Every now and then, an artist comes around that gives you a feeling of inexplicable joy. The kind of joy that makes you smile and turn the radio up to full volume whenever their music plays, no matter how much the guy next to you at the traffic light is staring. The kind of joy that radiates down to the pit of your stomach and helps you forget—if only for a moment—about all the fucked up stuff going on in our world. Right now, that artist is D.R.A.M.
D.R.A.M. is a larger-than-life personality with a permanent, enormous grin affixed to his face. After he first broke out with “Cha Cha” last year, some wrote his unexpected success off as a fluke or a one-hit wonder. None of his detractors saw “Broccoli” coming. After letting the Lil Yachty collaboration loose on SoundCloud it became a sleeper hit, eventually going double platinum and climbing as high as No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 (so far). With a plinky piano beat and Yachty’s goofy guest verse, “Broccoli” turned out to be exactly what hip-hop radio needed: something fun. With his debut album Big Baby D.R.A.M. out today, Complex called upon Dr. D.R.A.M. to share his cure for the 2016 blues. Here’s what he recommended: