Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

The-Dream Speaks On 1997 Album

Singer/songwriter The-Dream, who treated fans to a free album released online this week, spoke about his recently released 1977 project with Billboard.com, saying:

“I just wanted to give the people something, because I felt like it was so much time going by,” The-Dream said to Billboard.

“You can’t see that much of me if I don’t put records out, so I just had to put it out,” Dream said due to his album The Love, IV (Diary if a Mad Man) being pushed back indefinitely because of contract issues with Def Jam Records.

“The business of a label is to make money — my business is to make music. I’m gonna get paid if I do it right. So I’m fine with [releasing a free album]. It’s more like advertisement for me.”

The 1977 album was released under Dream’s government name, Terius Nash, to avoid any conflicts with his record label.

Billboard also reports:

As previously hinted on Twitter, The-Dream says that people at Def Jam are “not too happy about” the free release of “1977,” but reveals that his relationship with the label is much improved after the two sides disputed over the rollout of “Love King.”

“Oh yeah, they’re better than this time last year, definitely,” he says of his ties to Def Jam.

“I won’t be able to make the same rookie mistake that I made before, which is, with ‘Love King,’ turning it in at the wrong time and not picking my own singles, which was never the case on the first two albums.

That just won’t ever happen again. So now we’re in a place where we’re all good.”

Dream is currently finishing up his Love IV album and insists fans can still expect it  by the end of the year.

“I’m gonna try. Maybe I should put out another free album-I’m sure that Def Jam would assassinate me!” he says.

“I’ll probably keep writing [for ‘The Love, IV’]. I’ve gotten a couple phone calls — they wanted to take two records from this ‘1977’ album and maybe shoot a couple videos for them and cap them onto the album. But it’s pretty much done.”

Download Dream’s 1977 album here.