The Daily Swarm

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March 09, 2009

The-Dream: "Even When I'm Writing About Paris, It's From The Perspective of Someone Who Flew There From An Atlanta Strip Club'...

He and his songwriting partner, Christopher Stewart, known as Tricky, are one of pop’s most inventive and in-demand hit-making teams. (Mr. Stewart writes the music, Mr. Nash the lyrics.) After scoring their first major break in 2003 with Britney Spears’s “Me Against the Music,” Billboard’s best-selling dance single that year, the duo churned out a string of No. 1 smashes, including Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body,” J. Holiday’s “Bed” and, most famously, Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” which earned a Grammy nomination for record of the year in 2008. Mr. Nash has often said that they wrote the song in 15 minutes.

Over the past year they have composed more than 200 songs, working with artists as diverse as Usher, Jesse McCartney, Sting and Celine Dion, at a rate of $110,000 to $165,000 per track, Mr. Stewart said.