The-Dream (Terius Nash) – 1977 (2011) [Radio KIlla] // Grade: A-

When photos hit last year of The-Dream on the beach double fisting ass cheeks with some chick who wasn’t his wife, I was kind of stoked. It wasn’t because I wished ill will for The-Dream, Christina Millian, random jumpoff’s ass or the institution of marriage. It definitely wasn’t because I give a fuck about the culture of celebrity stalking (nip slips and famous chicks in bikinis don’t count, because that shit is news we all need to know. How else would we know that Jennifer Love Hewitt was packing heat now)? No, the reason The-Dream’s infidelity was exciting was because it was clear that the scandal would make it into his music in the most raw and emotional way possible. It would end up being perfect fuel for Dream’s special brand of R&B that’s full of curses and hurt feelings.

So a lil over a year later we get 1977, The-Dream’s new ten track album dealing with the aftermath of his breakup with Christina Millian. As expected the records great—at this point to even question the quality of a Dream record is borderline heresy. You should know what to expect here, ball pinch falsetto rising synths and a ton of beats that have so much sex laid into them that you might find yourself humping an ottoman. What really sets this record off is The-Dream’s point of view. The world is full of great breakup records, its probably the second greatest motivator for recording an album, coming in a close second to getting ass in the first place. Most breakup records come from the point of someone who’s been dumped or at least misses their former lover (see: Beck’s Sea Change, Adele’s 21, parts of Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreaks, Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love and Converge’s Jane Doe & You Fail Me). They’re usually sad bastard contemplative joints that ponder the nature of love, reminisce about the good times and openly wonder if happiness will ever be possible again. They play out exactly like breakups everyone experience, so they feel real and universal. This is not how 1977 plays out, because, The-Dream simply does not give a fuck.

The-Dream on this record moves through a range of post breakup emotions, but they’re all coolly dickish. On “Wake Me When It’s Over” he defiantly tells people to fuck off for judging his infidelity citing the one-sided nature of public perception. On “Used To Be” he flips blame of the relationship ending on to his ex-girl. He takes the usual “you never take me anywhere like when we were first going out” line used by women since restaurants were invented into “you used to strip for a nigga/now you aint got nothing but lip for a nigga” creating an anthem for all those dudes experiencing diminishing returns in ho shit from their girlfriends. “Long Gone” traces the demise of his relationship back to it genesis, the moment when the sex went cold. Considering that these songs are back to back to back it’s safe to assume The-Dream is a proponent of the “if you aint fucking, like Im fucking, get the fuck out” theory of sexual escalation that Chris Rock espoused on his Kill The Messenger DVD. “Rolex” and “Ghetto” exists solely to pump up The-Dream’s ego post breakup, once again taking something women usually are known for — getting hotter post breakup — and turning it into a dude specific derivation (getting a new big boy toys and having hoes on your dick because you fuck like you just got out the penn).

By the time the last third of the album comes around The-Dream is entirely past the concept of his old chick and into trying to bang new chicks, which is really the final stage of a breakup. “Wish You Were Mine” is a wooing song that takes trap synths and makes them wild seductive. “This Shit Real Nigga” is just wild shit talking that features The-Dream talking about buying a house from his toilet, which I imagine is some kind of wild rich dude iPad app they only sell out oft of the back of Skymall Magazine special edition in the back of G5 jets. This song also deserves special props for being the latest entry in the ever-expanding modern art project that is Pharrell’s Awkward Rapping Career.

It would’ve been too expected for The-Dream to give us a breakup album that was full of “baby I want you back” songs. Instead we’ve got an album that spins and celebrates being a dick which we really haven’t gotten enough of in music… since Ye’s last album.

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- Behold the Destroyer