Exclusive: The-Dream Didn't Send Gwyneth Paltrow's Paris Tweet

'I was moreso trying to take the heat for a friend,' The-Dream tells MTV News.
By Rob Markman

The-Dream
Photo: MTV News

Turns out it wasn't The-Dream who sent the now-infamous "N---as in Paris" tweet from Gwyneth Paltrow's phone, but the Love King still insists that his buddy did nothing wrong.

"Well, we were there, of course. We were Patron'd out of our minds, number one. Number two, I was moreso trying to take the heat for a friend because I knew that the reaction was going to be silly," The-Dream admitted to MTV News on the carpet for Vitamin Water's Fader concert series in Hollywood on Thursday night. "I know what she meant; I know what she didn't mean."

Last weekend, while onstage at the Throne's much-ballyhooed Paris concert, Paltrow tweeted a pic of herself with a few friends and captioned it: "Ni**as in Paris for real @mrteriousnash (the dream) tyty, beehigh."

The tweet caused much controversy, sparking a debate over who should and shouldn't be allowed to use the N-word. The-Dream says he knows that the actress didn't mean for the tweet to be derogatory and also suggests that the issue isn't so black-and-white. "We created a song and titled it like that. It's one of the biggest songs out, especially [since] Jay and Kanye are two of the biggest rap figures," he began to explain. "It's like a catch-22, it's like a trick, like 'Yeah we're gonna say it and we're gonna sell it to you, but you can't really use it and you can't say it."

After Paltrow came under fire, the "Shawty Is a 10" singer came to her rescue and took the blame, claiming that he was the one who sent the message from Gwyn's phone. Now he admits it was all just a cover-up. "I knew it was going to be silly from the beginning, so I just tried to jump to her defense," he said to MTV News. "Unfortunately, people were bothered and I understand it to a degree, but you have to still understand that we give the word its own power."

The magnitude of Hov and Yeezy's historic concert isn't lost on The-Dream. He hopes that by performing "N---as in Paris" multiple times in Paris, the Throne can eventually change the complexion of the city. "If you know the culture there, then you know it's not really bound to blacks in that type of a way. It's soft and gloomy, but it's not us," he says of Paris. "So I understand the title of the song, I know what the movement is, and I extremely was touched after they performed in Paris 11 times because I know that's going to affect the culture 10 years from now."

Was The-Dream justified in defending Gwyneth Paltrow? Sound off in the comments

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