: From the time I was in college, I really became accustomed to just two to three hours of sleep and it really hasn’t changed since.

DX: What is your personal motto that you live by?
Ryan Leslie: Do what you believe in and believe in what you do. Very Simple, I wrote a speech about that when I was in my mid teens for the Rotary International Scholarship. Rotary International ended up giving me a scholarship to go to school. Just the idea that is behind it, despite what other people may feel, despite other peoples beliefs and perceptions or pre-conceived notions about you capabilities, if you believe in yourself and you apply yourself with sort of the unbridled passion and what I like to call the “4 D’s”, discipline, desire, drive and dedication.