It is no easy feat to pursue artistry in Hollywood, and reaching the top is not for the faint of heart. Ne-Yo joins a lists of artists who have stood out as they pave their own legacy.

There’s sometimes a price tag that comes with the phases of life. R&B crooner Ne-Yo Smith has requested a gag order against his estranged wife Crystal Renay Smith, claiming that her recent decisions to discuss their relationship on social media have cost him nearly $400,000 in partnerships.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by NE-YO (@neyo)

While Ne-Yo has a strong solo career on his own, he’s perhaps best known for the work he does for other artists as a backup singer and songwriter. Born in Camden, NJ, Ne-Yo (real name: Shaffer Smith) was exposed to the music industry from an early age. Both of his parents — a Black father and a Chinese mother — were singers, though neither experienced the level of success that their son would ultimately achieve. Before he entered high school, his mother moved him to Las Vegas, NV, for better work opportunities, and the aspiring singer would ultimately enroll in the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. There, according to Celebrity Net Worth, he would lay the foundation for what would become a successful singing and songwriting career. Originally going by the name GoGo, and being a part of a group called Envy, Ne-Yo would ultimately break through into the mainstream when several R&B artists began recording his songs. That success quickly earned him a stellar reputation as the go-to...

Grammy-winning recording artist Ne-Yo wants to diversify the tech industry and is putting his money where his mouth is. In 2017, he invested in the Holberton School’s $2.3 million funding round and is now watching the school’s progress. Students in Silicon Valley’s Holberton School, a two-year coding academy targeting underrepresented groups, are not required to pay tuition — they pay 17 percent of their salary to the school for three years once they find a job after graduation. Holberton grads have gone on to work for Apple, NASA, LinkedIn and Facebook. The school does not use formal teaching methods — the students teach each other and complete projects throughout the program. Ne-Yo said the Holberton School’s commitment to diversity is what attracted him to the organization. “Little black kids growing up don’t say things like ‘I want to be a coder when I grow up,’ because it’s not real to them, they don’t see people that look like me doing it,” Ne-Yo said to TechCrunch . “But tech...