September 28, 2007

By By Mariel Concepcion, N.Y.

Atlanta-based singer/songwriter the Dream, who penned Rihanna's chart-topper "Umbrella, will release his debut album, "Love Me All Summer, Hate Me All Winter," Dec. 11 via Island Def Jam. First single "Shawty Is a Ten" recently re-entered Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 31 and has since risen 10 spots.

The next single will be the Tricky Stewart-produced "Falsetto," a "song you play when you're making love to your girl after you're done dancing to 'Shawty Is A Ten' at the club," the Dream tells Billboard.biz. A video for "Falsetto" will be shot next month and will be followed with the release of a third single, "I Love Your Girl." Rihanna and Fabolous make the only guest appearances on the set.

For the Dream, the realization that he could release an artist album was tied to a track he didn't even wind up releasing. "I called [IDJ exec] Karen Kwak and I told her I wanted to do this artist sh*t. I figured out what my voice needed to sound like to sell records," the 27-year-old Atlanta native tells Billboard.biz. "I sent her the record 'Bed' and she was like, 'Crazy!'"

"Bed," of course, was eventually released as the first track off newcomer J. Holiday's debut album, "Back of My Lac." "As incredible as the song is, I didn't want to be boxed in the R&B lane," says Dream.

The track, which has spent three weeks at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, caused some controversy between Dream and Chris Brown, who told Vibe the track was originally his. "The track was considered for Chris Brown -- he thought it was his -- but it was my record and I decided to give it up to J. Holiday," explains the Dream. "Chris said the record won't be No. 1 unless he's on it. I bet someone $500,000 that it would go to No. 1 and I collected my money just last week."

Now, the Dream says he has no plans of ever collaborating with Brown. "He said the wrong thing to me," he offers. "He has a track from me now that I was paid for already and I want to give him his money back. At the end of the day, I'm big on principle and loyalty. Put that to bed."

There are several other notable collaborations soon to be released, however. The Dream wrote J. Holiday's second single, "Suffocate," which will be serviced to radio in the coming weeks. He has also worked with Celine Dion on the song "Skies of L.A." and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger on "Power's Out."

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