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The-Dream Got 15 Million Dollars For Writing Rihanna’s “Umbrella”

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Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 01/04/2012 at 10:40 AM News

The Popdust Files: interviews, justin bieber, rihanna, the-dream

The-Dream, aka Terius Nash, has a solid R&B career of his own, but he’s also a prolific songwriter, behind hits for Rihanna, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber and others who’ve leaned or are R&B. That’s a resume worth an explosive interview with British DJ Tim Westwood, certainly! By “explosive,” we mean the recurring sound effect. Maybe you’ll find some of the info explosive as well; to spare your ears from KAPOW after KERCRASH after BOMBASTIC BOOM, we’ve followed Billboard’s lead and excerpted the parts about the music (as opposed to admittedly undramatic personal drama):

- Terius got $15 million out of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”–or, as he put it, half a million for every “ella.” Aha! This is why there’s so much stuttering in pop music nowadays!

- The-Dream also wrote Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” with nebulous contributions from ex-partner Christina Milian, because he got a hotel room out of the deal. Sorry, anyone expecting Drake-like camaraderie–although to be fair, this was before the record, multiple hairstyles ago. It’s like a different epoch, you know?

- Not everything a songwriter makes is a hit, of course–go trawling through would-be stars and minor artists of pop past, and you’ll find enough recycled, shelved or lost-forever material to jade you for ages. That said, The-Dream’s pretty sure he has far more hits than misses. We can see that.

Full interview: