Dream, Fulfilled

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Dream, Fulfilled
Studio album by Danny!
Released	April 23, 2007 (U.K.)
Length	60:00
Label	Badenov Records/1911 Music
Producer	Danny!
Professional reviews
All Music Guide (not yet rated) link
Danny! chronology
Dream, Interrupted (2006) Dream, Fulfilled (2007) Danny Is Dead (2007)

Danny!'s second instrumental hip hop album, Dream, Fulfilled, was released on April 23, 2007 (see 2007 in music) under the American rapper/producer's 1911 Music/Badenov Records imprint. The record is a sequel to Danny's 2006 instrumental album Dream, Interrupted and, like its predecessor, was initially released under Danny's birth name (Daniel Swain) solely in the United Kingdom for reasons still undetermined.

The release of Dream, Interrupted the previous year helped Danny successfully gain some notoriety as a talented producer aside from his tenure as an equally-skilled rapper. In celebration of both the newfound attention focused on Danny's production -- and the record deal offer he received from indie label Definitive Jux only three months prior -- Danny chose to continue the "dream" motif, appropriately giving the album the title Dream, Fulfilled. It was once presumed that Danny released his instrumental albums under his full name as a way to distinguish himself from Danny!, his rapping alter ego, and Daniel Swain, the aspiring producer. Danny partially confirmed this in an interview, claiming that "Danny!" was still "in retirement" during the production of the two LPs^[1], alluding to his temporary defection from music during the latter part of 2006 and the beginning of 2007.

The album cover, as well as the tray card and artwork contained within the liner notes, features various photographs of Ugandan youth.

[edit] Overview

Dream, Fulfilled, like Dream, Interrupted before it, begins with an excerpt from "Cry Of A Dreamer" by The Sylvers. The album's tagline -- "23 years. 23 more beats. One man. One hour. One destiny." -- also bears similarities to that of Dream, Interrupted. Interestingly enough, the tagline is once again misleading as "Intro" is not an instrumental, giving Dream, Fulfilled a total of 22 full-fledged beats.

Danny has long insisted that neither the song titles on his instrumental albums, nor the elapsed running times, are arbitrarily chosen and are certainly not a coincidence. As a result, theories have again been made on the reason behind the quantity of tracks and the album's playing time due to the re-use of the 23-track format. Though Danny confirmed a once-unclear theory regarding the make-up of Dream, Interrupted^[2] months after its release, it is still unknown what the 60-minute playing time on Dream, Fulfilled is meant to represent.

The "hidden" meanings behind the names chosen for songs continue to be a topic of discussion in various circles, adding more mystique to both Dream, Interrupted and its sequel. Danny's well-known bemusement with the underground hip hop community due to what he perceives as being "overlooked" could very well be the inspiration behind the Rene and Angela-sampling "No Love (On The Message Boards)". Meanwhile, the peculiarly-named "Meagan Good" contains elements from "Daylight" by Roy Ayers' RAMP collective and could either be Danny's own ode to a love interest (à la A Tribe Called Quest's "Bonita Applebum", which also samples "Daylight), or his way of mocking those who helped fuel rumors that the only reason he pursued a record deal was to gain the young actress's affection.

Some song titles, such as "Ms. d'Meener" (which samples an Ahmad Jamal cover of the 1973 hit single by Foster Sylvers), are self-explanatory. Others, like "Heavenly Ham", "Le Pamplemousse", "Home...?" and "Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing-Wax", border on referential, nonsensical, and ethereal.

[edit] Music

The majority of the beats on Dream, Fulfilled are, like its predecessor, approximately two-and-a-half minutes long; however, a handful of instrumentals are significantly longer, giving the album a slightly longer playing time than Dream, Interrupted. Dream, Fulfilled marked a continuation in the departure from the sped-up soul samples Danny was first known for on his debut album The College Kicked-Out. Incorporating mixtures of bossa nova, Euro-pop, sound library recordings and disco music helped Danny give Dream, Fulfilled a much more superior album, musically, than any of his previous offerings, including his studio albums.

Other than "Meagan Good", Dream, Fulfilled features two tracks -- "I Just Wanna, Pt. 2" and "Check It Out (Find A Way '07)" -- that serve as updated versions of beats used by other artists in the past. Rapper Cam'ron previously used a similarly-constructed beat for his song "I Just Wanna", from his 2002 breakthrough album Come Home With Me. "Check It Out (Find A Way '07)", meanwhile, uses the same portions of "Technova" by Towa Tei that the late producer Jay Dee sampled for A Tribe Called Quest's "Find A Way" nearly ten years prior (albeit in a more mainstream manner). Both Jay Dee and Ty Fyffe, who produced the original version of "I Just Wanna", have been cited by Danny as musical influences production-wise.

[edit] Availability

Danny has never yet revealed the reason behind making his instrumental albums only available abroad. Dream, Fulfilled, along with Dream, Interrupted, was a UK-only release; as such, an extremely small number of copies exist in the United States (presumably due to a lack of a substantial budget, however, none of Danny's independent releases have ever been distributed in large quantities). Even in the UK only a limited amount of copies have been circulated, making Dream, Interrupted and Dream, Fulfilled extremely hard to come by.

In an effort to appease fans and interested buyers, Danny eventually decided to make the record attainable stateside and offered Dream, Fulfilled for sale via iTunes and various other digital media retail stores in June of 2007. Around the same time he also made his entire catalogue -- whose titles were all out of print -- available for sale digitally, including the once-scarce Dream, Interrupted.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Intro" – 1:22
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
2. "Wait" – 1:25
   • Contains a sample from "Love Won't Let Me Wait" by Major Harris, from the 1975 album My Way.
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
3. "The Train" – 2:34
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
4. "Come To Me" – 3:18
   • Contains a sample from "Dreamer" by Astrud Gilberto, from the 1965 album The Astrud Gilberto Album.
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
5. "Games They Play" – 2:54
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
6. "No Love (On The Message Boards)" – 2:12
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
7. "In These Walls" – 2:32
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
8. "The Chute" – 2:33
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
9. "Meagan Good" – 3:03
   • Produced by Daniel Swain
10. "Heavenly Ham" – 1:25
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
11. "Misery" – 4:46
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
12. "Le Pamplemousse" – 1:50
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
13. "Pay The Price" – 1:34
    • Contains a sample from "Don't Make Me Pay" by Thelma Houston, from the 1977 album Any Way You Like It.
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
14. "I Just Wanna, Pt. 2" – 2:50
    • Contains a sample from "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" by D'angelo, from the 2000 album Voodoo.
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
15. "The Gamps" – 2:32
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
16. "Out Of Time" – 2:21
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
17. "Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing-Wax" – 2:35
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
18. "Summer Samba" – 1:44
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
19. "Ms. d'Meener" – 2:38
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
20. "Check It Out (Find A Way '07)" – 3:49
    • Contains a sample from "Technova" by Towa Tei, from the 1995 album Future Listening!.
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
21. "The Magic Is Gone" – 4:04
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
22. "Still Got Love For You" – 2:46
    • Contains a sample from "My Flame" by Bobby Caldwell, from the 1978 album What You Won't Do For Love.
    • Produced by Daniel Swain
23. "Home...?" – 3:00
    • Produced by Daniel Swain

[edit] Credits

• Daniel Swain - Executive Producer, Producer, Composer
• Danny! - Art Direction, Creative Director

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• "Dream, Fulfilled" audio snippets courtesy of All Music Guide