"You used to strip for a nigga," Terius Nash reminisces on "Used To Be." "Now, you got nothing but lip for a nigga." 1977, a free, "unofficial" album from the urban pop titan usually known as The-Dream, is full of crassness like this: poorly articulated male scorn rooted in juvenile, you-made-me-cheat reasoning. "Just me and my bottle of Patron singing this drunk song," he bellows on "Wedding Crashers," and for once he nails it: The album seems like it's full of the slurred, narcissistic half-truths that lurk at the bottom of a shot glass. Equally flat is the production, where Nash trades in his radio killing Southern bounce for a moody synth-fest that rarely coalesces – imagine R. Kelly produced by The Weeknd. Def Jam was smart to shelf this.

Listen to "Used to Be":

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“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.