| Dream, Fulfilled | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Danny! |
| Cover: | DannyDreamfulfilled.jpg |
| Released: | April 23, 2007 (UK) |
| Length: | 59:47 |
| Label: | Badenov Records/1911 Music |
| Producer: | Danny! |
| Prev Title: | Dream, Interrupted |
| Prev Year: | 2006 |
| Next Title: | Danny Is Dead |
| Next Year: | 2007 |
Dream, Fulfilled is the second instrumental hip hop album by American rapper Danny!, released on April 23, 2007 under the 1911 Music/Badenov Records imprint. It is a sequel to his 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 album cover, as well as the tray card and artwork contained within the liner notes, features various photographs of Ugandan youth.
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. 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[1] 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 instrumentals continue to be a topic of discussion in various circles, adding more mystique to both Dream, Fulfilled and its predecessor. 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", "The Gamps", "Home...?" and "Of Shoes And Ships And Sealing-Wax", border on referential, nonsensical, and ethereal.
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,[2] alluding to his temporary defection from music during the latter part of 2006 and the beginning of 2007.
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, Europop, sound library recordings and disco music helped Danny give Dream, Fulfilled a far superior album, musically, than any of his previous offerings, including his studio albums. Danny Is Dead would later feature "Check It Out (Find A Way '07)" as a full-length song with lyrics, titled "Check It Out". In 2008, "Misery" would also be revamped as a new track complete with vocals on Danny!'s critically acclaimed .
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 number 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 in the US and offered Dream, Fulfilled for sale via iTunes and various other digital media retail stores in June 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. In contrast, the original incarnation of Dream, Fulfilled 's sequel - Dream, Extinguished—has yet to be released commercially for reasons unknown, though the Japanese version has been sold since 2009.