The-Dream "Loves" Kanye West, "He's Literally The Only Person That Challenges Me"

Grammy-nominated singer The-Dream recently revealed his admiration for his Def Jam label mate Kanye West and said that he is his biggest competition.

Dream believes West gives him the most challenges as an artist.

"I love Kanye. He's literally the only person that challenges me. He has an overwhelming love for music also, and that's why he's misunderstood. The boy is a genius. You can be mad all you want, but he loves what you listen to more than you love it. When he lost his mom I cried."

Last year, Dream addressed rumors of creating an upcoming duet album with West.

"It was first thought of by me," Dream said in an interview. "I was in Miami at the time, and I gave Kanye a call and said, 'The best thing would be for me and you to do an album.' I feel he's at a certain place in hip-hop, I'm at a certain place in R&B, and lyrically, I'm just in a certain place in my lifetime. Let's take the best of both worlds and put it on a CD and try to make something we can sell to the consumers. He says he's with it. We're gonna try to make it happen. I told him, 'Let me lift my profile up a little bit.'...It wouldn't take that long at all, once we got the concept."

Dream recently explained why he has decided to retire from music.

"Nope, there's not another album, this is it," Dream said in an interview with Ms. Drama. "Nobody appreciates music so I'm out. I'm out. I'm good, so take that. Like [Jay-Z] said, maybe y'all will remember me when I fade to black. So it's out."

In April, Dream contemplated making another album called Love/Affair.

Dream also addressed rumors of a fourth record in the works that sprang after he tweeted on March 27, "Love/Affair?" "We was having a conversation in the studio, about how if I would do another album, I would name it Love/Affair. Funny thing is, my computer was open and someone else typed it in. They put it in with a question mark and I was like 'Why did you do that? They're going to think it was me,'" he says. "I would have a big chance of wanting to do one if I was able to turn it into a movie like Purple Rain. Nobody wants to see someone do another album just lyrically based. When I'm telling a story, I'd much rather have someone see it," he says. "But I don't even know if I'm going to do Love/Affair. If I can do the movie then Love/Affair would be the soundtrack to that movie."

Check out a recent The-Dream interview down below: