Name: The Dream

Age: 28

Who is This Guy?: Born in Rockingham, North Carolina, but raised in Atlanta, Georgia, The Dream has penned some of the hottest songs of the year, including Rihanna‘s Umbrella (which he wrote it only 12 minutes), J. Holiday‘s “Bed”, and the chorus to Yung Joc‘s “Coffee Shop”. Now he’s taking it to the next level and starting his own singing career off with his first single “Shawty is the Shit (Shawty is a 10)” on Def Jam records.

How long have most of you been sleepin’?: Although he’s only been signed to Def Jam as an artist for a few months now, The Dream has been writing songs since about the 3rd grade. During his professional witting career, in addition to writing one of the best selling songs of the year (Rihanna‘s “Umbrella”), he’s also written songs for R.Kelly, B2K, Nivea (whom is also his wife), Puddle of Mudd, Sting and even the very popular Britney Spears/Madonna collaboration, “Me Against the Music”.Currently he’s working with Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Nicole Sheringzer and Usher to name a few …get ya late pass!

Quotable Quote: “I feel blessed enough to step out and (transition from writing to singing). I started out in a singing group when I was in, like, high school…you know, everybody starts off in this business in some kind of way wanting to perform. There’s nobody that says ‘you know what I wanna do? I’m gonna be a back-up dancer!’…whether they’re a back-up dancer or not, they’re not starting out saying ‘ yea Imma get behind Michael, and Imma just stay back here’…I stepped out so that I can have more control over the things that i write. It’s like a Kanye West thing; he has things that he wants to say. Sometimes, as a producer, he can get people to say them; sometimes he can’t. But now he can say them himself when somebody else doesn’t want to say them…it’s the other 50% of the power…”

Influences: “Rhythm of the night by Debarge. (it had) so many melodies, the harmony was crazy…. Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror… Sam Cooke, Otis Reading …my mom would play a lot of old school stuff from where she was from when she was little…and then she would whoop my ass (*laughs*), so I remember those songs cuz she’d be whoopin my ass while they played…I wasn’t doin nothin, (I was) in Georgia so ….you know…in Georgia you just get ass whoopins…my house was just no-nonsense. Any type of goofy activity was an ass whoopin. If you said the word ‘goofy’, you was gettin an ass whoopin…but it helped me in life, cuz now I don’t do things that don’t make sense”

What makes him DX Next worthy?: The Dream has already proven himself to be just as big (if not bigger than) the next Ne-Yo. And, this renaissance man’s capabilities extend way beyond song writing and singing: he also he plays the trumpet, guitar, and drums, and is also an accomplished painter and sculptor with gallery displays across Atlanta. It’s no wonder why a man with such broad horizons doesn’t like to define the sound of his music:

“It just sounds like music.” he says, “That’s exactly what it sounds like. It just sounds like music. You know, those lil (categories) its just like religion. (Record Execs say) ‘we’ll put this hat on this (sound) and this hat on (that sound)’…. blah blah blah. it’s just music. It’s very 80’s inspired though, because I think that the 80’s just had a lot of melody…everybody was just having they good time… of course everybody was on drugs, but…( *laughs*), everybody was having a good time, all the records sounded like everybody was high…”

With an impressive list of writing credits already, The Dream is only just getting started. He carries himself as the full package, a writer, a singer, an artist, a musician, AND an infectiously funny personality. Not only is he talented beyond belief, but he’s humble and like-able (something rarely found in the music business these days). With the big names in the industry already backing him and a sound thats incredibly catchy, The Dream is well on his way to making all of his come true, while proving his longevity in the process.