Features
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In the five years that followed SZA’s culture-shifting 2017 debut album, Ctrl, the pressure to deliver another ambitious, eclectic project reached a boiling point. Yet somehow, she managed to cut through the noise, surpassing the astronomically high expectations set by Ctrl with her much anticipated follow-up.
When SOS arrived Dec. 9, 2022, on RCA Records and Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), it didn’t just successfully steer clear of the sophomore slump — it elevated her to superstardom. Across its whopping 23 tracks, SZA embarked on a fearless sonic voyage, dipping her toes in gospel, grunge, rap and whatever else she fancied outside of R&B’s boundaries. Similarly, she took her writing up several notches with dynamic, vivid storytelling that tugged deeper at heartache and self-acceptance. And its commercial success has already made history: SOS debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent seven consecutive weeks there, making SZA, Taylor Swift and Adele the only three women to rule the all-genre albums chart for that long. The set then returned to No. 1 for an eighth week on Feb. 9 and just claimed a ninth (on the chart dated Feb. 25), boasting more weeks atop the Billboard 200 than any R&B album since Usher’s Confessions ruled for nine nonconsecutive weeks in 2004. SOS‘s nine weeks at No. 1 also gave it the most weeks atop the chart for an album by a woman in nearly seven years, since Adele’s 25.
And yet, despite all that success, she still feels like she has to prove herself.
“Right now, I just have extreme gratitude because I swear to God, I never thought I’d be No. 1 for even a week, let alone seven,” the 33-year-old artist born Solána Imani Rowe tells Billboard in early February as she cruises along the Pacific Coast Highway — a brief moment of reprieve before she really hits the road this spring for her first-ever arena tour.
“SZA is a force,” says Terrence “Punch” Henderson, SZA’s manager and TDE president. “To go seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 is legendary. She’s a true generational artist, a cultural reset, if you will. For her album SOS to blend so many different genres together in a cohesive frame shows her genius and versatility. Then you have the voice, the words, the pain, the growth, the relapsing, the delivery, the stories, etc. … a true masterpiece.”
While the industry and public alike overwhelmingly share Henderson’s sentiment, Billboard’s 2023 Woman of the Year remains prone to self-doubt. Thoughts like “Do I deserve this?” and “I wish I did better” frequently creep into her mind, and she’s working on quieting them. She has already released new music since SOS dropped, by way of her February appearance on the remix of Lizzo’s 2022 song “Special.”
“Manifestation is real,” Lizzo tells Billboard. “I declare 2023 the year of SZA. But SZA has been Woman of the Year for me for at least a decade. I’m always such a fan of her music, a fan of her artistry, but I really love her as a friend. Solána Imani Rowe, you will always be ‘the one.’ ”
And, once she releases the deluxe edition of SOS — which will feature 10 additional tracks and is coming soon — SZA says she’ll be done trying to convince herself that she deserves her flowers.
“I guess I need to stop trying to figure out what it means,” SZA admits, “and start realizing and living in what it is.”
How did you feel after SOS was released? Did you have any hesitations about its reception?
You know when something is really popular, the positive is loud and the negative is loud? I’ve never been quite this popular before, so the negative is also really loud, and it threw me off. I was like, “OK, cool. Noted.” And I tried to figure out what actually resonates with me as a true assessment of my work and what is not true and something I can’t allow myself to internalize. I know people wanted [Ctrl’s] “Broken Clocks,” “Love Galore” and all that other sh-t again, but I departed from that by choice. Not because I couldn’t do that again; it was just because I wanted to grow. I wanted to do something completely different.
It’s hard making music as a Black woman [because] we don’t get the luxury to try something and have it be something that’s genuinely part of us. You have to allow people to get to know different parts of you. Some people may really f–king hate that, and some people might enjoy it. And I’m grateful for those who enjoy it.
Were you surprised that “Kill Bill” — which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 to become your highest-charting song to date — was the SOS song that took off?
I knew it would be something that pissed me off. It’s always a song that I don’t give a f–k about that’s just super easy, not the sh-t that I put so much heart and energy into. “Kill Bill” was super easy — one take, one night.
The chart success of SOS has put you in the same conversation as pop superstars. Is it important for you to be recognized outside of the R&B space?
To even be in the conversation with Taylor [Swift] and Miley [Cyrus], even the fact that our fans are fighting, is ridiculous because it’s like, “How?!” I just really appreciate the opportunity to be in that conversation at all. It’s something I never dreamed of.
What are your thoughts about your upcoming first-ever arena tour and performing this album in front of your fans?
It’s interesting because my other shows were intimate, and I felt like people were really coming to see me. But I know certain people are just coming to see what the hype is about, and that makes me nervous. But I just want to put on the best show that expresses my theatrical side.
I am deeply excited to pop ass and cry and give theater. I want it to feel like a play on Broadway, but more like Suspiria and Cirque du Soleil in the weirdest way. I want it to be smart and exhilarating and exhausting and exciting like a party, but also like a therapy session.
How do you tour an emotionally intense album like SOS? Do you insulate yourself from the material, or does it inevitably dredge up emotions?
I never know. When I was performing “20 Something” before my grandma died, it didn’t hit me the same. And then after my grandma died, I could barely get through it at rehearsal. Who knows what any of these songs will bring up for me in real life? Shooting the video for “Nobody Gets Me” was really f–king sad. I cried a lot. I’m just going to wing it and see.
What does it mean for you to be Billboard’s Woman of the Year?It really scares me. But I really want to do something with my time in the sun right now. There’s so much I want to do for other people. I need to do something to deserve that in a way that has nothing to do with me, something that’s selfless and uplifts other women, people, period. It makes me feel more responsible than I was before. I feel like I owe everyone so much more than just smiling and getting onstage and waving. Part of it I know is just letting God use me and be myself and letting that be part of the work. But I know that there’s something more that I have to do.
SZA photographed on October 11, 2022 at Quixote Studios in Los Angeles.
AB + DM
You were the first woman signed to TDE in 2013. How did you manage to maneuver through the male-dominated label for nearly a decade on your own?
I didn’t mind the lack of female artists. I just felt like I was always the first to do something, and that was frustrating. It was me telling y’all I need hair and makeup because I’m super hands-on, on top of being a woman. I’m making PowerPoints trying to explain why I want to be in this type of publication versus that type of publication.
It was tough, but by the same token, I think all of us grew together at the same time. They never had to do anything like this before, and we were all being so randomly innovative together by trying to figure out what makes sense. And I also liked that they weren’t trying to clean me up and look like anybody else. They were just taking me as I was. That was really priceless, just to express myself visually how I wanted to and without the judgment of “Let’s make her pretty or sparkly and shiny and sterile.”
Who are some women in the music industry whom you look up to?
There’s nobody in the industry that f–ks with me and that I f–k with the way that Lizzo f–ks with me and the way I f–k with her. She never made me feel like because I don’t have a No. 1 song or I [previously] didn’t have a No. 1 album that I wasn’t capable. She’d been telling me that she thought I was the one for years. The way that she thinks of me so highly as a human being and as an artist means so much to me. I just have never met anybody like her in this entire industry.
There’s a lot of women I look up to in general that I don’t know personally, but watching them is incredible. Beyoncé, but who doesn’t look up to Beyoncé? I love Jozzy’s and Starrah’s energy. I love the way Nija is from New Jersey and has been able to transmute her energy from being a writer to an artist. Kehlani’s hella effervescent, and you can just feel the energy when she’s performing. I love Chloe Bailey and her commitment to perfection — I feel like she’s going to be a legend. Even Taylor letting that whole situation go with her masters and then selling all of those f–king records. That’s the biggest “f–k you” to the establishment I’ve ever seen in my life, and I deeply applaud that sh-t.
What does the future look like for SZA?
After I do the deluxe, I’m hoping to be able to accept that this chapter is done. I’m looking forward to actually feeling proud of myself and not just smiling and nodding at accolades but really feeling it internally and knowing that I’m good enough.
A version of this story will appear in the Feb. 25, 2023, issue of Billboard.
The Project
GLOW, out Friday (Feb. 17) via Secretly Canadian/EEVILTWINN
The Origin
Wesley Joseph’s introduction to music occurred through his father, who was in a soul band when his son was born. Growing up just outside of Birmingham, England in Walsall, Joseph (real name Joseph Wesley Ripollés-Williams) remembers hearing music 24/7 around his house. It wasn’t until he saw an early video of Mac Miller rapping into a USB microphone that he realized he could make music from his bedroom, too.
When he was a teenager, Joseph bought his own microphone and used GarageBand to make what he describes now as “really bad rap songs.” After setting higher expectations for himself, Joseph improved on his DIY approach and sharpened his production skills so that he could ultimately make music his way and create a sonic world where he wouldn’t be boxed in.
In 2020, Joseph released his first song, titled “Imaginary Friends.” A year later, he dropped his first EP, Ultramarine, a project that he says shows everything he’s capable of in one, brief moment.
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The Sound
Joseph, now 26, is adamant about not being defined as just a rapper. “Ultimately, [rapping] is third, or fourth even, on the list of things I do when I make music,” he says. “I’m creative-directing everything, I’m producing, I’m singing, there’s so much going on.”
Ultramarine and GLOW are both testaments to his holistic approach to his art. The latter’s first single, “Cold Summer,” starts with an eerie string and piano intro before erupting into a hip-hop-infused beat with Joseph rapping and singing. The project also includes songs like “Sugar Dive,” a dance-influenced record with Joseph flexing his falsetto, and the alt-R&B closer “Light Light.”
While Joseph can’t quite pinpoint his sonic inspirations, he knows that his fondness and use of harmonies, melodies, bridges and chord progressions stem from the American soul music he grew up on. “The weird algorithmic makeup of my musical DNA that makes a bridge happen is probably because I grew up on soul music from America,” he says.
Joseph also has a visual background — he moved to London in 2016 to study filmmaking in university — which explains his cinematic approach to his music videos. In 2020, he released Pandomony, a seven-minute short film which he wrote, directed and scored himself.
The Record
The eight-song GLOW is an evolution of Joseph: he continues his growth by leading with his emotions. “Ultramarine gave me confidence. If that’s me as a baby, then GLOW is me going into school,” he says. For Joseph, GLOW represents the contrast between his euphoric highs and harsh realities. The project is therapeutic for Joseph, as he’s used it to embrace his fears and work through growing pains. “The feeling the record gives is almost like a warm glow in the darkness,” he explains.
The first half of the record — “Glow,” “Monsoon,” “Sugar Dive,” and “I Just Know Highs” — represents light, and the project then shifts to darkness with songs “Cold Summer,” “25,” “Hiatus,” and “Light Light.” Following Ultramarine, Joseph was still in a somber place, which led him to making the dark half first — yet he ultimately decided that having the project transition from light to dark made the most sense. “When you listen to it on loop, it’s a journey,” he says. “When you start it from the top again, it’s like being reborn, and just going through all of the contrasts of life.”
The Breakthrough
Early last year, Joseph signed with indie record label Secretly Canadian. “They understood exactly what I wanted and who I wanted to be, and are completely [facilitating] all of the things that I want to do, in the way that I want to do them,” he says. “I’ve always kind of seen myself as someone who did his own thing, and I felt like they saw the value in my potential.”
The Future
At the end of April, Joseph will embark on his first North American tour, performing in L.A., Brooklyn and Toronto. He is also working on his debut album, which he says is in only in the beginning stages and “definitely not” arriving this year.
Wesley Joseph
Lewis Vorn
The Piece of Advice Every New Indie Artist Needs to Hear
“Belief fuel goes further than anything else. Belief is the type of thing where if you have a lot of it, it just literally multiplies. Everyone around you believes the same way. You just have to believe in yourself way more than you think you need to.”
One Piece of Studio Equipment You Cannot Live Without
“Currently, my Prophet 6. It’s a really beautiful, old, analog synth. You can make the most unique-sounding sounds with it.”
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“Industry plants are real. I thought that was a conspiracy theory.”
The Artist You Believe Deserves More Attention“I’ve been listening to quite a little bit of Cleo Sol lately. I think she’s so talented. She’s got an amazing collective of sounds and [she’s] a really great songwriter. Little Simz as well. She’s definitely getting her flowers which is really good to see. I would say Sampha too, I think he’s one of the best artists ever.”
Let’s start by taking a moment to consider the landscape in 2014. EDM was EDM-ing hard as DJs became the new rock stars, made insane bags, pulled in giant crowds and took over top 40 in a way never before seen or heard in the U.S.
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It was a wild, heady, thrilling and often extremely silly figureheads. With his fantastically aggressive, machinistic dubstep, the SoCal-based producer pushed forward the sound of electronic music at large with a style dismissed by many Serious Cultural Critics as “brostep,” but which nonetheless thrilled thousands of kids in the pits at his shows along with many cultural gatekeepers. Skrillex won three Grammys (and earned a best new artist nomination) in 2012, as he achieved global fame during an apex period punctuated by the release of his 2014 debut album, Recess, his only full-length to date.
Until today! Riding a tsunami of hype with a steady stream of single releases, Skrillex’s sophomore album, Quest For Fire, was unveiled on Friday (Feb. 17) via his own longstanding label OWSLA and Atlantic Records. Certainly much attention gets paid to the EDM veterans dropping albums amidst this new era of electronic music, with mixed reactions to last year’s albums by Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia, who have both changed their sounds significantly since the boom days.
But with Quest For Fire, Skrillex eschews overt reinvention. Instead, he presents music clearly made from the same DNA as his older stuff, but which has grown and evolved in the same way the scene has, and we have, and Skrillex — now 35 — has. (The album overtly references the earlier days, with opener “Leave Me Like This” sampling the iconic “OH MY GOD” from 2011’s “First Of The Year” and the 48-second “Warped Tour 05 With Pete Wentz” composed of a recording of Skrillex, then known as First To Last Singer Sonny Moore, doing a backstage interview with Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz.)
But while Quest For Fire nods to the past, it’s ultimately ultra-fresh, highlighting the impeccable sound design that Skrillex has always been a master of, while embracing and expanding his bass origins. The album incorporates D’n’B, grime, IDM and hip-hop in ways that are inventive, artful, emotional and often just plain hyphy fun. (To wit, five of the album’s previously released singles are currently on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.)
At 15 tracks, the album is weighty but without filler, incorporating a party’s worth of collaborators including Missy Elliott, Aluna, Fred Again.., Porter Robinson, Starrah, Noisia, Four Tet, Mr. Oizo, PEEKABOO, Kito and more. It seems reasonable to anticipate that many of them will be in attendance on Saturday night (Feb. 18) when Skrillex celebrates the album release with a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.
In the meantime, here are five essential, previously unreleased tracks from Quest For Fire.
“RATATA” Feat. Missy Elliott & Mr. Oizo
Skrillex and Missy Elliott have crossed paths before (see the Missy remix of Jack Ü’s “Take Ü There“), but here, Skrillex builds a bridge between their two catalogs with a spare update of Elliott’s all-time hit “Work It.” Skrillex goes wild with “this the kind of beat that goes ra-ta-ta” from that 2002 track, isolating that moment and expanding it, with Elliott’s voice spread out all over spare, plucky percussion while she delivers brand-new flows at a rapid-fire pace. The track is a co-production with French legend Mr. Oizo, one of many genre-spanning icons contributing to the star-studded LP.
“Tears” Feat. Joker & Sleepnet
A bass track that favors brooding waves of synth and galactic laser sounds over hitting listeners over the heads with bricks of low end, “Tears” is a richly complex collaboration with British dubstep star Joker and Sleepnet, the new project from Noisia’s Nik Roos. The brooding track ends with a spare skittering that segues immediately into the similarly vibed “Rumble.”
“Inhale Exale” Feat. Aluna & Kito
Skrillex and Australian producer Kito take the iconic voice of Aluna and chop it to bits so that her directive to “inhale, exhale” sounds like a fight for life. An ambulance siren punctuates the production, and she then declares, “too high, gotta come down” while passing thunderclouds of low end add an ominous feel.
“Hydrate” Feat. Flowdan, BEAM & PEEKABOO
UK grime MC Flowdan had a breakout moment on Quest For Fire‘s lead single “Rumble,” and here he gets even more screen time, entering with massive swagger and declaring with a growley flow that “it’s simple, not complicated, so when it’s hot, just stay hydrated.” Flowdan’s entrance on the track marks an ominous turn after the song starts with Jamaican-American singer/rapper Beam brightly singing about “life abundance.” The tough, deliciously womp-ey track is a collaboration with longstanding bass producer PEEKABOO, who gets more of the spotlight he’s always deserved.
“Still Here (with the ones that I came with)” Feat. Porter Robinson and Bibi Bourelly
Arguably the mission statement of the entire project, “Sitll Here” finds Skrillex, Porter Robinson and Bibi Bourelly ending the album with sweetness and buoyancy via an homage to riding with the same crew now that you have for all these years. (And if you remember that iconic photo of Skrillex, Robinson and Zedd from the heyday, you know the track’s sentiment is very much true.) With bright, emotive production that sounds like it’s been touched by fellow Quest For Fire collaborator Fred again.., Bourelly sings the song’s title on a loop — a declaration that feels like a victory that’s perhaps a bit hard-won but ultimately euphoric, like the best moments in life.
It was 1982, and Rafe Gomez wasn’t supposed to be on the roof.
Then in his early 20s, Gomez had taken the elevator to the top of the building at 30 West 21st Street in Manhattan. When the doors slid open — “there were no guardrails or anything was so dangerous,” he recalls — he was in the mix at a private party Madonna was hosting for her debut single, “Everybody.”
For her performance of the song, a trio of backup dancers point oversized flashlights at the future Material Girl, then a fixture of New York’s mega-dynamic club scene. Gomez had the sense he was witnessing history as he watched her sing and dance as the lights of the city twinkled beyond.
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“That’s what the energy was like there,” Gomez recalls of Danceteria. “You never knew what you were going to experience that was going to eventually become the thing.”
Certainly Danceteria left big impressions on those who partied there. The January announcement of Madonna’s intensely anticipated Celebrations Tour revealed that the GA pit section will be called “Danceteria” in honor of the club. Meanwhile Gomez launched a Twitch channel, Danceteria Rewind, on which he plays songs and artists heard at the club each Thursday evening from 8-10 p.m. ET, from the comfort of his home in New Jersey.
Launched as a passion project during the pandemic, Danceteria Rewind has since amassed more than 27,000 subscribers who tune in each week to hear music by artists like dance-punk group Liquid Liquid, indie-funk trio ESG and hip-hop pioneer Kidd Creole. Debbie Harry was at Danceteria. And Basquiat. Actress and Madonna associate Debi Mazar worked the elevator, as did LL Cool J. Sade tended bar. The Beastie Boys and Keith Haring were busboys. Then-emerging acts like New Order, R.E.M., Run-DMC, Nick Cave and Depeche Mode all came through for performances. Resident DJs included Mark Kamins, who helped get Madonna signed to Sire Records in 1982, and also dated her during this period.
“It was where influencers went before there were influencers,” says Gomez. It was an especially significant refuge for Gomez, who grew up in northern New Jersey and at Danceteria found a world of art, music, hedonism, style and fun that had escaped him in his hometown.
“They referred to us as bridge-and-tunnel people because we’re from outside of Manhattan,” he says, “but we went into a place like this and saw what we’d been missing this and just embraced it. We paid full price at the door, we paid for all our drinks, and we were there all night long.”
Gomez’s goal with Danceteria Rewind is to recreate the club’s vibe for people who attended, and to give a sense of the place for streamers who were too young or too far away to ever dance there. “My goal was taking all of these superstars, taking the best of everything they did and combining them every week into a two-hour journey.”
Since launching the channel in 2021 after three months of research, Gomez — whose day job is sales consulting — spends hours each week researching Danceteria and the artists who played there, recreating sets as faithfully as possible, often by digitally converting vinyl tracks that don’t already exist as purchasable digital files and remastering eight-track recordings. Tim Lawrence’s 2016 book Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor has been particularly valuable, with Gomez poring over the text for clues about what to play. While Danceteria only existed for a few years, he says the music options for his program are endless.
The channel is resonating with listeners, with upwards of 20,000 people tuning in to the stream during its biggest broadcasts. During shows Gomez is both playing music and chatting with listeners, a mix of people who were there “and are like, ‘Oh my god, haven’t heard this for 30 years,’” to younger people hearing the origins of many recognizable samples for the first time.
This pandemic project, which Gomez says does not yet turn a profit, started as a way for him to escape his house, if only mentally, during the dark days of the pandemic. Through it, he returned to an especially dynamic period of New York City club history, when, he says, “You could come in as an a creative person from across the country and find an apartment with some friends for $50 a month.”
Venue operators also capitalized on the situation, opening thousands of clubs throughout the city in the late ’70s and early ’80s, with Mudd Club, Paradise Garage, Limelight, Tunnel and others all becoming thriving destinations. But amidst this scene, everyone knew Danceteria was different.
“Unlike Studio 54 and some of these other clubs uptown, which were all about money and cachet and the guest list,” Gomez says, “at Danceteria it was almost as if they were saying, ‘If you get what we’re doing here, come on in.’ It was a refuge for people.”
Danceteria was opened by the German-born Rudolf Piper, a wealthy former stockbroker who was embedded in the downtown club circuit. (“That place had an un-fucking-believable magic, and, as you were part of it, I need to explain no longer,” Piper said of Danceteria in 2010.) After his first Danceteria location closed because it didn’t have a liquor license, Piper moved it to West 21st Street, then, Gomez says, “a s–tty part of town.”
Piper rented the first several floors of the building, forging what he called a “supermarket of style.” For the next five years Danceteria became a destination for the artsy crowd, entertaining crowds with multiple rooms of music, art performances and other sundry creative fun, until the landlord raised the rent and Piper had to shut down. Danceteria later opened at a location in The Hamptons, but, Gomez attests “it wasn’t the same.”
Forty years later, the location at West 21st Street is now occupied by luxury condos, but you can still get close to the spirit of Danceteria through Gomez’s show, a recent episode of which featured Billy Squier‘s 1980 scorcher “The Big Beat” and UTFO’s 1984 classic “Roxanne, Roxanne” — seemingly disparate tracks that illustrate how eclectic the club actually was.
And given that Danceteria Rewind is not publicly archived due to licensing issues, each show has the same special and rare quality that Gomez felt in the brick and mortar venue 40 years ago.
“You’ve just got to be there each week,” he says.
Ever since Rihanna was announced as the headliner of the Super Bowl LVII halftime show over four months ago, part of the fun for longtime fans has been trying to guess which of her many, many hits her setlist will include. Typically, Super Bowl halftime performers are given between 12 and 15 minutes to play on the world’s biggest stage — so even if Rihanna opts to perform an ultra-efficient mega-mix at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. on Sunday night (Feb. 12), she probably won’t be able to squeeze in anywhere close to her 14 career Hot 100 chart-toppers, let alone all of her 31 career top 10 singles.
So which hits are making the Super Bowl, and which ones are being left outside the stadium? Although Rihanna’s setlist is being kept tightly under wraps, it’s safe to assume that some of her defining smashes (“Umbrella,” “We Found Love,” “Diamonds,” “Rude Boy,” “Work,” “SOS”) will be featured alongside a combination of notable hits that work in a Super Bowl context (“Only Girl (in the World),” “Where Have You Been,” “Pon de Replay,” “Disturbia,” “Don’t Stop the Music,” “This is What You Came For”).
Toss in a ballad or two, and save some time for recent single “Lift Me Up” (which is nominated for the best original song Oscar — Rihanna would be smart to appeal to Academy voters on the largest platform possible!), and you’re looking at a robust setlist, full of hits and stuffed to the brim. But the truth is, Rihanna could create a memorable Super Bowl show using none of those aforementioned songs — that’s how many career hits she’s accrued. And while there’s a good sense of which Rihanna hits won’t be performed at the Super Bowl, a fair amount of them deserve to be hoisted back up for the world to see.
Here are 10 Rihanna songs that, in all likelihood, won’t be played during the Super Bowl halftime show… but if we’re being honest, they really should be.
“That’s the only place where I can relax,” 50 Cent says, his pearly whites glistening as they’ve done all day. He’s not talking about the recording studio or the performance stage — he’s talking about his Hollywood work. “When I’m chilling,” he continues, “there will be some sort of film and TV involved.”
Once considered rap’s top villain during the days of promoting his explosive 2003 debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50, at 47, is now a consummate professional. He’s punctual, debunking the theory that hip-hop stars always arrive on “rapper time.” He’s well-mannered and respectful, saying, “Please,” and “Thank you,” after each request. He’s also a great listener, allowing the staff to complete their directives during the photo shoot without stiff-arming his way into the conversation. It’s all in keeping with Curtis Jackson III’s drive to achieve a loftier ambition no one could have predicted 20 years ago: to become the biggest mogul in the TV industry.
“50 is one of the smartest guys in the rap game,” says Tony Yayo, 50’s childhood friend and co-founder of their hip-hop group G-Unit. Yayo recalls that, as kids, the South Jamaica, Queens, artist was more interested in selling pills for profit than playing with G.I. Joes. “When you look at guys like Jay-Z, Diddy and 50, those guys are geniuses,” explains Yayo. “They come from the same place we come from and made something out of nothing.”
It’s that same hustler ethos that landed 50 his deal with Interscope Records in 2002, after surviving being shot nine times outside of his grandmother’s house in Queens just two years prior. By signing under two Interscope imprints — Eminem’s Shady Records and Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment — 50 became the final piece in what would become one of hip-hop’s strongest triumvirates.
From his first day in the spotlight, 50 was a brawny, gun-toting MC that imposed fear upon rivaling East Coast rappers. He decimated the mixtape scene by remixing popular hit records and peppering them with his street flair. No instrumental was safe, and once 50 got his hands on Dr. Dre’s bombastic production, his rise was imminent. He rocketed into mainstream acclaim with “Wanksta,” followed by the multiplatinum No. 1 smash “In Da Club.” His thunderous reign continued with 2003’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and 2005’s The Massacre, two gargantuan Billboard 200 chart-toppers that sold a combined 14 million records in the United States, according to Luminate. And his various feuds with hip-hop figures, from Murda Inc. to Kanye West, kept him in the news as he kept collecting hits.
Although 50 enjoyed the competition, his attention began to wander from music. He launched his own video game with 2005’s Bulletproof, got a sneaker deal with Reebok in 2004 and invested in vitaminwater, receiving a 10% stake in the company that same year. Within three years, vitaminwater sales grew to $700 million, and parent company Glaceau was sold to Coca-Cola, which earned 50 Cent a whopping $100 million in profits.
His wins on the business front crossed over to Hollywood. After revamping his production company G-Unit Films (now G-Unit Films and Television) in 2010, 50 began developing various network projects; his first success was Power, a crime drama intertwining the glamorous club scene with the murderous drug world. He and TV writer Courtney Kemp Agbor teamed up for the series’ pilot script, which was pitched to then-Starz CEO Chris Albrecht. Thanks to the pair’s authentic storytelling and creative chemistry, Power became a hit and later earned them a $150 million deal in 2018 that included a three-series commitment and allowed G-Unit Film & Television access to all the Starz and Lionsgate platforms.
“He was in this for real,” Albrecht says of 50. “This wasn’t something he was doing for amusement. This was something he was taking as seriously as he ever took his music.”
Tom Ford jacket and sweater, Saint Laurent jeans, Too Boot shoes, Fratelli Orsini gloves.
Jai Lennard
As Power’s executive producer, 50 watched the show garner praise for six seasons and spawn multiple hit spinoffs such as Power Book II: Ghost, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Power Book IV: Force. His show BMF, which followed the rise of infamous Detroit drug dealers the Black Mafia Family, launched on Starz in 2021 and is now in its second season. He has tapped several of his peers for cameos: Kendrick Lamar on Power, Eminem and Snoop Dogg on BMF, Joey Bada$$ for Raising Kanan, Mary J. Blige for Ghost. “I’ve seen him act, produce, direct and write,” says Blige. “I’m so impressed by his transition from rapper to amazing producer.”
50 has also negotiated deals with other networks: In November, he partnered with WeTV to launch the investigative series Hip-Hop Homicides. Hosted by Van Lathan, it examines the shocking deaths of rising stars in the genre like XXXTentacion and King Von. Last fall, 50 also inked a three-project partnership with Lusid Media for an unscripted crime series slated to debut later this year on Peacock. Plus, he and mentor Eminem are working on a TV adaptation of the latter’s 2002 semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile. “He’s got scripted and unscripted shows,” Albrecht says. “He’s a force.”
And just as he has remade himself as a TV mogul, 50’s love for music is resurfacing. Eight years after selling his radio income stream to Kobalt Music Group in 2015 (worth $6 million), he is now working on a studio album with Dr. Dre, Eminem has sent him new songs to collaborate on, and Nas has tapped him for a feature on his forthcoming King’s Disease 4. And after a string of one-off shows and a subsequent international run last year, 50 is also planning to tour domestically for the first time in 13 years. He is already set to perform at Las Vegas’ Lovers & Friends Festival in May. One recent performance, as a surprise guest during 2021’s Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, even earned him an Emmy.
“The guy’s a machine; he always been like that from the block to now,” says Yayo of 50’s work ethic. “That’s the meaning of Get Rich or Die Tryin’. We got rich — and we still tryin’ to get more money.”
In his first solo cover story for Billboard, 50 talks expansively about his legacy in hip-hop, his long-term relationships with Dr. Dre and Eminem, and his seemingly bulletproof climb up the TV industry ladder.
With hip-hop turning 50 this year, how do you view your legacy within it?
My run was so uncomfortable that everyone would like to forget that it happened. That’s just the way it is with the artist community. I didn’t come in being friendly because I had to find a way into it — not find a way to be good enough to work in the community. The biggest compliment in the early stages was that artists felt like they’d made it when they got the deal. You had to earn the right to have the deal.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ came out 20 years ago. Now that you’re working with Dr. Dre again, is the creative process different?
I’ll go in and start to record the best music that I can come up with from everybody else. Then I’ll find some pieces, and when I accumulate stuff that I feel like is good enough, I’ll bring it to impress Dre and [his team] to get cooler stuff from [him]. At that point, they’ll go, “I see where you headed.” They already know musically what I’m thinking is the right direction at that point. When I start projects with Dre, I would write to the first song that came on. I don’t care what it was, even if the beat wasn’t finished. I would write the record to break the ice, and we’d have something playing like [Dre] just got here even if he’s been here two or three hours and we got a record playing. He will change the drums and everything that you got there until you got something that’s a hit record.
The difference now is, with a lot of the stuff I would send, I’m looking at the angles of it happening from different perspectives instead of putting myself in the middle of actually doing something to someone. I wrote a lot of the material like that [before], but there are a million other approaches to use. So I’ll do those other things so I can still capture what goes on in the environment now. But it’s through the lens of not being in the game — it’s the perception of the game, from my perspective.
Alanui shirt, Tom Ford t-shirt, The Tie Bar pants, Mr. P shoes.
Jai Lennard
Eminem has been another longtime mentor. What has it been like working with him throughout your career?
Em’s not going to say the s–t the way I say it because it just is what it is. There’s his humble nature — he’d call me and ask to do him a favor and rap with him on a song. Like, “You know I’m on your label, right? Yeah, whatever you need me to do.” He would always ask me, “Could you do me a favor? I always thought it would be dope if we did this together.” I’m like, “All right.”
He’s never been part of any of the confusion, because there’s going to be confusion in your career. You’ve got to do maintenance on people. The imperfections of the music business are the people in it. You’ll see artists miss [with a project] and still stay in good graces because they’re still being prioritized and the system is working to keep them in place. Then you’ll see amazing artists [who are not prioritized]. You’ll listen and think, “What happened to them?” It’s because the business was done with them.
You’ve been a mentor yourself to artists like Pop Smoke and DaBaby. What are your thoughts on this generation’s rising hip-hop artists?
I only like the ones that I see myself in. A lot of the other s–t, I be like, “Yeah, what the f–k is this, man?” I’ve got to believe them and the s–t they’re saying to be into the artist.
They [also] have to want to be mentored. I’ll talk to them and touch base with them because I see that in them. You go, “Yo, you have to focus on what you came for and what’s important to you, and get those things together versus just riding it out.” The way I had competitive energy: Hip-hop culture makes you battle. I love Nicki Minaj, but the funny s–t is, I like watching her when she’s upset. I like that because she has something that comes from the experience of living in South Jamaica. I’m looking at it like, “Yo, I know they think she’s nuts, but they only think that because they don’t understand.” I get it. She thinks you’re trying to play her.
When Cardi B came, I thought she was dope. She’s from the bottom. She was in Club Lust in Brooklyn. [Going] from that and actually making a hit record and turning into who she did? I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t like to see that. It felt like she got everything — married, the baby — it came really fast. That’s the American dream right there.
When her and Nicki clash, I go, “Oh, s–t, it’s going to be interesting to watch how it plays out.” Lyrically, I won’t say anything competitively about the two of them, but I love Nicki. I don’t have anything against Cardi. I think anyone who comes now, she is going to check their temperature. Nicki is going to check if this b-tch is friendly or looking to take over the s–t.
In addition to your musical beefs, you were part of a notable TV feud, when Power was pitted against Fox’s series Empire. Do you have any regrets?
Nah. In regard to Empire, that was about Fox having more marketing dollars than Starz. Starz didn’t have the money. So when we hit the bull’s-eye with Power — it’s very rare to get an entire audience excited — I’m looking at Fox hitting the bull’s-eye behind us with Empire. On Fox, they were offering the PG-13 version of the story because it’s network television. Because I can be R-rated and portray a more graphic experience, I knew that Power would eventually prevail.
[Fox] stole my idea because they said in the [show’s promo tagline], “Empires are built on power.” That’s good marketing. Because I’m at a disadvantage in not being able to market at the same level, we’re going to have a problem. That’s where the beef comes from. [But] I love [Empire star] Taraji P. Henson. I think she’s amazing. Terrence Howard was my co-star in the first film I worked on. Of course I wanted to see their show be successful.
French Montana has called you a genius marketer. Some of your beefs were personal, but how many of them were strategic?
They were [all] strategic — [the industry set them up] in response to what I was doing. I kept saying, “They dead, get rid of them,” and [the industry] would come in and resuscitate them to bring them back. Now I just have to f–k you up a little bit so you don’t go near [that artist] again when I get him back into that position again. I tap the artist for doing that, like, “Move! Why you keep trying to do that?” They’re using their energy and fan base to resuscitate the artist I just put to bed. That was why I was doing that.
It’s the same mentality of the street. When you get into business, you can’t bring that with you. They’ll split the culture in half.
Hugo Boss shirt, The Tie Bar pants, suspenders and tie, J.J. Hat Center hat.
Jai Lennard
Did you miss writing and recording music?
I get the attention that I want from music when I want it. I just went out and toured 45 countries, and everywhere was sold out. That made me want to offer new music that I could integrate into everything now. I’ve done what I wanted to do in the [sales] capacity. I’ve sold over 35 million records. Not singles — albums. With Em, it’s different because he’s never going to stop [recording]. It bugs him out that I can do TV production.
Before Get Rich made you huge, Master P was booking you for shows. What was your rate then versus how much you command internationally today?
I think he gave me like $80,000, and now I’m getting like $900,000, $1 million. The coolest thing we create in America is celebrities. If you see LeBron [James’] fan base internationally, you’ll argue, “Why is he staying here?” He’s that big internationally. For the most part, I can’t speak for everybody, but the international side of the game is different.
Do you feel like prime 50 Cent could break through and do the same commercial damage in today’s climate?
It would be a lot different. I look at the new artists that embody the streets like they’re the new 50 Cent. What’s going to be difficult and important for them to do is figure out how to navigate themselves. If you ask them if they’re afraid of anything, it’s going to be tough because they’ve been facing those obstacles the entire time, so they’re not scared. But they can f–k it up for themselves, like with whom they bring around them and the energy they carry. It can destroy a force.
That’s the obstacle they’ve got to get around themselves. I think if they get that information fast enough and can look at it the right way, they’ll be able to do [music] longer. If not, they’re going to crash right in front of you.
In early 2022, charlieonnafriday had just finished recording the last song for his first project and was about to drive away from the studio. Then his producer Tyler Dopps called. “He was like, ‘Wait, there’s one more thing that we have to do before you leave,’” the 19-year-old artist recalls. Dopps played him a languid loop, and the singer-rapper wrote down the lyrics that ultimately became the hook to his pop-leaning breakup track, “Enough.”
The song wasn’t ready at the time to make the project, so he stashed it away in his phone. But months later, ready or not, “Enough” took off on social media. While driving to Los Angeles from his native Seattle with a friend last June, charlieonnafriday (born Charlie Finch) played the song and belted along to the chorus — which his friend filmed and posted on TikTok. The clip not only went viral but became charlieonnafriday’s breakthrough hit — two things he’d been building toward since childhood.
He started uploading vlogs to YouTube at eight years old and continued creating content on TikTok with his friends throughout high school. Inspired by his hometown hero Macklemore, he developed an interest in music, and in the eighth grade, after seeing his friend’s older brother producing in a home studio, started making his own. Over the next few years, the two stockpiled “hundreds of songs” as charlieonnafriday honed his rap skills during their daily sessions. “Every time I made a song, I felt like I was getting better slowly,” he says. “That’s what really interested me. I wanted to see how far I could take it and how good I could get.”
After taking a break to focus on school and football, he was motivated by the pandemic lockdown to pick the craft back up — this time on his own. Charlieonafriday started recording with Logic Pro and leaned heavily on YouTube tutorials to show him the ropes, admitting the hardest part was learning how to mix his own vocals. On the production side, he decided to trade in the trap drums that grounded his early music for more melodic beats, creating a pop-rap hybrid. “The artist always has that vision in their head,” he says, “but if you know how to do it, then it’s seamless.”
Charlieonnafriday photographed on January 23, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Michelle Genevieve Gonzales
He then “started flooding TikTok” with snippets of new songs — advising viewers to “live every day like it’s Friday,” inspiring his moniker — in hopes of building a fan base outside of Seattle. At the start of 2021, he made his first significant splash when he teased the intoxicating “After Hours.” Months later, the song caught the attention of Geoff Ogunlesi, CEO of The Ogunlesi Group, who signed on to co-manage charlieonnafriday (along with the company’s Sam Weiss, charlieonnafriday’s day-to-day manager, as well as Anthony and Ameer Brown, CEO and president, respectively, of digital marketing company Breakr). By the end of the year, “After Hours” surged to a new level of virality, with two live performance clips that have collected more than 13 million views.
Record labels were calling, but Ogunlesi was intent on waiting for the rising artist to release a body of work before committing to a deal. “It was risky because in this music landscape, moments are fleeting,” he admits. “You’re rolling the dice where, if and when ‘After Hours’ dies down, do the labels disappear? Do you lose an opportunity? [But] we felt really strong with our strategy.”
The artist’s debut project, the eight-track Onnafriday, arrived in April 2022 and soon after, he started taking meetings with the labels competing for him. He was immediately sold on Island, saying he was swayed by the label’s “family vibe,” and signed a record deal that summer. “A lot of the labels I met with two or three people, but with Island, I met everybody,” he says. “I knew that Island would put in a lot of effort. Labels are amazing for dumping gas on a flame.”
But “Enough” still didn’t have more than a refrain at that point — and as it began to take off online, he started feeling the pressure. He recalls with a laugh his team’s mentality: “Get [co-writer] Club 97, Tyler [Dopps] and Charlie in a room and finish it, [because] there are videos with five million views on a song that’s not done.”
“Enough” was finally released in August, and soon crossed over from social media to streaming services to radio airwaves — which Ogunlesi refers to as “icing on the cake” — fueled by a promotional run set up by the label. “At the end of the day, a lot of life is built on relationships,” says Ogunlesi. “Nothing really beats meeting people, winning them over [and] having programmers that are fans.” By November, charlieonnafriday made his debut on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, where “Enough” has since reached a No. 22 high on charts dated Jan. 28.
Having recently moved to Los Angeles — where he lives in a house “full of the same homies I started with” — charlieonnafriday kicked the year off with his new single “That’s What I Get,” amid a 10-date college tour across the country that wraps in February. He’ll then head overseas, playing to some of the biggest crowds of his career and opening for an artist he calls “one of the greatest performers ever”: Macklemore. And though hesitant on announcing a release date, he’s planning to drop a deluxe version of Onnafriday later this year.
“We’re not just trying to build a song, we’re trying to build an artist,” says Ogunlesi. “It has to extend beyond just one moment.”
Charlieonnafriday and Geoff Ogunlesi photographed on January 23, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Michelle Genevieve Gonzales
A version of this story originally appeared in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.
For the first time in three years, Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala brought together some of the biggest names in the music industry for a night of special performances, timely tributes and moving speeches. As always, the star power at the Beverly Hilton soiree was mind-boggling, with everyone from Tom Hanks to Cardi B to Max Martin to Joni Mitchell in attendance on Saturday night (Feb. 4).
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“You come back each year, bonded by the love of music,” Davis declared to the capacity crowd while kicking off the ceremony. The party had not taken place since 2020 due to the pandemic; although the 2022 Grammys were held in Las Vegas last April, Davis had opted not to move the gala from its Beverly Hills home.
As such, the 2023 gathering was the first to take place since the 10th anniversary of Whitney Houston’s shocking death in 2012, just hours before that year’s pre-Grammy party. Houston received multiple tributes on Saturday night: Jennifer Hudson performed a show-stopping rendition of “Greatest Love of All,” while actor Kevin Costner kicked off the evening by introducing Davis and regaling the audience with stories of their professional and personal bond with Houston thanks to The Bodyguard.
“We were both struck by Whitney the first time we ever saw her. …. Whitney would be our common ground,” said Costner, who co-starred in The Bodyguard with Houston as Davis was helping guide her music career. The Yellowstone star’s tribute to both Davis and Houston turned emotional: “Neither one of us, in the end, could protect your beloved Whitney,” a choked-up Costner said. “You were a miracle in her life. Thank you for being her bodyguard, Clive.”
Later, Sheryl Crow took the stage to perform “Songbird” and “Say You Love Me” as a tribute to Christine McVie, the Fleetwood Mac legend who passed away last year. And as a toast to the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop, Lil Baby and Lil Wayne were giving back-to-back sets that included the former MC waxing poetic on “California Breeze” and the latter bouncing around the stage with Swizz Beatz on “Uproar.”
Long-running Atlantic Records leaders Julie Greenwald and Craig Kallman were honored as part of the Recording Academy’s Salute to Industry Icons, and before each of their acceptance speeches, Lauren Daigle, the contemporary Christian music star and recent Atlantic signee, performed the label classic “Son of a Preacher Man.” And Cardi, one of the biggest superstars on Atlantic’s roster, introduced Greenwald and Kallman by discussing how instrumental they had been to her success.
“I’m here tonight because I want thank them for believing in me,” Cardi told the audience. “Julie, as a woman who has a family and a career, you’re such an inspiration. When I was crying, you told me it would be okay, and that we were gonna get things done. You’re such a boss-ass bitch and such a wonderful mother. You’re the one who told me I could have it all, and for that, I truly thank you.”
As always, Davis’ gala served as a platform for both emerging talent and established stars, with performances from Lizzo and Elvis Costello and the Imposters (with special guest Juanes) taking place in between sets from Grammy best new artist nominees Latto and Måneskin. After Måneskin barreled through their smash cover of the Four Seasons’ “Beggin’,” Frankie Valli took the stage to play “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” resulting in the evening’s biggest audience sing-along. And Myles Frost, the star of MJ the Musical on Broadway, closed out the performances with spot-on renditions of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and “Rock With You.”
Also back for the pre-Grammy party were Davis’ shout-outs to the music superstars in attendance — Janelle Monae, Olivia Rodrigo, Luke Combs, Machine Gun Kelly, Demi Lovato and Chance The Rapper were among those to be mentioned from the stage and receive rounds of applause. Yet the biggest ovation of the night came for both Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House and perennial Davis party guest, as well as her husband Paul, who was the victim of a home invasion attack in October but received roars of support on Saturday night.
Check out the setlist for Clive Davis’ 2023 pre-Grammy party:
Måneskin – “I Wanna Be Tour Slave,” ” Beggin’”Frankie Valli – “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”Lizzo – “Break Up Twice”Sheryl Crow – Christine McVie tribute “Songbird,” “Say You Love Me”Jennifer Hudson – “Greatest Love of All”Elvis Costello and The Imposters with Juanes – “Pump it Up,” “Peace, Love & Understanding”Lauren Daigle – “Son of a Preacher Man”Latto – “Sunshine,” “Big Energy”Lil Baby – “Forever,” “California Breeze”Lil Wayne – “John,” “Lollipop,” “Steady Mobbin,” “Uproar,” “A Mill”Myles Frost – “Billie Jean,” “Rock With You”
One of the ways in which the Grammy Awards are distinct from most other awards shows: There’s more than one top prize. The album of the year trophy has long been viewed as the most prestigious award of the yearly ceremony, yet artists have dominated the Grammys in past years by taking home both record and song of the year, like Silk Sonic did at the 2022 Grammys with “Leave the Door Open.” In other years — like in 2020, when Billie Eilish swept the Big Four — multiple major wins, including album of the year, helped define how that year’s ceremony was remembered.
Ahead of the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday night, it’s worth asking: Which artists could dominate the Grammys narrative this year, and what would it mean if they did? Nine artists have the chance to take home multiple Big Four awards, with generous overlap between the nominees for album of the year, record of the year and song of the year (the 10 best new artist nominees, strangely, do not have any other Big Four nods this year). Meanwhile, a 10th artist only has one Big Four nod… but a win would be groundbreaking enough that it’s worth including them into the list of artists who could shape how this year’s Grammys are remembered.
Those artists range from rising pop stars with brash hit singles to music industry institutions who have been earning acclaim for decades. And all of their legacies could be altered come Grammy night — some via an early coronation, others through long-awaited wins. There’s a lot at stake in every Grammy category, but the Big Four carry the most eyeballs and the greatest weight, with lasting impacts more than possible.
With that in mind, here are the 10 artists who could dominate the narrative of the 2023 Grammys, what they would need to win in order to do so, and what those dominant performances would mean.
“ ‘Love is the bridge between you and everything,’ ” Terius Nash reads aloud, gesturing to the words scrawled in the corner of an art piece. “Ah!” he claps. “I love it. These quotes are completely amazing.”
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The 45-year-old hit songwriter and artist, better known as The-Dream, sighs wistfully as he plops down on a peach-colored velvet love seat, which sits just beneath the artwork. Hung in an ornate gold frame, the piece depicts a group of people intertwined in collective embrace — a painting style reminiscent of Renaissance-era masterpieces — juxtaposed in front of an urban brick wall that’s splattered with various phrases written in technicolor graffiti. The artwork consumes an entire wall of the sitting room in The-Dream’s so-called “creative house” in the upscale Buckhead area of Atlanta. Otherwise, the room is completely bare — nothing but tall ceilings and crisp marble floors.
The-Dream adjusts his powder blue bucket hat and peers around his shoulder, back at the phrase. “I like how the longer you think about it,” he says, “the more you realize you don’t fully know what it means.” Its significance is determined by an individual’s perspective and understanding — just like the artwork itself, which he purchased three years ago at Eden Art Gallery in New York. With its hologram surface, its phrases are obscured when entering the room from the left… but from where The-Dream sits on the far right, the portrait shifts, its words clearly revealed.
The-Dream himself has unlocked some of the defining phrases in 21st century popular music, helping to craft smashes like Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed,” among many others. He has been present for studio sessions where the meaning of a word has expanded, then permeated popular culture in a different shape. He laughs when reminiscing about Beyoncé’s 2013 self-love anthem “Flawless,” and how he didn’t realize the full impact those eight letters could carry until he saw them needlepointed in scrolling cursive on a throw pillow following its release. “You don’t realize how many people wanted to capture that [feeling] until you see your lyrics on a pillow!” he says.
“This guy just writes a title that, when you read it, you know you have to listen to the song out of curiosity alone,” explains Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, The-Dream’s longtime writing and production partner. “I think he has an unmatched ability to figure out a unique lyrical perspective that can make an artist not only have a hit song, but a song that defines culture and the artist’s career. Something they can build on for the rest of their lives.”
Though The-Dream has been a behind-the-scenes force for the past two decades, he speaks to Billboard on the precipice of a career pinnacle, as evidenced by his presence at the 2023 Grammy Awards. He’s nominated in three of the Big Four categories — record, song and album of the year — for his work on Beyoncé’s seventh solo full-length, Renaissance, and its smash lead single, “Break My Soul.” The acclaimed album, along with his contributions to Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry and Brent Faiyaz’s Wasteland, also earned The-Dream a nod in the inaugural songwriter of the year, non-classical category, where he will compete against Amy Allen, Nija Charles, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz.
Pusha T (left) and The-Dream attend The-Dream Listening Party at Gold Bar on December 18, 2018 in New York City.
Johnny Nunez/WireImage
“This means everything,” says Steven Victor — who manages The-Dream in addition to Pusha T, Nigo and others — of the new Grammy category, which he says The-Dream has advocated for for years. To Victor, a great songwriter can embody the points of view of many different types of artists — rap greats like Jay-Z and Pusha T, vocal powerhouses like Carey and Mary J. Blige, pop headliners like Bieber and Britney Spears, four-quadrant superstars like Beyoncé and Rihanna — and shape-shift into them regardless of their genre or personal identity. The-Dream, he vouches, is the best at this in the whole business.
“No one is going to think through these songs more than me,” The-Dream declares. Musical ideas often haunt him through the night, he explains, as more concepts, words and melodies flood his consciousness hours after a studio session ends. His creativity gnaws at him: He recently began attending fashion design classes at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and pulls out a collection of expert drawings — a sketch of a clementine, another of a skull.
“I drew a lot as a kid,” The-Dream says with a smile. When asked what he likes to draw most, he shrugs and thinks back to his overall creative approach: “I feel like I’m better when I have an assignment.”
“We had no idea what was happening at the time,” The-Dream says of growing up during the popularization of Atlanta’s music scene in the 1990s, when Southern rap reached the mainstream and acts like TLC and Usher took over pop. “It makes more sense to look back and understand it now.” He recalls watching the success of his neighbor and elementary school classmate T.I. and attending night classes with his pal André 3000 as a teen. “I don’t know what he did or why he was there,” he says with a laugh of the OutKast icon, “but I sure know I was flunking!”
Shortly after some of his acquaintances found musical success in Atlanta, The-Dream signed a publishing deal in 2001 with local mogul Laney Stewart, older brother of Tricky, and scored a writing credit on the B2K song “Everything.” Two years later, The-Dream linked up with Tricky — already producing hits for Mya and Blu Cantrell — and helped create the 2003 Britney Spears-Madonna team-up “Me Against the Music.” “It was explosive to write with him from the very beginning,” says Tricky. The pair complemented each other: Tricky was the perfectionist producer, and The-Dream was the emotive songwriter.
The pair’s brand of rhythmic pop took off in the second half of the decade, with “Umbrella” and “Single Ladies” reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and “Baby” making Bieber a teen superstar in 2010. Meanwhile, The-Dream launched his career as an artist, signing with Def Jam and releasing a trio of R&B albums between 2007 and 2010: Love/Hate, Love vs. Money and Love King have earned a combined 2.25 million equivalent album units, according to Luminate.
Tricky Stewart (left) and The-Dream onstage during the 22nd annual ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on June 26, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California.
Lester Cohen/WireImage
His recording career has been sporadic since then, his focus constantly pulled back to creating hits for other artists. The-Dream says it’s difficult to define why he’s able to write so clearly about the experiences of others, “but really it’s my job to understand what the artist is going through, even if they don’t understand it yet,” he explains. “ ‘Umbrella’ is a love story, but for some reason, it feels like there is some misery in there too. Like, why do you need to assure this person they can count on you? Maybe, underneath, you know you haven’t had anyone to count on in your life, so you know what it means to be in that place.”
By 2018, the songwriter had turned that approach into one of the most bankable blueprints in popular music: over 70 Hot 100 entries as a songwriter, including 14 top 10 hits and five No. 1s, with 21 career Grammy nominations and five wins. That year, he sold 75% of his catalog, including his writing credits and solo releases, to Merck Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis for a reported $23 million. It was the song fund’s first-ever catalog purchase.
“I wanted him to be the Dr. Dre to my Jimmy Iovine, if you like,” says Mercuriadis with a grin. “When we look back on the first 25 years of this millennium, I know his songs are going to be the ones people talk about.”
Throughout the 2010s, The-Dream shared the studio with all kinds of artists, but working with women vocalists was always his penchant. In the past, he has spoken about how the early death of his mother, who died of cancer when he was 15, gave him a “soft spot” when interacting with women. “There’s no such thing as a day with no grieving,” he says now, his eyes softening as he looks down at his sneakers.
After his mother’s death, he was put under the watchful eye of his grandfather, a hardscrabble cement mason who grew up in the Jim Crow South. The-Dream fondly recalls the days of listening to his grandfather talking “actively about how to make things well, looking at [them] from all different angles,” over games of pinochle with fellow masons. There’s an invisible throughline, he explains, between the ethos of a master builder, that of an artistic genius like da Vinci, and that of a songwriter like himself.
“When thinking about an artist like Beyoncé, I want to try to consider all the different ways this could reach people,” he says. “I want the song to matter to Beyoncé standing onstage, the person in the front row of the show and that person who’s in the rafters, who barely made it in, got a ticket from a friend last minute. I have to write for each one of them.”
The-Dream performs at the 2017 BET Experience on June 24, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.
Harmony Gerber/WireImage
“Single Ladies,” from Beyoncé’s 2008 album, I Am… Sasha Fierce, was the start of a long-term creative partnership and friendship between The-Dream and the superstar, who has tapped the songwriter to help craft at least one song from each of her subsequent albums — “Love on Top” from 2011’s 4, “Partition” from 2013’s Beyoncé and “6 Inch” from 2016’s Lemonade. (“Both Bey and I are Virgos,” The-Dream jokes, alluding to the astrological sign’s association with perfectionism.) For her latest release, Renaissance, The-Dream is one of the architects behind all but two of the album’s 16 tracks.
“Bey wanted to bring everyone together — that was the first thing on the board,” explains The-Dream of Beyoncé’s mission for her first solo album in six years. Following a tumultuous global period, he says, “It doesn’t matter who you are, we all know we were hurting,” and that the bounce, funk, house and all-around maximalist dance of Renaissance was intended as collective therapy.
For the album’s focal point, “Break My Soul,” The-Dream and Tricky teamed up to sketch out the single and then took it to Beyoncé, who “transformed it” into a No. 1 hit, says Tricky. “Dream and Bey’s closeness and attention to detail got us to a place with that song that we couldn’t have gotten [to] without that bond.”
Of course, many other collaborators also helped to finalize each Renaissance track — which songwriter Diane Warren questioned following the album’s July release. She took to Twitter to write, “How can there be 24 writers on a song?… This isn’t meant as shade, I’m just curious.” The-Dream replied in defense, schooling Warren with an explanation of sampling, its ties to Black culture and the lack of economic resources for Black musicians.
“By the way, I think she’s one of the greatest,” says The-Dream of Warren a few months after the exchange. “Sometimes [songwriters] lose that feeling, that connection to what art was all about in the first place. Really, it’s whatever it takes to give the world something good, so if that takes a whole gang of people… so be it.”
The way The-Dream speaks about collectively creating Renaissance mirrors his views on the role of the church as the birthplace of generations of talented Atlanta musicians, some known, many more unknown. “For us Southern Black folks… everybody was musical, everyone singing those hymns from back then,” he says with the fervor of a preacher at the pulpit. “I love hearing the gathering of people, huddled together, humming a song. No time signature. No industry. No three minutes and 30 seconds.”
Incorporating Southern culture’s sense of collectivism is not new for The-Dream and Houston-born Beyoncé, but Renaissance stands as their wholehearted embrace of the principle. “We learned to not be too big to call,” he says, reflecting on the process of inviting others to collaborate on the album. “If you think Grace Jones would sound great on something? Call. Nile Rodgers would be cool on this? Call.”
As a songwriter, The-Dream doesn’t control when artists release the songs he has helped pen — the timing is serendipitous, or “like lightning in a bottle,” as he puts it. So it’s a bit of kismet that, after his years spent fighting for a songwriting category, one of the biggest projects of his career is nominated in the award’s inaugural year.
“I keep thinking, ‘How is this happening?’ ” he asks. Win or lose, The-Dream is basking in the recognition. “It feels good,” he says. “Too good.”
This story will appear in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.