NEW YORK (AP) — The-Dream has won Grammys for his songwriting skills, but the performer doesn’t plan to break down the formula for his latest hit, the Megan Thee Stallion “Savage” remix co-starring Beyoncé.
The viral song, which has reached the No. 2 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, has nine songwriters listed on the track, including The-Dream, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion.
“It’s not about revealing the magic of how things happen and how they come about. And it’s not for me to say the breakdown of how a thing is done,” the four-time Grammy winner said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I mean, everybody knows what I do so I’m definitely not in the part of my career where I have to say, ‘Yeah, I did so and so and then I did this part.’”
The-Dream has steadily penned hits for nearly 15 years for megastar artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Mariah Carey and Justin Bieber, while also vocally assisting hip-hop heavyweights such as Jay-Z and Kanye West.
The 42-year-old, who has also written hit songs for himself, said he felt a strong connection to Megan Thee Stallion on a personal level since they both lost their mothers.
“It’s just one of those things where you gravitate toward artists that we feel like ... (you) have something to say. And it was the mother thing that kind of got me with her — that was the connection,” he said. “I lost my mom when I was 15. And so I understood what that was, you know, kind of reading and getting a read of just her life.”
Apart from music — The-Dream released the album “SXTP4” last month — the hitmaker has been busy in fashion school. He’s currently enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, where he’s studying luxury fashion.
“At first, I thought (fashion) was just more so about how I like things put together. I do like well thought-out things, the same way I like my music,” said The-Dream.
But he said he’s been grinding hard in school, comparing the work to playing basketball: “I can’t skip a boot camp. I can’t (be like), ’Oh, I’m gonna skip practice two days and then go out here and hoop. No, that’s how you tear something.”
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Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at twitter.com/garyghamilton