The-Dream has been the premier male R&B star of 2009. The Def Jam songwriter, producer and artist spoke to HipHopDX as a part of a media junket late last week.
Looking at his top-charting Love Vs. Money [click to read] album, the artist fielded several questions about his hit collaboration with Kanye West, “Walking On The Moon” [click to view]. “First of all everybody knows I’m Def Jam alumni, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to put Kanye [West] on [‘Walking On The Moon’]. Me and him really just love each other’s music, so it was one of those things that was bound to happen. He was supposed to get on this record, ‘She Needs My Love’ on the first album, but it didn’t happen because of the [death of] his mom, so I got him up for this album and we did some old Michael [Jackson] shit you know. You know how I go.“
Speaking of West, The-Dream, in the wake of Jay-Z‘s “Death Of Auto-Tune” [click to listen] single, was asked his own opinion about the popular recording tool in the last two to three years. “Auto-tune killing the art of singing? No, because I think what used to be good about singing was people with special voices.” The Atlanta-based sensation continued, “I think Auto-Tune is probably making everybody seem to have a certain special voice when it comes to singing themselves. But singing is one of those things, you remember what it sound like to hear Al Green sing a record? If you put Auto-Tune on his voice then you would never know how Al Green would sound. So it’s not really killing it. I think it is actually making us more aware of what singing is, and what the capability of singing is really about, and that is about being born with something that God gives you that can’t really be duplicated.”
The-Dream grew frustrated, when asked about the status of Christina Milian‘s Elope album, on his Radio Killa imprint. “I ain’t with all that blogging and shit, man. But what I can and will say about [Christina Milian‘s] album is the album is done.” He added, “We’re cutting two new records tomorrow, not because we have to, just because we can and we end up just coming up with certain things and I always want to try her on whatever the record is. Singles and everything, it is just about whether she feels like doing it or not.”
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Despite pushbacks on the project and a lot of ridicule coming from several blogs and websites, The-Dream reverted to defended Milian‘s stardom by contrasting her film star power, and its dividends, to a less lucrative music industry. “She has a lot of stuff going on in the movie world and actually on TV. Somebody just gave her a lot of bread, and you don’t make enough money in the radio and R&B world, you know when it gets to that particular point. Somebody show up in her house with 10 million [dollars], and then you got a blog full of haters that’s trying to make sure that your shit don’t come out, it’s like what you gon’ do? Let me see, Paramount Pictures wants to give me 10 million, or I got to try to beat my head in the ground to prove something to the niggas that are going to give me five dollars.” Answering his question, the platinum artist said, “You gon’ take that $10 million and ride out. ‘Cause I need a new Phantom, so I want her to take that 10 million.”
Lastly, The-Dream hinted that Mariah Carey‘s next single is an outcry, perhaps at Eminem, that may shock the media world. Speaking simply about upcoming productions, the artist said, “The most anticipated is the Mariah project, and she just released a fire record in the building today. And we have been blasting it out all day. It’s just fucking retarded. I don’t think anybody is going to expect her to come out punching like she is going to come out. But she got a record.” He continued, hinting at the content,“It’s going to light the blogs up too because you don’t know who she talking about, what she talking about, but she talking about something. And remember The-Dream told you first. So you can start that up right now. Mariah Carey has a record, and somebody’s going to be very upset. I said that.“
Love Vs. Money is in stores now.
