“Mask” by Dream

As talked about later in the post, despite being one of the most-popular Minecraft players in the world, Dream remains quite an elusive character. In other words, he’s not the type of internet celebrity whose face you’ll see plastered all over the place. In fact there doesn’t appear to be any images of his actual face online at all. 

Instead what you get, even on his Wikipedia page, is these funny caricatures or in some cases a real-life dude alright, though wearing a “mask with a smile”, as stated at the beginning of the first verse. And apparently, this song centers on why the vocalist conducts himself in such a manner.

A Mask to Hide the Sadness

And what he is actually saying is that he does so as a result of depression, for lack of a more comprehensive word. And yes, this is in fact some emo fare we’re dealing with here. You see, the purpose of the “mask” is to hide the tears. The plastered smile, by design, gives outsiders the impression that everything is all good in the life of Dream. But apparently, according to the featured lyrics, the opposite is rather true.

Or stated alternatively despite having millions of internet followers, thus quality as a certified social-media star, the limelight is making Dream too self-conscious. The fame is getting to him, as in causing him to be more reluctant in terms of dealing with the world at large. He comes off being sort of the McCauley Culkin of internet stars, if you will. 

And it gets even more personal than the vocalist finding stardom “terrifying”. For instance, in the second verse, Dream notes that relatedly he’s having serious difficulties in school. He also seems to be suffering from that type of depression which causes inertia, i.e. spending all of his time in bed. In fact this entire lamentation, if you will, according to Dream is partially based on his own experiences with ADHD, albeit at a younger age.

And yes, whereas he may come off as being a bit more assertive here and there, overall there is in fact some serious “crying” going on. And the conclusive sentiment is supposed to be like Dream being tired hiding behind this “mask” he has created for himself. But at the same time, it sort of serves this important function in his famous life, which is keeping his personal insecurities out of the public spotlight.

Dream

As it stands as at the release of this track on 21 May 2021, Dream is actually a YouTuber, not a musician, by profession. In fact to date he’s only dropped one other track, that being “Roadtrip“, which came out earlier in 2021. And that particular tune proved to be a hit, most notably making an appearance on the UK Singles Chart.

Dream himself is from the United States, though not much seems to be known about his personal life. He has rather made a name for himself as a player of the popular videogame Minecraft. And he has proven extremely popular in that regard as his YouTube channel, which mostly consists of related content, boasts of a solid 22 and-a-half million subscribers as of the aforementioned date. Moreover he took home a Streamy Award in the Gaming category in 2020.

“Mask”

Apparently the first time Dream teased this tune was during March of 2021. 

He wrote the song himself, being assisted in that regard by PmBata, Banrisk and Perish Beats. PmBata, a young musician from Kansas City, was Dream’s feature on “Roadtrip”. Meanwhile, Perish Beats and Banrisk also served as the producers of “Mask”.

The aforementioned “Roadtrip” was a song which also featured details from Dream’s personal life, though of a romantic variety. So “Mask” may not have necessarily been what the public at large had been expecting. But his fans have responded well, fully embracing the message behind the song.