The new R. Kelly?

The American Dreeaammm
written by Four Bars

Recently I was reading one of the worst interviews I’ve ever seen in a magazine and they were interviewing T-Pain and he made reference to him becoming a famous “sanger” by accident. He said that he was a rapper first and wanted to be known for that so he kept his singing to himself until it leaked and the rest is history. There is often a debate on what is or isn’t “hip-hop”. This usually stems from a rapper stepping out of his lane and doing music that should probably be categorized in a genre other than “hip hop” and the debate ensues. I doubt anyone would deny that R. Kelly is one of the greatest R&B singers of our time yet I also doubt that anyone would consider him “not hip hop”. To me, T-Pain and The Dream fall into the same category.

My list last week referenced The Dream’s first and second albums (both worth purchasing, I did) and there were a couple of people who weren’t up on this dude like they should be probably because The Dream falls into the R&B category of “not quite hip hop” and he can’t f with these R&B cats (ahem, JusHH, cough cough). So I figured I’d shed a little light on it.

To me, The Dream is an interesting mix of the outlandish writing ability of R. Kelly and the sometimes gimmicky but always fun and entertaining style of T-Pain yet he still has his own lane he successfully navigates. He can’t really be categorized as a “singer”, per say, because while he does sing, his own voice is often a light falsetto (“OOH OOH BAYBEH…”) and his lyrics are often a collection of notes spoken one syllable or phrase at a time (“ella” or “ooh ooh ooh ooohh”). The kicker is that he also will break into a rap at any moment a la Kels and T-Pain just to show you that he’s got that in him too. Simply put, The Dream is as hip-hop as any of the other “rapper turnt sangers” and he’s managed to pen, produce, and perform countless great songs along with two really good albums. If you get a chance, download the ITunes bonus track “Hater” from somewhere, it’s a perfect example of The Dream using all his tools to make a really catchy, honest, and quality song in which he opens the song with “if I was your maaannnn I, would hit that shit like A-Rod…” hilarious. The Dream is as hip-hop as they come and continues to breathe some fresh air into the hip-hop scene. There are even rumors that he and Kanye will be teaming up for an album a la T-Wayne. After hearing his second single, “Walking on the Moon” featuring Ye, I’m very interested to see what they come up with, at the very least, there will be no Vocoder involved, I hope.