The Dream Talks Leaving Def Jam & Current State of R&B

In this VladTV exclusive with DJ Heat, critically acclaimed singer/songwriter TheDream speaks about leaving Def Jam to release his solo material on Capitol Records.

"The reason I went to Def Jam in the first place is because Jay [Z] was there." Following Hov's departure and after the bulk of the people with whom he started working with at Def Jam had left, The-Dream believes, "it was time to move on."

Refreshing candor introduces Dream's insight into the current state of major record labels. The "Falsetto" vocalist asserts, "I think we [the producers and songwriters] do more developing with the artists than even the labels could do. The labels right now just pick out singles." The-Dream asserts artist development is an archaic practice, "They're not developing the artists, because if they was then it wouldn't be just one hit and you're out. They would be here for the long-term."

Evident frustration is expressed on topics like the current state of R&B. "Everything started out being aligned with R&B. All of these [Hip-Hop] records are just R&B records produced another way. Like regardless of what you want to say, if it touches you in an emotional capacity it's probably an R&B record."

He continues, "It's just unfortunate that the, true, what we would call R&B artists can't be themselves. They feel like they have to be and do what Rap is doing in order to keep up...Along the lines we at radio kinda got fickle with what was going on with a lot of these one-hit-wonders, with these Rap records that were great but we didn't understand that with that comes less training and less responsibility."

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