NE-YO v THE DREAM

http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/VQKNNRQL/I%20AM%20OFTEN%20PLEASED/BY%20RAKIM/AND%20DE%20LA%20SOUL/bus.jpg

that

oops haha

its kind of weird conglomeration of standard putting-the-girl-on-a-pedestal shit crossed with strip club track that i kind of chalk up to the-dream's process of obviously writing his lyrics somewhat improvisationally

I hate when I fail to copy something and it just pastes the last thing on my clipboard. Was supposed to say:

probably a phrase that makes more sense if you hit up the strip clubs often.

^^^that

(not that I do so myself)

I hate when I fail to copy something and it just pastes the last thing on my clipboard. Was supposed to say:

probably a phrase that makes more sense if you hit up the strip clubs often.

^^^that

(not that I do so myself)

― i and i overstand ilx bomboclaat formatting n ting (The Reverend)

interestingly enough the pic kinda made sense... kind of.

Just really noticed these lines from "Falsetto" today. Love 'em.

I wasn't gonna show you up
But then you got that liquor in you
Calling last night a fluke
Acting like you didn't remember

the rap on dude as a bad lyricist was always insane to me

The thing is he does lots of things that can read as lazy or crass, most of which are more immediately apparent than the really brilliant stuff.

i dont think hes a bad lyricist, hes just not a polished one

Yeah, he sort of swings between inspired and lazy. Opposite of Ne-Yo, whose lyrics always feel really honed.

yeah, both otm

When Ne-Yo has lyric problems it's because he tries to polish the occasional turd.

shawty rock 2 da beat 4 ya boy

dream has written just as many good songs as neyo has for others but his own album is a bit shit and seems like yet another terrible attempt to lift hip hop lyrics directly over to R&B songs that have no place being there. hes trying too hard to be thugged out etc etc and still be melodic (theres a lot of potentially good material here but he always tends to drag the tone down somehow). plus, hes called 'the dream' which is hard not to laugh at.

titchysuggestBn51

^^ lame zing for someone whose username is "yellow carded," also setting aside his value judgement that post is absolutely correct

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_q0cWAQxiVKI/SZYqJzzxaYI/AAAAAAAAIVY/V4GbEUQIb7c/s320/the-dream-lovevs.money.jpg

Al think about 1. Who you are agreeing with here and 2. How ridiculous the notion that an r and b singer named 'the dream' is trying to act thugged out is.

is it out there brainwasher?

nope, I just thought I'd post the album cover

ah ok. google led me to a couple of torrent sites that apparently have it but i'm not a torrent guy

lol deej c'mon, the-dream has very obviously patterned himself after the r. kelly R&B thug archetype, even if stuff like his high voice and the more sensitive songs kind of take it in a different direction.

i'm not sure what's going on with that cover. i feel like the title should be "ice cream headache."

font is dope

xp: That's why titchy's criticism is so ridiculous. R&B thug lyrics have been ubiquitous and even a genre standard in some areas since at least the mid-late 90s.

i dont really agree that hes going for that archetype at all! or maybe he is but hes failing, if anything the rap references to soulja boy or whatever come off as 'music nerd/studio rat/trying to sell' rather than 'trying to act hard.' i mean his whole steez is steeped in this 'i am an of-the-industry songwriter' thing where kells was just, like, perving.

like the-dream is never playing 'himself' when hes singing, hes writing the songs & performing them. kells was very much playing 'the character of kells' in his tracks -- hes much more on the rap/thug template side where the-dream's much more of an R&B tradition, almost like hes writing songs for other people, then performing them himself

i mean 'luv songs' isnt at ALL a thug track -- its a play on making music in the studio vs. making love! its blatantly 'i am a successful songwriter' not 'i'm a thug who happens to perform R&B'

A lot of interesting stuff happens in the tension between hardman lyrics and pretty melodies, anyway! I mean the "fuuuck that niggaaa" line in "I Luv Your Girl" (prob my single favorite moment on the album) FFS.

i mean u can hate him for the rap references in the lyrics if it bothers u but its realllly disingenuous to suggest thats some fronting/trying to act hard shit instead of just, like, the language of contemporary R&B/ his somewhat improvisational laziness at writing lyrics

First of all, deej, R. Kelly has a bazillion songs like that too. 2nd, I very much get a "character of The-Dream" from the album. Total wannabe-alpha-male who tries to assert his authority by out-douchebagging the real alpha males like R. Kelly, not that The-Dream could ever hope to be successful in that endevout.

Is that last post directed at me or al or titch?

deej there are songs where he thug postures, but i don't see what's wrong with that. it's balanced out by the mushy stuff like "purple kisses" and "playin in her hair" (such a sweet song) as well as stuff like "ditch that" - where the dream is pleading and begging, no longer in the 'thug' position of power - and "livin a lie" - which is again about him cheating/stealing, but it's not on a macho tip, instead it's a pretty good portrait about being v much in love. he ends up constructing a pretty well rounded persona imo, and the thugness of "she needs my love" and "i luv your girl" complements, and is complemented, by the rest of the album

i'm not sure what's going on with that cover. i feel like the title should be "ice cream headache."

― some dudes might think about blow jobs, like, way way way less (some dude),

lmao yes it's somewhere between "ice cream headache" and "telekinetic powers"

"Livin' a Lie" = not about cheating ("this feels worser than cheating" cheating feels worser than cheating? what?) just some secret lover ish

and I don't hear any "begging and pleading" in "ditch that"....

The Dream only plays hardman when there are other dudes around. Otherwise he's just on some chilling w/ his bitch shit.

deej there are songs where he thug postures, but i don't see what's wrong with that. it's balanced out by the mushy stuff like "purple kisses" and "playin in her hair" (such a sweet song) as well as stuff like "ditch that" - where the dream is pleading and begging, no longer in the 'thug' position of power - and "livin a lie" - which is again about him cheating/stealing, but it's not on a macho tip, instead it's a pretty good portrait about being v much in love. he ends up constructing a pretty well rounded persona imo, and the thugness of "she needs my love" and "i luv your girl" complements, and is complemented, by the rest of the album

― big fatass rick ross (J0rdan S.), Saturday, February 14, 2009 4:41 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well yeah but i dont think that really contradicts my argument all that much! maybe u think it congeals more into 'full character' and i think its a lil more engaged in the artifice of a songwriter who's written shit for other ppl, but either way its not a bunch of fronting thug&b -- im pretty surprised anyone would even think to describe it that way -- it doesnt give me r kelly vibes in pretty much any way -- they're very diff artists

rev i was still responding to titch & Al

Naw, obv The-Dream is v influenced by R. Kelly, but how post-Kells maistream r&b dudes aren't?

When "Shawty Is the Shit" came out I dismissed it as an "I'm a Flirt" knockoff until I heard it in the context of the album.

Gotta remember that titchy assembles his arguments by randomly piecing together cut-up squares of paper containing half-true statements. It's like a Challops-o-Matic.

yeah i mean seriously the only way i see the kells thing is in the broadest possible sense -- i guess hes also likely to write some weird lyrics sometimes that make u go 'o rly' but im not sure i see many parallels beyond that -- def dont hear a shawty is the shit / im a flirt parallel

lool tim

def dont hear a shawty is the shit / im a flirt parallel

Mostly in the sonics. otm re: R. Kelly & Dreamer in both not even testing, bust straight up ignoring the boundaries of credulousness on the reg

actually im going to backpedal slightly & say that i bet they do write their songs in a similar fashion, purely on a lyrical level. they definitely give the impression they dont really care about crafting lyrics & are more about the song -- but i dont think the similarities continue beyond & the-dream's hip hop slang etc are more like an affectation than a serious characterization or something -- i dont see anyone thinking hes trying to sound thugged out, hes just improvising colloquially almost

Agreed about the hip-hop slang being an affectation of sorts. Yeah, and "thug" isn't the right word at all. Dude isn't a tough-guy, he just likes to swing his cock nh.

cover is no where near the level of the last one.

This would've been a better cover:

http://www.rap-up.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/dream-my-love-single.jpg

lol sucking in his stomach

surboard & bw both otm

the actual cover is so ridiculous