Throughout his career, Ne-Yo has regularly been called upon by hip-hop's heavyweights to lend his vocals and songwriting abilities for their records. The Grammy Award-winning artist has worked with the likes of Rick Ross and Ghostface Killah on some of their biggest hits to date. We caught up with Ne-Yo earlier this month at Gig-It's star-studded launch party and got the stories behind five of his most notable hip-hop collaborations. Find out who "Make Me Better" was initially intended for and more after the jump.  —Emmanuel C. M. (@ECM_LP)

Ghostface Killah featuring Ne-Yo "Back Like That"

That was the first. When I heard that Ghostface wanted to do a record, I honestly didn't know what to think. Like, "What the hell are me and Ghostface gonna do?" Even knowing Ghostface, and knowing how soulful he can be, I really just couldn't fathom what me and him were going to do together. So I heard the beat, and it really just came together. I was trying to figure out how to bring Ghostface's world and my world together, so just talking about chicks and a relationship made sense. I wrote the hook, I wrote the bridge. Of course the idea for it was a quote from a Jay-Z record. But yeah, I basically felt like in order for this to make sense for me, I needed to make it me but make it come from that world. Jay-Z is one of my favorite rappers, so I just pulled a quote from him and the thing came together. That's basically how it happened. But yeah, that was the first one for me and I just rolled from there. I gotta say that not every collaboration has been as easy or as cool as that one was. That was definitely the one that set the bar for me.

Fabolous featuring Ne-Yo "Make Me Better"

The way "Make Me Better" came together—there was a lot that happened with that record. When I first heard the beat, I was in a session with Jay-Z and I was doing a hook for him. So the hook, "I'm a movement by myself, but I'm a force when we're together," I wrote that about him and B at the time, because B was in the studio. So I wrote it about them originally. He listened to it, he lived with it for a couple of days and he came back and said, "You know what, this sounds like an R&B record, maybe you should keep it." And I'm like, 'Word? I can have it?' and he's like, "Yeah, go ahead." So I wrote a whole song to it. The song wound up not making the album because it didn't fit with everything else, so it was kind of just sitting in the archives. I think Fab came through and wanted to hear some stuff, I think the record played by accident and he was like, "Yo—let me put a verse on that!" "Aight, cool." He put a verse on it, then he was like, "Are you doing anything with it?" and I was like, "Nah," then he was like, 'You should let me have it." So he put another verse on it, he kept one of my verses, kept the hook, did his thing on it and the rest is history. A beat that started out as Jay's beat, turned into my beat, turned into Fab's beat. There you have it.

Jadakiss featuring Ne-Yo "By My Side"

Kiss reached out, said he wanted to do a record. Everything I'd heard from Kiss, you know what Kiss does and what Kiss talks about. He's one of the most recognizable voices in hip-hop. Again, really didn't know how we was going to make it happen. They actually sent me a beat that they liked, which was the beat, and I listened to it and I was like, "I can't hear Kiss on this—this don't sound like what I've heard from Kiss." And they're like, "He's trying to step on new ground here," so I'm like, "Okay." So I did what I do, but I was more anxious to see what he was going to do because I had never heard him over a beat like that, so when I heard the end result, I was like, "Okay, this is Kiss showing his versatility a little bit." Like, 'I can give you the street, I can give you the raw, but I can also turn around and give you something for these ladies too." So i dug that.

Rick Ross featuring Ne-Yo "Super High"

I believe "Super High" was the second time that I worked with Ross. Ross is a real soulful dude. If you listen to the albums and the beats that he chooses, he's a musical cat, contrary to what a lot of people know. So when the beat for "Super High" came across the plate, it was like I wrote "Super High" in my sleep. It was one of those records that wrote itself. I just followed what was going on in the beat and I already knew that he was going to murder it. The most interesting thing about how that all came together was the video. He wanted to do this whole biker-themed thing, which is definitely a step out of my realm. At that point I'm suit and tie, and he's like, "We're gonna be bikers in the video." I'm like, "Huh? Wait a minute..." But it came together. Stacy Dash was in the video, which I could not complain about at all. So just sitting around staring at her, missing cues and shit. Like, "Oh shit, that was me? Sorry, let's do it again." 

Keri Hilson featuring Kanye West and Ne-Yo "Knock You Down"

I'm not 100% sure about whether or not Keri wrote her parts for that one, but she does write and she's a hell of a writer. When the beat was given to me, her part was already on it. So I just wrote my part and sent it back. The shock was when Kanye jumped on the joint. I didn't even know Kanye was going to be on the joint until I heard the finished project.

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