Last June, The-Dream promised a new album — The Love, IV (Diary of a Mad Man) — would be delivered to a hungry public by the end of September. That, as you may have noticed from the lack of a new The-Dream album, did not happen; instead, he released an excellent free mixtape, “1977,” under his real name, Terius Nash, and kind of went quiet about the whole Love, IV thing. That is, until today! The-Dream just posted a new single, “ROC” (as in, “Rock Your Body”) over on his website, and it is presumably a track off the long-delayed but now possibly coming-soon (we hope!) Love IV. Also, it’s super The-Dream-y, in the best possible ways: the frank-yet-respectful seduction (sample lyrics, made sweet by his falsetto: “that mm hmm / good loving / that grindin / that bumpin / that aw yeah / that bed shake / that next day body ache”), the babymaking beat, and a gentle instructional breakdown with a plucky guitar riff that builds to straight shredding by the end. Also, dude notes at one point that ” It’s okay they’re jealous / that girl don’t look like you and them ni**as ain’t rich like me,” which we now have the accounting to back up: $15 million for a bunch of “ellas”; we are still impressed.
