The-Dream on new album ‘Love/Hate 2,’ writing Beyoncé & Rihanna hits, growing up with T.I. & chemistry with Clipse

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1:08Prices may be higher for delivery. Milo's Money Days are here, and we're making it rain for rewards members. For the first time ever, when you make a purchase of$200 or more through July 12th, you'll get up to$30 back in extra Milo's money. Not a member yet? Join for free today. because members get more at Lowe's. My Lowe's Money Award varies based on status. Members in gold get 30, silver get 20, and bronze get 10. My Lowe's Money valid for 30 days. Restrictions and more terms at Lowe's.com slash My Lowe's Money Days. What's up, fam? It's sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y 'all?

1:43It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the hosts of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together. We're breaking down the biggest headlines, the viral moments, and the stories everyone's talking about across women's sports. From game-changing performances to culture-shifting conversations, we'll give you our takes, our debates, and a few laughs along the way. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone Watches Women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been in sessions with guys that we thought were the greatest. Make me come and all their friends are acting like it's incredible with the beautiful straight trash.

2:18I call it the producer bounce. They're trying to convince you that it's shit hot in the lake. They hit you with the head and all, they're like, yo, nigga. And I'm like, nah, nigga, that shit ain't working on me, cuz.

2:43Yeah, yeah, what up, y 'all? This is Joe Crack the Don. You know who it is, your boy Jada. It's the Joe and Joe. It's the Joe and Jada show. Every show legendary Every show iconic Meaning We busting y 'all asses Yo Dream I know you ain't from New York Don't let these people hold up Don't let this man take you Hold up Don't let this man take you to no other podcast EP shout out to my brother EP EP Don't take him to the wax shit Right now he got the look EP how long you been knowing me Nah, nah, Dream, you look like a star right now. Don't go to them bootlegs. That shit, they is not. I'm sorry, Kiss.

3:29They's not. None of them niggas. Like, yo, this shit is over for them niggas. Them niggas is. You know what I call them motherfucking podcasts right now? Them shit is like the hospice. They ready to die, niggas. They ready to die. They floating right now. They on life support. They look flabby and sick. Gang kiss, gang kiss Play up They gave him the puro today

3:59When you think of today's guest We're not talking about just another name in the credits We're talking about the architect behind the anthems That raised the whole generation You hear me? You think nine Grammys you know how fucking hard it is to get nine grand at this point I'm begging nine grand I ain't got one we're talking about diamond plaques hooks so strong they turn R &B pop and hip hop into one conversation you think umbrella single ladies all of the lights a pen so sharp it bent the culture in real time when you think of today's guest you think of the quiet mastermind who turned love, heartbreak and temptation into scriptures for the clubs the cars and the late nights you think a two decade run still hitting new gears coming back with Love Hate Part 2 just to remind everybody what real songwriting feels like.

5:26When you think of today's guest, you think legend. You think visionary. You think one of one. That's right. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dream to Joe and Jay.

5:48my brother crazy right now you ain't me y 'all dream you got that Bottega scarf that leather shit on right now over the way I had to hit it a little bit Bottega scarf over the way looking like the dream right now motherfucker looking like dream you know I had to get right I know y 'all was up here you know what happens to me dream man is and then we gonna go I know I'm what happens to me is I want people who are fans of Fat Joe, wherever they see me, I want to float by. I want them to say, damn, that Fat Joe, they look in the restaurant, he fly, he's smelling good, they look, they say, damn, that's Fat Joe.

6:31They want to see me pulling off with some drop top shit, some shit. Yo, Fat Joe, sometimes you're a fan of somebody and when you see them in person, they don't look like what they advertise. Their dream look like the fucking dream right now. He look like the fucking dream. Yo, dream. Man, I appreciate it. You're giving me that experience, man. I appreciate it, bro. I'll take that. Alright, thanks, brother. I appreciate it. You got your flags, you know. I got some flags right there. Just in case. Oh, I got all my flags. That's right. I do got my flags over here. They got the first one kind of matching you over here.

7:10Yo, dream, let me ask you a question, right? So when you do it, I'm just skipping all the way and say, when you do a show or tour, do you ever do a segment about the songs you wrote for other people? Man, it's so crazy that you say that. Because that's the idea going into this next phase of my whole shit is breaking it down. Like how, and even on stage, like I don't think these songs that I've been doing, man, I do them so fast that I just became accustomed to not. I was just talking about that with the camera. It's kind of the same thing. I'm like, I didn't get pictures the first time around.

7:47I wasn't taking pictures. Me? I was just grinding, going to the studio. like alright see y 'all later versus I think Lenny asked the reason why he came up is we were working in a Mercer on No Church and so he has this picture of Ye's Maybach Mine's and Jay's all three on the street and I had to ask him for the picture I could have took the picture myself but I had to ask Lenny Lenny got like 2 billion dollars worth of pictures over there by the way I got no pictures with Biggie Smalls. Oh, no. That was my man. See, that's what I mean. I got a blurry one somebody cheated and shot off a balcony, and we're like fucking grainy.

8:34I don't have no clear picture with Biggie. I got one with me, him, Puff, Kim, and Bone Thugs. You know what I'm saying? That's crazy. I got like three pictures. And you was with him every day. You want fucking smashes, the Benjamins, all that shit. At one time, it wasn't about pictures. I'm an only guy. Like, three or four pictures with Big. I don't got a lot. That's crazy. That's nuts, right? Yeah, we wasn't taking pictures. We wasn't taking pictures. And it was the other one. Oh, yeah. Right. That's right. Motherfucker ran out to you and said, yo, let me take a picture. They had a whole fucking orchestra with them.

9:14They look like Andre 3000 at the Met Gala. Nigga, pull out the bazooka camera. Yo, it was so rare for someone to have an actual camera back in the days because it wasn't on the phone. It was like you had to have a camera. Disposable. Disposable joints. Most people had them, yeah. Joints you going to graduation, your mind's saying. Get them little Kodak joints and drop them off at the pharmacy. Your dream, you're special. You're very unique and extremely, you're a genius. You're talented. Thank you, man. I love when you collaborate with Pushing. not just clips not just when you on pushing yo let me tell you that's one of them I be looking for right I don't care if it's a smash it's not a smash for some reason he bring out that you be on that shit when you on there with pushing like you don't turn from I love you you over here killing niggas on that push you so I feel you know it's like one of those things where you like yo that energy, because I'm from the block, regardless of what it looks like, I'm from that space.

10:24But I do a different thing. But whenever that energy's around, I'm like... Ooh. You get right in that chain. What? I'm like, yo. I've been waiting. Like, let's go. Let me get one of those. Yeah, I like, even if we're just talking on text and just lyrically going back and forth, I like the sparring even in that case. When did you realize your voice. Your voice is everybody's voice is an instrument, but your voice is a different... Your shit is incredible. The way you able to go different ranges and hit different notes and take it... When did you really know? I got one of these fucking most incredible voices of all time.

11:09The craziest thing, I used it more as a utility. I never really thought that much of my voice in that way because I felt like everybody just had a unique thing that they did. I didn't even understand something that you just said, which was the range of a thing to go into a falsetto, that type of way out of a tenor and how I was doing it. A lot of that came with band. I had been in, I started playing trumpet in the third grade. So because band happened and we, I was just talking about like festival music and stuff not too long ago, you're going into like festival music is this thing that happens right around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

11:46So the band, if you're young and you're able to actually go through this thing that I went through, which was great, you have clarinets, flutes, you have all these sections coming together to do a particular thing. So in my mind, when I was young, I could hear even now, I can't even hear a note without hearing the other parts happening. So my voice transitioned just into that. What do you mean by that? What do you mean? Because I really want to understand that. You can't hear an instrument without hearing the other instrument. What do you mean? Nothing could be like singled out to you. Like you hear it all.

12:22I hear it all. Even if that vocal, if the lead vocal stays with the lead, I still hear all of the harmony notes that go with it. I know exactly when they should happen. I can feel the buildup and the momentum. And in band, it's written on your sheet music that you were reading in festival time. Like I was to read music and to say, oh, crescendo is coming. Like everybody knew there was a swell coming. Like all of that stuff I put into everything that I'm doing here on this side. But it's just, you know, in the beginning, I never talked about as much as I just started kind of open up and talk about like how that impacted me a lot as a kid.

13:01And now I'm trying to make sure that the kids got that again because they just took the shit out of school. you know like when I got I think in high school they was just like nah we ending the program. I'm like you keeping everybody from selling dope. Like we need to keep doing this. So they pulled it out of school and kind of yeah I'm still a little heartbroken about that. You already know when it's a real moment you need a real bottle. That's why we rock with 1800 Tequila. Y 'all heard me? These people been making tequila for 11 generations. That's right 11. That's a legacy. That's OG status.

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14:16It ain't trying too hard. It's just that. 1800 tequila, real legacy, real smooth. That's the move. True, true, true. One. Some of the artists you looked up to growing up. and then two what's your class of the ATL when you came out who else was popping at that same time who else you was looking at like alright I gotta step my shit up or I'm happy for them I seen them at all the talent shows the band who are some artists you looked up to previously before your time and when you came out came out around the same time that would be Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, of course. And man, Otis is just another machine.

15:09Of course, we all Michael. Prince, I got later. Like, I feel like Michael was the person that you got when you were young. You trying to do all the dances and shit. Prince was saying shit that you probably didn't know what you like. I don't know what he's saying. You got to be like 16 before you like. That's what he meant. That's what you meant by Nicki. Now I know exactly. And so to grow into those four guys like at that Cornerstone, man, for me, that's why I honed. I always tried to, the best way to even put songwriting was trying to write the 10th record on Thrill It.

15:44Every time I write, trying to make whatever the 10th record would be, can I make that album? And so that's how I just went into my whole career on this side. And when I was coming up, me and Tip went, me and Tip went to the same elementary school. We were from the same block. I've been knowing this nigga since I was. We were riding bikes. That's what I'm saying. When he was deflating the basketball at the park. That's what he said over there. He said they wouldn't let him, so he started stabbing the basketball. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, there you go. That was it. And so watching his rise and being happy, he's like, yo, this nigga from my block, this is crazy.

16:23And just Atlanta in general, y 'all understand. saying like for us for you guys y 'all had the business of it already put together how it worked here you know we just knew how to get jerked for our money before y 'all yeah that's what i mean i'm just getting robbed before y 'all yeah we just sacrificed now it's our turn we were the lamb we were the sacrificial lambs up here getting raped and pillaged by these niggas over here at first it looked like we knew business and then robbed us first then they went down there yeah true so with that being said you know the south is like based on that bible belt man like it's based in like that church thing we didn't even think had an idea of you can make bread from doing that thing it was just we were just doing it even when rapid we were just battling because we saw the shit we weren't thinking like oh you can make a living we was already setting up in our mind our living was going to be a certain type of way especially if you had grandparents around everybody church you went to church you had to get the band i mean you had to get in the chorus i don't care if you can sing or not.

17:25You in the chorus. Get up in there. You go on up in there and sing that same thing you sung at your auntie house last night. Go on up there and sing it. That's how I grew up in that space. And then once we got the business part of it, I remember the first thing that clicked to me. I saw Dallas Austin at Lenox. And that nigga had, shout out to Dallas, that nigga had a fucking, I think a 430, had a Ferrari something. I saw that shit. I was like, wait, he don't sell. I know you don't sell dope. What you getting? He's like, shit, somebody told me like, oh, that nigga write. I said, I'm sorry, what?

18:05TLC. He said, he write music. I said, nigga, you get that from writing music? Nigga, that changed my whole shit. I was like, oh, nigga. I've been doing that this whole time. You got a Ferrari out of that? You've been one of the few that are a star on your own when you drop your own music and able to write hits for others. Unfortunately, sometimes when people write hits for other artists, humongous hits, they want to be an artist themselves and it never happens. It never pop off. And I personally, I think I'm one of the great minds of music. I'm not lying to you, right? I really honestly believe that.

18:45If I told my family that, I'd be like, yo, I think, you know, I know this music shit. Like, I'm arguing with Remy right now. I changed the drums on her new song and she don't like them. And I'm like, I know the hit. Don't play with me. Nah, I don't like it. I said, no, I know the hit. I threw the shorty swing my way. Now you out of here. What you do? Them drums. Shorty swing my way. Like, I'm trying to, you going to make a girl. Nah. We ain't going to see that no more. You couldn't wait for that. I couldn't wait. I just seen some hips going. And I was like, I'll just look over here for a minute.

19:22I'm just trying to say, I know music. And so when I see brothers and sisters that write hits for other artists, but it don't happen for them, I couldn't figure that one out yet. Like, I don't know. I don't really have a real answer for somebody who writes the biggest shit in the world. And then they want to be an artist and they don't go nowhere. I don't have the answer. Like, you know, I really study all this shit and I just be like, and I be confused like how they can't blow up as an artist. But you, one of the very few that can write Umbrella, but write yourself hits and become a star on your own.

20:05You're double blessed by God is what I'm trying to say. There's some other people that deserve it too, but it didn't happen for them. That means they didn't deserve it. that's actually that's a good line yo this guy's pretty big about it I try to tell y 'all shit that's serious no you lost your moms at 15 yes how did that oh man that's everything that's everything man that was my favorite person to lose my favorite person like that's not that won't ever not be a thing it ain't something you even wake up like alright cool today I'm it's never it's it don't care if it's 12 p.m. 3.30 at some point you're going to think about it the more success you have the more you think about because you know that they're not here to even bask in that thing to talk about hey man it's my son and that's my you know and it's a certain what the craziest part is the protection you miss of a mom looking at across like what you want girl no no you need that thing is a you don't need to talk about that different type of thing they just step in Like, you don't know she had a conversation.

21:15Like, hey, don't come around here no more. You don't see, yeah. You see that shit you don't see. Yeah, but I used to go to war. Come home, my mom ain't know what was going on. I throw my legs on her. She rubbed my feet like I'm a baby. Wow. And I understood that protection. I was sitting on the couch like, and your mom's always... So how do you get over the trauma of being 15, losing your moms, and just staying right? because I got a nephew. My sister passed away. He ain't been the same since. If I ain't have music, man, it'll be a different story. It's more than my outlet. And a lot of those, that's why I would have that kind of chemistry with Ree and B, those things, because I'm giving them a thing I can't even give my mom, by the way.

22:03And there are certain things happening on just even a spiritual level in those times where anytime I see a woman in that space, that's just, that's my mom I'm dealing with. Like anytime. And so you never get over it. You turn it into, it's easier said than done because you don't sound like something that a teacher would tell you, turn it into a positive, you know, whatever the thing is. But that's exactly what I did. A lot of those songs, man, near and dear, that feel a certain type of way, all that feeling is still my love for my mom and my admiration for her. And that's how I'm able to exist on that side and tell it from that point of view.

22:46I was having this conversation at the barbecue the other day. Glizzy? Nah, the glizzy's always the glizzy. They made some wack glizzies, gaw. How you gonna make a wack glizz, man? That's when I knew shit was all, this shit was bad, man. Like, the glizzy wasn't hitting. I was like, if the glizzy ain't, like, how do you fuck up a glizzy? My nigga, you buy the Nathan's. You boil the shit. How do you mess? I knew it wasn't a vibe, man. But listen, I'm not saying that. The beautiful thing about having a barbecue in the house, shout out DJ Serge, he was killing it, is just you just get to playing music.

23:31And then we started discussing movie soundtracks in the 80s and 90s. And then in the face, they had Waiting to Excel and Boomerang. Yes, and Boomerang. Those soundtracks. Crazy. Like back in the day, soundtracks, Soul Food used to be like, the soundtracks used to be everything. Boy, I was just talking about this. I was like, man, you know what? It's because the culture was so great at stuff. We dismiss it so soon and we just stopped doing certain shit. it's a testament to how great we are we just get bored and we just try some other shit that shit did never not work it always worked it always hit straight home artists were able to graduate on those soundtracks out of a space you have to use your own album to say I'm trying to turn a corner here y 'all gonna let me turn it they like not without that picture I need a picture of what that scene whatever that scene is I need that picture and so we're not able to do that now because those type of films aren't even being generated in that space and we just stopped doing it that shit was like hip hop it was like death even when BMX came from Pac all the way together voice to men man them soundtracks has some shit on there mama that shit was crazy but that's that was an outlet that was our thing I just yeah have you ever not heard have you ever not heard a song so think of all the music we consume and everything we know have you ever been to a barbecue and they play like an old school song and you're like what the fuck is that

25:22my nigga that shit happened to me I was stuck the song was so good I made him play it three times I'm like what the fuck is that I never heard that everybody was like this. My aunt knew it. I was so shocked. I never heard it. I got to ask Serge. Don't worry. Hopefully he wasn't fried.

25:45He's like, I heard it three times. I don't know. No, I made him play it three times. It was R &B? Yeah. Yo, I never heard it before. Every now and then that happens though. I feel like. it's hard for me man I don't want to tell you that I'm damn near a fossil I'm that old and I listen my mom's passed away a fossil before she passed away if I called her right now she was sitting there listening to old like my family sold music I mean 24 hours a day my mom's go to sleep so it's so hard that I don't know an old school record and they could play that shit. That shit sounded crazy. I was like, yo, what the fuck?

26:33What's that? I said, play that shit back. She was talking that shit. I was like, yo. And then I looked, my aunt knew it, but I was asking everybody else, yo, you ever heard this shit? They was like, nah, I never heard this shit. It was like, but has this ever been a song that you guys ever heard like at a barbecue that you was like, yo, I never heard that before? Wow, that's a good one, Joe. I don't think it has. Yeah, I just don't remember when it happened to me. That shit happened to me the other day, bro. That shit was crazy. This song is fucking amazing. And y 'all, let me tell you something.

27:06Maybe we can save it for the next podcast, but your man, the chef at the restaurant, I'm trying to save him. I'll buy you away. I went to an Italian restaurant. It's the greatest on the planet Earth. The chef called me a hundred times. It's a little joint and I keep telling him, I told the chef like 20 times. Yo, chef, he hit me up. He was like, yo, say the name. Say the name. I said, yo, I don't think you ready for this type. We went Johnson's Fried Chicken. They used the mustard. I know down south y 'all used the mustard. Over here is rare. But my spot, Johnson's Fried Chicken, they got the mustard sauce.

27:45Guys were selling 20 mustard sauce a week. Now they sell 85 mustard sauce a day. Because we mentioned their restaurant and we did something. I keep trying to warn this guy, and he keeps saying, get due to who? Oh! Well, ladies and gentlemen, the name of the restaurant is called Padre Pio. It's right over Padre, like far over Padre Pio. And it's right over that Cuomo Bridge. That was another, that was I want to call him now, though, and let him know. He told me to say it! Yeah, I know, but you won't let him go. I told him 15 times, I said, you're not ready for this! Andre Pio. Hold in. Flo, run it up.

28:27Hey, don't run out of whatever you got over there. Don't run out of it. Y 'all went two times in one week, and it's kind of far from my house. It's like 45 minutes. I like them type of spots. It ain't the spot no more. He made me say it. I don't think he understand. Now you can't go. Oh, you ain't going back? I can't get it. You ain't going back? I brought to you the fucking stoop at the bar seat. They not giving me the shit. He just go Uber eat everything. You ain't going back. Sir said, you'll never know. High gloss. you'll never know high gloss is the artist this shit pull that up ah you hear that shit yo don't stop now I'm at the pool couple of 1800 you was slizzing oh no this shit sounded like like crap Wait till she start talking that shit.