| The-Dream | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Terius Youngdell Nash |
| Born | June 14, 1981 |
| Origin | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Genres | R&B, pop, hip hop |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, record producer, rapper |
| Years active | 1998–Present |
| Labels | Def Jam, Radio Killa |
| Associated acts | Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Los Da Mystro, Electrik Red |
| Website | www.the-dreammusic.com |
Terius Youngdell Nash (born June 14, 1981), better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American R&B and pop singer-songwriter and record producer. He was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, and raised by his mother Reva Nash until her death at age 35. The-Dream moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he was raised by his grandfather.
The-Dream met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001, who helped him sign a publishing deal. He spent two years working on Nivea's second album Complicated, and continued to write and produce with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Laney's brother. Together, The-Dream and Tricky produced Rihanna's 2007 hit "Umbrella" and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", which boosted The-Dream's music career. He signed a deal with Def Jam Records in 2007, and released his debut studio album Love Hate later that year. In March 2009, The-Dream released his second album Love vs. Money. In June 2010, The-Dream released his third album titled Love King.
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The-Dream met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001; Stewart helped him get a publishing deal after writing "Everything" from B2K's album Pandemonium!.[1] Under the pen name "The-Dream", he began writing lyrics for many popular artists. He spent two years working on Nivea's second album Complicated, which he executive produced, and continued to write and produce with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Laney's brother, which led to Rihanna's 2007 smash hit "Umbrella". The success of "Umbrella" boosted Dream's music career, and in 2007, he signed a deal with Def Jam Records.[2] He's worked with Justin Bieber on the hit song "Baby"
Following the deal with Def Jam Records, The-Dream began working on his debut studio album Love Hate.[2] The album was produced by The-Dream's production partner Tricky Stewart, and Carlos "LOS Da Maestro" McKinney, and featured Fabolous and Rihanna.[3] The album was written and recorded in eight days with twelve tracks making the final cut. Some of the tracks were written in regards to The-Dream's personal life, most notably "Nikki," written about his ex-wife Nivea and how he has moved on since their divorce.[4] The-Dream explained the title, Love Hate, as short for, "Love me all summer, hate me all winter, because they love you when you hot and when you're cold they don't... I'm hot right now and they love me, but I was cold and they wasn't fuckin' with me."[4] Released December 11, 2007 on The-Dream's Def Jam-imprint Radio Killa Records,[5] Love Hate moved 59,000 copies and debuted at number 30 on the Billboard 200.[6] Love Hate also peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[7] The album received generally positive reviews from critics, as Rolling Stone called it "one of the most likable R&B records of the year" and UrbanMusicReviews.com said that the singer has "hit a home run."[8]
On March 10, 2009 The-Dream released his second album Love vs. Money.[9] He re-teamed with his production partner Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, who produced most of the tracks on the album, and Los Da Maestro.[10] He also enlisted the help of Lil Jon for the song "Let Me See the Booty".[6] Love vs. Money debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 151,000 copies in its first week.[11] It also entered at number one on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number three on its Top Digital Albums chart in March 2009.[12][13] Upon its release, the album received general acclaim from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 83/100 from Metacritic.[14]
Initially, The-Dream told Billboard magazine that he would release his third album Love King, in December 2009;[15] however, in September 2009, Christopher Stewart told Rap-Up that the album will be released in 2010 instead.[16] According to The-Dream, he collaborated with T-Pain for at least one track and also expressed that he would like to make a collaboration album with Kanye West in the future.[17] In January 2010, The-Dream officially stated he was finished recording the album and he called it the best of his three albums.[18] The first single, "Love King", was released on March 16, 2010 for digital download. The-Dream said that he would release four singles and four music videos prior to the album's release.[19] The album was released on June 29, 2010.[20]
In July 2009, The-Dream announced that Love King will be his last solo album; however, with the release of the song Sex Intelligent Remix, The-Dream stated that on "6-07-2011 he will drop Love Affair" he will still be producing, writing, and featuring on other artist albums.[6][21]
In addition to working with Nivea and Rihanna, The-Dream also began writing for numerous artists, most notably J. Holiday's "Bed", Usher's "Moving Mountains", Yung Joc's "Coffee Shop" and Jesse McCartney's "Leavin'". He also co-wrote Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body", Ciara's "High Price," and took part in co-writing a majority of Mary J. Blige's 2007 Growing Pains album, including the smash hit "Just Fine".
In December 2007, The-Dream was nominated for Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "Umbrella", but lost to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab". However, in June 2008, The-Dream won the award for Best New Artist at the 2008 BET Awards. Throughout 2008, The-Dream appeared on a number of records including Plies' "Please Excuse My Hands" with Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J's "Baby", Gym Class Heroes' "Cookie Jar" and Kardinal Offishall's "Gimme Some". In addition, The-Dream signed female R&B girl-group Electrik Red to Radio Killa Records and they released their debut album, How to Be a Lady: Volume 1, under the label.[22] The-Dream and production partner Christopher "Tricky" Stewart produced "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" off Beyoncé's album I Am… Sasha Fierce, co-produced two tracks ("Just Like Me" & "Digital Girl") and was featured on Jamie Foxx's album Intuition, and worked with Mario and Lionel Richie.[6] He will also be featured on a number of upcoming albums from; Phyzikal, Ciara, Sterling Simms, Young Chris, Dear Jayne, Brandy and Cassie.
In early 2009, The-Dream began working with Christina Milian on her fourth studio album Elope,[23] which led to her signing a joint-deal with Radio Killa Records.[24] The-Dream said that when he was building his label, he went looking for Milian because he believed she was a talented singer.[25] The singer confirmed that her second single would be a duet with The-Dream called "Supersonic".[26]
Throughout 2009, The-Dream has also been working on new material for Mariah Carey, Brandy, and Diddy. Diddy's song "Change" is described by The-Dream as, "probably one of the best male records I've ever written...the best record I've written besides Umbrella. The-Dream also worked on Jennifer Lopez's first single Louboutins from her 7th album Love? The song did not chart at the Billboard Hot 100 but charted at number 1 on the Hot/Dance Club Chart. He is still working on more tracks for her album which is going to be released in Summer 2010.[6]
He and Tricky Stewart have been working on Ciara's upcoming fourth studio album titled "Basic Instinct", which is set for a release on October 5, 2010, and was executive produced by the trio. He co-wrote her lead single titled "Ride", which was released in April 2010, and went on to become a R&B smash hit and her twelfth top ten hit on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[27] It has also been confirmed that he is working on Katy Perry's upcoming album.[28] He also collaborated on, produced and wrote Snoop Dogg's Gangsta Luv which is on the 2009 album Malice n Wonderland.
Recently, The-Dream received a fair amount of backlash for his cover of singer Aaliyah's song "One in a Million". Upon the release of the song, fans of Aaliyah bombarded radio shows and blog sites with distaste for The-Dream's rendition.[29]
The-Dream married girlfriend Nivea in 2004, who he had been dating for one year. Together they had three children, daughter Navy Talia (on May 10, 2005); and twin sons London and Christian (2006). They had been married for three years when Nivea filed for legal separation in December 2007. The-Dream said that although he was in love with Nivea, his lack of experience in a family growing up meant he was "not taught how much more than love does it take to run a relationship. Like, 'cause love isn't just where it's gonna end. It can't start and stop with love. There has to be a certain amount of knowledge and patience that's acquired in order to keep it going and keep it straight, and I found out the hard way".[30]
The-Dream began dating Christina Milian in early 2009; she became pregnant. The Daily Mail reported that "the pregnancy was a surprise, but they were getting married regardless".[31] They then became engaged in June 2009.[32] In August, it was reported that they had applied for a marriage license in Los Angeles. On September 4, 2009, The-Dream married Christina Milian at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas.[33][34] The-Dream said in an interview that Nivea was still a good friend of his, and that she was also friends with Milian.[35] Milian gave birth to their daughter Violet Madison Nash on February 26, 2010.[36] Milian and The-Dream announced their separation on July 12, 2010 [37] after photos surfaced of The-Dream vacationing with his assistant.[38]
In addition to music, The-Dream revealed he is currently working on a TV reality series for MTV where he will scout aspiring singers,[6] and plans to release a clothing line called Millionaire Love Affair.[22]
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