After penning number one hits for Rihanna ("Umbrella"), Mariah Carey ("Touch My Body"), and Beyonce ("Single Ladies"), hit maker The Dream is back with the follow-up to his gold certified debut, Love/Hate, with the newly released, Love vs. Money.The lead single, "Rockin' That Sh!t", quickly reacquaints you with his radio friendly hooks and smooth R&B fare. The beat is infectious and the lyrics are in his signature trend, proving he clearly believes in that old saying, "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it", and how can we blame him for not departing with a trend that hooks us every time.
"Walking On The Moon", which features Grammy winner Kanye West, sees The Dream walking through the doors of sheer brilliance. From the old school Prince fare to the arrogance of Mr. West's phenomenal delivery, which reaffirms his egotistical actions are justly warranted, and the overall vibe of the song, all work magnificently together proving the duo was a match made in heaven.
Mariah Carey, makes a rare appearance on, "My Love", which will serve as the second single and fully displays the the chemistry between the two artists, which isn't surprising since they've worked together before. That said, what is surprising is Dream's ability to hold his own against the power singer.
"Put It Down", sees him pointing out a few of his flaws of not being able to sing like Usher or dance like Chris Brown, but beefing up his sex game by blasting he can make you sing high notes like Mariah.
On "Sweat It Out", he cautions, "Girl, call up Tisha, your beautician/'Cause your hair is gon' need fixin'.", after a late night rumble, while, "Take U Home 2 My Mama", is pretty much self explanatory and adequately flows into the title track.
"Love vs. Money", shows a different side to the man that often portrays himself as a ruthless womanizer, as he tells the story of the providing a girl with material things, instead of showering her with his love. Ultimately, the material possessions were not enough to keep her around and she rebounded in the hands of another man.
"Love vs. Money: Part 2", turns the tables by keeping the subject the same, but depicting the girl as the problem, instead of himself, as it was portrayed in part one. He illustrated this by retaliating to her:
"So kiss that n*gga/ Hug that n*gga/Love that n*gga, to death/Go ahead and please that n*gga/Beat that n*gga/In time you’ll see the problems yourself."
His emotion and sense of in-depth knowledge into the topic has quickly arisen rumors that he is referring to his ex-wife Nivea and her relationship with Lil' Wayne. Regardless, both tracks go hard and are effectively successful in telling two stages of a breakup.
While most of the album keeps it's feet planted on solid ground, tracks like, "Fancy", tend to drag on, while the Timbaland produced, "Right Side Of My Brain", is kind of disappointing, given you immediately think the two music masterminds would come up with something a little more electrifying.
"Mr. Yeah", "Let Me See The Booty", and the appropriately titled, "Kelly's 12 Play", like the bulk of the album, continues to show Dream bragging about his sex game and while you would think the overall topic would wear out it's welcome, he somehow manages to continuously rejuvenate the topic with his writing skills, something R.Kelly had only previously mastered, and under the brilliant craftsmanship of Chris 'Tricky' Stewart, who deserves as much praise for this effort as the artist himself.
One of the biggest red flags, aside from the constant repetitiveness, arouses in The Dream's voice, which is whiny and at times annoying, further proving that a bulk of the tracks would probably increase in quality, if they had been done by someone else.
Overall, Love vs. Money, uses the foundation of Love/Hate with some newly added formulas that continue to work in his favor. It doesn't particularly feature any extremely weak songs, but a some of them are forgettable and tend to run to together.
The subject matter is also extremely restricted and the overall vibe of the album gives you a R.Kelly feel, but with this album, he more than proves, that now, Mr. Kelly has some stiff competition.
4 out of 5
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