The songwriter and R ’n’ B singer Terius Nash has worn US$2,000 worth of rolled-up bills on a chain around his neck, but he would like to cultivate a much more expensive habit.
“Mariah Carey took me up in her private jet last week,” said Nash, who records under the name The-Dream. “It was like: Ooooooh! I’ve got to get me one of these. Because now that I’ve got a taste, I’m never going back. I’m going to fly this thing everywhere — to LA, to Atlanta, to New York. I’m going to fly this thing down the street and park it outside your apartment.”
Nash, 30, was sprawled on a couch at Power 105.1, a radio station in New York, dressed in limited-edition neon sneakers and a new black Armani jacket so crisp that it would probably crunch if you touched it. But Love vs Money, his second album as The-Dream, which is out tomorrow on Island Def Jam, explores the ways luxury living can destroy a man’s relationships, like his marriage to the R ’n’ B singer Nivea.
“Money affects everything, from who I’m with to what label I’m on, so everything I do now is about protecting it,” he said. “But I didn’t understand how powerfully that would affect my home life.”
HIT-MAKING MACHINE
He and his songwriting partner, Christopher Stewart, known as Tricky, are one of pop’s most inventive and in-demand hit-making teams. (Stewart writes the music, Nash the lyrics.) After scoring their first major break in 2003 with Britney Spears’ Me Against the Music, Billboard’s best-selling dance single that year, the duo churned out a string of number one smashes, including Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), Carey’s Touch My Body, J Holiday’s Bed and, most famously, Rihanna’s Umbrella, which earned a Grammy nomination for record of the year in 2008. Nash has often said they wrote the song in 15 minutes.
Over the past year they have composed more than 200 songs, working with artists as diverse as Usher, Jesse McCartney, Sting and Celine Dion, at a rate of US$110,000 to US$165,000 per track, Stewart said.
But while Nash is one of pop’s most reliable hit makers, he’s not yet a pop star. As The-Dream he had hit singles with Falsetto and Shawty Is a Ten, and his acclaimed, Prince-inspired 2007 debut album, Love/Hate, sold 537,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. He has been criticized for an uncharismatic stage presence, however, and when he opened for Mary J Blige and Jay-Z on their blockbuster Heart of the City tour, his set was largely ignored by critics. When the Grammy nominations for this year were announced, he was upset that his solo work was overlooked.
“Even though in my mind I know I should have beat everyone, I also know that some people missed the first album,” he said. “So now it’s about marketing. Now I’ve got the Mariahs and the Kanyes and the Jamie Foxxes of the world saying, ‘I’ve seen The-Dream write four hit songs in 40 minutes.’ Soon the pop world will be like, ‘OK, we see you now.’”
‘LOVE VS MONEY’
With Love vs Money he’s ready to do whatever it takes to make himself a boldface name. He has been showing up at parties with the R ’n’ B singer Christina Milian, sparking rumors that they are dating — gossip conveniently timed to mesh with the release of Us Against the World, the new single he wrote for her. He also upped the star power on the new album with cameos by Kanye West, Lil Jon and Carey, who also appears in the video for My Love.
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