Are you 'Ready'?

Underneath the hype and madness of being a famous music artist you should realize that Tremaine Neverson, better known to his fans as Trey Songz, is simply a man that wants to be successful but is working at attaining that success. That’s right, there is more to him than what you see on the television and hear on his albums. Behind it all is a man who is working hard so his fans can get the best of what he has to offer.

“What is a normal day?” Songz replied when asked what a normal day consists of for him. “I don’t have normal days. There is a different type of day for me when I go on tour, do promos, record albums, and shoot videos. It all consists of a lot of work.”

With so much time devoted to being an artist, what does he do in the little free time he does have?

“When I get time off I kick it at home with my family. I got a couple brothers, and I’m a mommas boy. When I get a chance to kick it, I watch TV, play basketball, bowl. I just like to lay back and be regular.”

The hard work will pay off with his highly-anticipated third album Ready, which dropped on Monday. The singles on Ready include “Brand New”, “I Need a Girl”, “Successful” and “LOL :-)”.

“I’m feeling great,” he said when asked about his feelings with the album being released. “There’s a lot of buzz about me right now. I have four records out there that are doing well that are on the album and all of my music is being received well.”

The guest artists on the album include Drake, Gucci Mane, and Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em. Production on the album is led by Troy Taylor along with Sean Garrett, Patrick Hayes, Stargate, Los Da Mystro, and Brian Michael Cox among others.

“I think there is definitely a great show of growth on this album from the last two albums,” Songz commented when asked to compare this album to his first two, I Gotta Make It and Trey Day. “I feel like my first album was of course an introduction piece and my second album was a little more contemporary and hip-hop. This album is bringing the two worlds together as well as bringing other aspects of my music into it.”

Along with talking about the album, The Navigator wanted to take a look at other things that you wouldn’t often hear from an artist at his caliber. No matter what happens, he is still a young artist putting in work to be even better every day.

When asked about what he would be doing if he wasn’t an artist, the answer was simple: there is nothing else he’d be doing.

“I never had a plan B.” Songz confessed. The closest thing he had to a backup plan was being a barber, but he still admits that he would be trying to get into the music industry even as he cut hair. Fortunately for him, the music industry called first and cutting hair is a luxury he can choose to do.

You read about the collaborations he has on the new album, but who would Songz team up with if he could with any artist, living or otherwise?

“I’d say Marvin Gaye, because I feel like his music was really an outlet for his feelings.”

That answer is not surprising considering the music influences he listed off, an impressive mixture of artists that show his love and respect for music history.

“My homie Troy Taylor put me onto a lot of things that I knew nothing about. He put me onto the Isley Brothers and Michael Jackson,” Songz said when asked about some of who he listened to. “Anybody from Steely Dan to Aretha Franklin to Marvin Gaye to Donnie Hathaway to R. Kelly. Even rappers influence my style.” That is not a surprise when you hear his music because you hear the singing but you also hear him rapping as well. Such a diverse talent seems bound to succeed.

For any of his fans on Twitter, they know that it is not very hard to keep up with him now if they follow him (@SongzYuuup). How does he feel about the ease of interacting with the fans with social networking websites such as Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook?

“It’s a great marketing tool,” he says, noting that two or three years ago he would have had to send his songs to tons of DJs in order to get them played and now he can put it on his Twitter and his fans can hear it instantly. “There’s not so much in between me and my fans now.”

With all that said, the only thing left to do now is go out and to your nearest music store, or go on iTunes to make sure you get Ready. This album is for his fans.

“It lets them see how much I really care about what I do and how much I care for my fans.”