Ryan Leslie Ignores Low Album Sales, "They'll Do Big Superstar Numbers When I'm A Big Superstar"

News: Ryan Leslie Ignores Low Album Sales, "They'll Do Big Superstar Numbers When I'm A Big Superstar"
Tuesday, Dec 22, 2009 2:10PM

Written by Rosario Harper

R&B hitmaker Ryan Leslie has spoken up on continuing to put out albums despite his slow record sales and admitted that he has a ways to go before becoming a superstar.

According to Leslie, he is still aiming to make the one record capable of connecting to his fans and newcomers.

"They'll do big superstar numbers when I'm a big superstar," Leslie told DJ Vlad in an interview. "I mean, we working on it. It takes consistent messaging and it takes superstar exposure so like I said, usually the vehicle for exposure is a record so once there is a record that connects, and everyone is listening to it, and the people who haven't heard of me hear that record and that's the way they're introduced to me, then I mean, it's just a very simple process how it goes down. So we're building on that and we're working on that." (Vlad TV)
With his sophomore album, Transition, pushing around 12,000 copies its first-week, Leslie said he was primarily concerned on the overall sound, not sold copies.

"My reaction to sales is always the same," he said in an interview. "When you do something extraordinary, people are going to respond in an extraordinary way. I'm just very appreciative that I can make music and put it out and people are going to respond the way that they want. At this point, I just want to make the best music I can make. What's underwhelming in terms of sales? Was there an expectation that I was going to sell one million records on week one? Uh, no. The level of exposure that I have currently would make that nearly impossible." (Honey Mag)
Newcomers like Wiz Khalifa recently hit up SOHH to speak on the perception of "low" and "shaky" first-week sales.

"We have built a strong fanbase for Wiz," Rostrum Records representative Arthru Pitt explained to SOHH, "even after leaving [Warner Bros. Records] and continue to do our thing grassroots. We dropped the album at a tough time too with no radio presence, major network video coverage, etc. 86 percent of the sales were digital which indicates the grip he has on the net which is the future of the business. We barely shipped more than a few thousand into stores...The impact that this album has had is just another stepping stone in Wiz's career. We are more concerned about artist development and building a real fanbase rather than have overnight success. This is my 5th year being a part of Wiz's career and we all couldn't be happier with the results." (SOHH)
Besides the R&B, Leslie recently spoke on forming a super group with with Fabolous and Ne-Yo.

"We're talking about a triple-team collaboration that's really gonna hurt the game," he revealed. "Your boy Fab, the boy Ne-Yo and yours truly on the board. It's really gonna put a hurting on everybody...The table is open -- if you're bringing something to the table, you can break bread. It's about conceptualizing. It's not gonna be a project that's thrown together. It's gonna be a real roundtable, and we're gonna talk about really putting something in the atmosphere that contributes something that's never been done before." (MTV)

From SOHH.com

http://www.sohh.com/2009/12/ryan_leslie_ignores_low_album_sales_they.html