Hot on the heels of the release of his acclaimed free Internet album, 1977, singer-songwriter The-Dream recently spoke with Billboard about the inspiration behind his deeply personal album, his future at Def Jam Records and a second free album.
As he’s done every year since the release of his first album, The-Dream was slated to release the latest offering from his Love album series, The Love, IV (Diary of a Mad Man). But due to souring “contract talks” with his label, Def Jam, the album was indefinitely pushed back. According to The-Dream, he decided to release 1977, which hit the Internet on Aug. 31, as a way to keep his name alive among fans.
“I just wanted to give the people something, because I felt like it was so much time going by,” said The-Dream. “You can’t see that much of me if I don’t put records out, so I just had to put it out. The business of a label is to make money — my business is to make music. I’m gonna get paid if I do it right. So I’m fine with [releasing a free album]. It’s more like advertisement for me.”
For the album, which was recorded in just two weeks and released under his birth name, Terius Nash, the Love singer dug into his failed marriage with singer Christina Milian, crafting a slew of haunting songs like “Wake Me When It’s Over” and “1977 (Miss You Still),” which detail his sense of loss and regret. And as The-Dream, who’s confessed to contemplating suicide, notes, many around him were shocked by his dark confessions, flooding him with concerned phone calls about his current state of mind.
“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, OK. Now I get it,'” said The-Dream. “I was in a place a couple years ago — it didn’t look like it, but people would ask me questions about whatever and I’d say, ‘Yeah, it’s cool. Everything’s great.’ But that was also going into a different part of me, because I had never had to be publicly in the middle of a relationship going good or bad, having to answer questions about my relationships.”
Although The-Dream previously revealed on Twitter that Def Jam officials were none too pleased about his free album, he now says that things have smoothed out between the two parties after a discussion of the lackluster response to his last album, Love King.
“Oh yeah, they’re better than this time last year, definitely,” he says of his ties to Def Jam. “I won’t be able to make the same rookie mistake that I made before, which is, with Love King, turning it in at the wrong time and not picking my own singles, which was never the case on the first two albums. That just won’t ever happen again. So now we’re in a place where we’re all good.”
Now that things are better with his label, The-Dream says that he hopes to release The Love, IV by year’s end.
“I’m gonna try. Maybe I should put out another free album-I’m sure that Def Jam would assassinate me!” joked The-Dream. “I’ll probably keep writing [for ‘The Love, IV’]. I’ve gotten a couple phone calls — they wanted to take two records from this 1977 album and maybe shoot a couple videos for them and cap them onto the album. But it’s pretty much done.”
The-Dream also hinted at a second free album on Twitter on Sept. 4
“I have another free album that’s untitled. I may drop it free in October. Or after Love IV,” tweeted The-Dream.
Something tells us that fans won’t be waiting much longer for new music. –nicholas robinson
