The-Dream Touches Rihanna's "Hard" Single With His Oddball Magic

One of the many outstanding characteristics of Rihanna’s latest single, “Hard” is that The-Dream’s songwriting is the star of the show and acts as the thread that keeps the song sewn together. The brilliance of “Hard” proves once again that songwriters really are the unsung heroes of pop music.

The-Dream (born Terius Nash)—he wrote the No. 1 hits, “Umbrella” for Rihanna and “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” for Beyonce—uses every centimeter and inch of Christopher “Tricky” Stewart’s unremarkable instrumental to fit in an abundance of hooks. The-Dream’s ability to create multiple hooks that support a big chorus has become his trademark. The “I’m so hard, so hard…yeah-yeah-yeah…” is immediately recognizable as a hook. Technically, there really is no chorus on “Hard,” but instead a barrage of hooks. The rest of the hooks are scattered around the song; for instance, the “and while you’re gettin’ your cry on/I’m gettin’ my fly on” line is only uttered once, yet it stays in the ear for a while. In contrast, the “I see you aimin’ at my pedestal/I better let you know” line is used twice, once at the end of the first verse and once at the end of the second verse, yet the “cry on/fly on” line is a bit more catchy, despite only sung once. The minimal repetition of the “pedestal” line is the sole conventional part of The-Dream’s songwriting on “Hard.” There also are no b-sections, no real bridge and no ad-libs. The-Dream just doesn’t follow the traditional verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus song structure.

Lyrically, “Hard” is a bragfest for Rihanna that acts to further affirm her as a fashion icon. She talks about having “all black on” and “black tall shades” and a “black tall Maybach.” We already knew Rihanna was a baller, and she has no problem reminding us. Rihanna even makes references to the song that changed her career, “Umbrella” when she sings one of the more subtly catchy hooks on “Hard”: “That Rihanna rain just won’t let up.”

Christopher “Tricky” Stewart’s overall sparse instrumental—which consists of a few tinkling piano keys, bass and a sinister groan that sounds sort of like a horn, but it sounds more like the product of a keyboard—would be a mediocre beat that sounds suspiciously similar to one of Young Jeezy’s past hits (who happens to spit 16 bars on “Hard”) without The-Dream’s oddball songwriting. Because of the beat’s sparseness, The-Dream is forced to create his own melody.

The official first single from Rihanna’s forthcoming album, Rated R is the Ne-Yo-penned “Russian Roulette,” but thankfully that dreary mess of a ballad slithered off and had a quiet death with little to no radio airplay, while Rihanna’s “second” single, “Hard” (the real first single) has had steady airplay, especially on R&B/hip-hop radio. I predict that audiences will respond well to “Hard” and its inventiveness. Plus, people don’t want to hear Rihanna’s sob songs, they instead want her to make them dance, which “Hard” certainly does.