“Trick and I go all over the place,” he said in a 2012 interview about the creative process.

The-Dream, Tricky and their cohort Carlos “Los Da Mystro” McKinney merge Atlanta hip-hop - primarily snap music and proto-trap - with electronic music via lush synth pads (check the pillowy chords that open “Right Side of My Brain”) and flourishes of baroque music provided by acoustic instruments (check the Spanish-style guitar licks and timpani hits that accent the last 90 seconds of that same song). Money is a more carefully considered whole than Love Hate, which he wrote and recorded in eight days flat. In sound, scope and narrative arc, Love Vs. Instead, he followed the path paved by ‘70s auteurs like Isaac Hayes or Randy Newman: allow others to make hits out of your catchiest songs while devoting most of your attention to ambitious solo albums. Money feels like the moment he realized that his unique voice, while clear and capable, was never going to carry massive singles on its own, like Usher’s or Chris Brown’s.

“But there’s certain shit they can’t steal from me.” Love Vs. “I noticed that people can steal certain stuff,” he said in a recent interview, looking back on on what he described as a move away from a “basic Dream” sound for Love Vs. But it also felt like a bit of a grab bag at times, so he aimed for something more singular on his follow-up. The-Dream’s 2007 debut, Love Hate, contains some truly great R&B music, dabbling in Prince homages (“Fast Car”), psychedelic slow jams (“Falsetto”) and punchy pop (the Rihanna-assisted “Livin’ A Lie”) while Top 20 singles “Shawty Is Da Shit” and “I Luv Your Girl” fit comfortable into the sounds of mid-2000s radio rap. The 100 Greatest Choruses of the 21st Century

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