Singer, Ne-Yo, sat down with Joe Budden on his web series, Pull Up, to talk about his new song, his career, and his failed marriage.
On how he is dealing with his split from his estranged wife, Crystal Smith, who filed for divorce last month, Neyo said: “Without incriminating myself, without incriminating her and without putting any negative connotation on this… I will say that neither one of us was exactly who we needed to be in order for this to last, and that’s why it didn’t. That’s what it was. I own mine, she owns hers, and the craziest thing is there’s no beef, there’s no animosity, there’s no love lost because we both understand that.”
I can’t speak on her decisions, I can only speak on the fact that there is no animosity here. We both understand that we have kids, and we have to raise these kids, and in order to do that we cannot allow ourselves to get to a place where we hate each other, we can’t let that happen for the sake of our kids. So there is no beef.”
He addressed that split in his recent single “Pinky Ring” where he sings, “She gave back the wedding ring / I turned it to a pinky ring” and “I do not feel bad / I gave her everything / Now it’s on to better things.”
Speaking about the song, “Pinky Ring” featuring O.T. Genisis, Neyo said the song was based on the reality that she did actually return her wedding ring.
“The song is talking about me and how I’m handling what could be a sad situation if I allow it to be that,” he said. “I’m looking at it from the positive angle of she gave back the wedding ring, that means I’m not married no more. As opposed to sitting and being sad about it, I’m going to flip it. I’m going to keep it pimping. I’m going to move.”
When Budden expressed surprise at Smith returning the ring on her own. Neyo said: “She’s never been petty like that. She’s never been money petty like that. That’s not her.”
When asked by Budden what was behind things not working out between them, the singer added: “Without incriminating myself, without incriminating her and without putting any negative connotation on this, I will say that neither one of us was exactly who we needed to be in order for this to last, and that’s why it didn’t. Bottom line,” he said. “I own mine, she owns hers, and the craziest thing is there’s no beef, there’s no animosity there’s no love last because we both understand that.”
“I have zero beef. I have no beef,” he said. “I can’t speak on her, I can’t speak on her decisions, I can only speak on the fact that there’s no animosity here.”
Ne-Yo also hints at walking away from his marriage in order to “keep his sanity” and save everyone from suffering.
“The boat that I am the captain of, there’s a lot of people on this boat. There’s a lot of people that rely on this boat staying afloat. In order for that to happen, I must maintain my sanity, I must maintain the tempo at which my heartbeats,” he said. “I must maintain and if it gets to a point where a relationship is making it difficult to maintain, then it becomes that I have to do this for the kids because if I go down, everybody goes down, including the kids. So I have to walk away for the sake of the kids. Not entirely for the sake of the kids, but that’s part of the thought process.”
