12.
The-Dream – Love vs. Money
So this is my favourite The-Dream album. He’s kind of like the new Prince – it’s cool how you can be so effeminate while being this big dude and also being this hypermasculine character as well. I don’t think he’s a great singer, but I think that’s part of it, it’s not about vocal acrobatics or anything like that. He’s just a genius producer as well. I think all of us take influence from him to some extent. There was a period where Kingdom, Ikonika, me, Girl Unit and probably Jam City too, were just listening to him constantly, and it shows to some extent.
He also continued on a lot of R&B traits that were almost tropes, not in a bad way, but Polow Da Don’s production, and obviously R Kelly-isms for days. But there’s something about the way he executed it, because it was just so charismatic. A lot of the time you want to hate him, because he’s a dick, and the way he talks about women is pretty distinct from the way I like to think about life. But I think that’s part of the charm, because he’s just this character, and he’s quite loveable for it in a way. But he does get away with a lot. [laughs]
It’s funny, I had to divorce myself from being moralistic about the music that I was into. With grime I had to make that decision. I think that was my last boundary with getting into grime and garage stuff and everything. I was just like, this really, really disagrees with what I want to project towards other people and my life philosophy. But it was so important, I just made the decision to let go of that, and it was actually the most liberating thing ever. I guess I like to think of it as cultural flexibility, or something like that. It’s an acceptance of someone else’s expression. I also think it’s a really colonial way to listen to music – always applying your own values to it immediately is quite dangerous. Because even in the same country something can come from a wildly different culture to yours. So it’s just about applying a bit of cultural relativity, and being flexible with those things.
