The-Dream - SXTP4

The-Dream has one of modern music's most recognizable sonic imprints. His reimagining of R&B was silvery and ethereal yet pop-forward and in the language of hip-hop: When he sings about love-or, more often, sex-he doesn't mince words or cater to prudish sensibilities. From his 2007 debut album Lovehate to SXTP4, he's been able to evolve with the rapidly changing trends while maintaining a singular signature-a quality which he attributes to never allowing himself to get boxed in. “I'm probably closer to the idea of what musicians were, say, in the '60s and '70s or even beyond that, where it wasn't a genre cast to you, like, 'This is your genre, this is what you do,'” he tells. “I feel like I don't have that thing over me. Even when people say 'King of R&B,' it kind of feels weird, because I do so many things. Whether it's going from Pusha T back over to something that I've written for Céline Dion to something I'm singing on myself-to me it's just music without any bounds.”

SXTP4 both returns The-Dream to his roots and advances the sounds and approach to writing that made him such a draw in the first place. The follow-up to his 2018 triple release Ménage à Trois: Sextape Vol. 1, 2, 3, this project breaks down our carnal impulses to their most raw and chaotic forms. To hear The-Dream sing about sex is to hear the myriad ways people feel about and engage with each other in and outside the bedroom. There's sensuality, domination, home-wrecking, and regret, all set off by a production style which takes as many cues from the funk-pop of the '80s and gospel-infused R&B of the '90s as it does from the rap-dominated present. “It's about the banter between two people and the things that come up. Even though you might be making love to your girl or your guy, there are things that come up even before those intimate moments, and how you feel about an intimate moment can change,” he says. “All of those little nuances-on the surface, it's like, 'Oh, cool, they're f**king, great,' but I try to always inject some type of sophistication into it. A relationship is built on so many levels, and through the days or years, you can experience a person differently. This fourth is more locked in to The-Dream mechanism of those tricky things and those eloquent moments.” Here's a guide to some of the key tracks from the project from Terius Nash himself.