Year of the Gentleman Songwriting Credits by Ne-Yo

Year of the Gentleman is a co-writer's album, not a solo-author one. Ne-Yo, whose legal name is Shaffer Chimere Smith, has a writing credit on all twelve tracks, but he never writes alone here - every song pairs him with the producer who built the track. The dominant partnership is Stargate, the Norwegian team of Mikkel Storleer Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen, who wrote and produced 'Closer,' 'Mad,' 'Miss Independent,' and 'Back to What You Know,' with the Closer-family tracks also crediting Norwegian writers Magnus Beite and Bernt Rune Stray. The rest of the board rotates through single-song producer-writers: Polow da Don (legal name Jamal Fincher Jones) on 'Single,' the Stereotypes on 'Why Does She Stay,' Shomari Wilson on 'Fade into the Background,' Syience (Reginald Perry) on 'So You Can Cry,' Shea Taylor on 'Lie to Me,' and Chuck Harmony (Charles Harmon) on both 'Part of the List' and 'Stop This World.' The composer column reflects this by using legal names where the credited stage name differs. The pattern is consistent: Ne-Yo supplies the lyric and topline, the producer supplies the music, and the two share the writing credit down the line.