The Dream 1 +1 Demo
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although Nash maintains he was merely trying to reconnect with the roots of his genre. "It's called rhythm and blues; they just took the blues out of it for so long. What's crazy is that blacks can't do soul records any more. We love Adele singing it, but Beyoncé singing it? No, the tempo's too slow, gimme the club hit. Now the blacks in America are responsible for the pop records, and everybody else is singing soulful records. It's weird to me. We're pigeonholed over there."
Nash is still narked that his own soulful Beyoncé composition 1+1
was pulled as a single in favour of the poppier Best Thing I Never Had,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/17/terius-nash-the-dream
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When The-Dream (born Terius Nash) came up with the "put a ring on it" hook to "Single Ladies," he told himself, "All I have to do is write around that. I'd have to be a fool to f— this up." It was 2008, and he was in the studio with Beyoncé for the first time. Adding to the pressure, another team of "very big guys" was working in an adjacent room, competing to land tracks with the singer.
As his production partner, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, tinkered with a skeletal beat, an urge spurred The-Dream to the microphone. He hummed the cadence and melody, then filled in the words to fit the attitude of the woman he was imagining: "I know that girl, the one who's not quite over you but says she is." He says the song was virtually complete in 20 minutes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421813516451790.html