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Dr. Dre

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This article is about the Los Angeles rapper and producer. For the New York radio and television presenter, see Doctor Dre.
André Romel "Dr. Dre" Young (born on February 18, 1965 in Los Angeles, California) is an influential Grammy-Award winner American record producer, hip hop producer, rapper, actor and record executive.

Dre became famous as a member of iconic gangsta rap group N.W.A, continuing his success as a best-selling rapper, and most famously, the co-founder of Death Row Records with Suge Knight and the founder of Aftermath Entertainment. He is most notable for having launched the careers of rap superstars Snoop Dogg and Eminem, and is widely regarded as hip hop's greatest producer, noted for advancing the use of the synthesizers, keyboards, and heavy bass in his hip-hop beats. The artists on his sizeable Aftermath roster today include multi-platinum artists such as Eminem, 50 Cent, and more recently Busta Rhymes, Eve, The Game and of course Dr. Dre himself.

Dr. Dre's albums The Chronic and 2001 were both critical and commercial successes, and the former is credited with revolutionizing hip hop by beginning West Coast G-funk's four-year dominance of mainstream rap (1992-96) and having a lasting influence in its sound.

Contents

Biography

Dr. Dre was born in Los Angeles in 1965, and grew up in South Central. His parents divorced before he was born. Young grew up idolizing then-basketball star Dr. J, and when he started DJing at parties and clubs (eventually landing an ongoing gig at the "Eve After Dark" club) he would DJ, sing and play keyboards under the name Dr. J in tribute to the star.[link] When he got older, his mother married Warren Griffin Jr., father of West coast rapper Warren G, who later introduced Dre to Snoop Dogg.

Andre started his career as a DJ and poster boy for the World Class Wreckin' Cru during the first half of the 1980s, taking the name Dr. Dre. It is stated in the World Class Wreckin' Cru track "Surgery" that Dr. Dre has Ph.D. in "mixology". In 1986, after Dre had begun to dip more into actual production of beats, he and fellow World Class Wreckin' Cru member DJ Yella left the group to become two of the founding members of N.W.A. Dr. Dre enjoyed significant success with N.W.A. and The D.O.C., raising his popularity greatly in the West Coast rap scene. Dre's rapping style and image was still very much evolving at the time, drastically different than the "gangsta rap" style he later would be known for. Take, for example, his verse on the song "Express Yourself" off the album Straight Outta Compton:

Some drop science; while I'm droppin' English
Even if Yella, makes it a-capella
I still express, yo, I don't smoke weed or cess
Cause it's known to give a brother brain damage
And brain damage on the mic don't manage - NUTHIN
but makin' a sucka and you equal
Don't be another sequel...
After a dispute with Eazy-E, a founding member of N.W.A and Ruthless Records, Dre left the group at the peak of its popularity in 1991 to form Death Row Records with Suge Knight, introduced to him by The D.O.C.

Dr. Dre released his first solo single, "Deep Cover," (also known as "187") in the spring of 1992. This was the beginning of his collaboration with rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg (who is now simply known as Snoop Dogg, following his departure from Death Row Records), a young man who had recorded some homemade tapes with Dre's stepbrother Warren G. Warren G played Dre some of Snoop's mixtapes and Dre arranged a meeting with the young man, beginning a lifelong association.

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Snoop's voice appeared on Dre's 1992 debut album The Chronic as much as Dre's did. Thanks to the single "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," and hits like "Let Me Ride" and "Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')", The Chronic became a multi-platinum seller, making it virtually impossible to hear mainstream hip-hop that wasn't affected in some way by Dr. Dre. Shortly after its release, The Chronic became one of the best-selling hip hop albums in history. The song "Let Me Ride" won Dre the 1993 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. "The Chronic" was followed shortly by a string of multi-platinum albums from Dre’s protégés, including Snoop Dogg’s debut album Doggystyle and Warren G’s Regulate... G Funk Era.

The following year, Dr. Dre produced Snoop Dogg's debut album Doggystyle, with similar subject matter and musical style. Doggystyle achieved phenomenal success, being the first debut album for an artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts.

In 1996, the song "California Love", a highly successful collaboration with Death Row artist Tupac Shakur, helped further establish Death Row and Dr. Dre as a major force in the music industry. By the end of the year, however, the success of Death Row had taken a reverse turn, following the death of Tupac Shakur and racketeering charges against Suge Knight. Foreseeing the label's collapse, Dr. Dre left Death Row to form his own Aftermath Entertainment label.

The Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath album, released at the end of the year, featured songs by the newly signed Aftermath artists, and a solo track "Been There, Done That". The track was intended as a symbolic good-bye to gangsta-rap, in which Dre suggested that he is moving on to another level of music and lifestyle. While going platinum, the album was considered a critical disappointment by Dre's standards, failing to raise much talk of the label. In 1997, Dre produced several tracks on ; while also going platinum, the album met with similarly negative reviews from critics.

The turning point for Aftermath came in 1998, when Dre signed underground Detroit rapper Eminem to his label, producing his controversial album The Slim Shady LP in 1999, followed by the even more successful and controversial The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000. Though he was heavily involved in the latter, producing five beats with collaborator Mel-Man, by the time The Eminem Show was released in 2002, Eminem was producing the bulk of his output himself. However, Encore featured substantially increased production involvement from Dre.

He released his second solo album, Dr. Dre 2001 (sometimes referred to by fans as "The Chronic 2001"), or more often simply '2001' in 1999. Once again, the album featured about as much of Dre's voice as the voices of numerous collaborators, including Devin the Dude, Hittman, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Nate Dogg and Eminem. The album was highly successful, thus reaffirming a recurring theme featured in its lyrics, stating that Dre is still a force to be reckoned with, despite the lack of major releases in the previous few years.

In 2000, Dr. Dre won the Grammy award for Producer Of The Year, for his work on "The Marshall Mathers LP" and "2001". The albums followed a new musical direction, characterised by high-pitched piano and string melodies over a deep and rich bassline. The style was also prominent in his following production work for other artists, including hits such as "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve and Gwen Stefani (whom he would produce again on the Stefani and Eve track "Rich Girl"), "Break Ya Neck" by Busta Rhymes, and "Family Affair" by Mary J. Blige.

Dr. Dre has also appeared in the movies Set It Off, The Wash and Training Day, though he later stated that he does not intend to pursue a career in acting. A song of his, "Bad Intentions" (featuring Knoc-Turn'Al) and produced by Mahogany, was featured on the soundtrack to The Wash. Dre also appeared on two other songs "On the Blvd." and "The Wash" along with his co-star Snoop Dogg.

In 2002, Dr. Dre and Eminem produced the major-label debut Get Rich or Die Tryin' for Queens rapper 50 Cent, featuring the Dre-produced hit single "In Da Club."

The release of Detox, which was to be Dre's final solo album, was planned for 2004. The project was declared to be cancelled for a while, as Dre decided to put all his effort into producing the artists on his Aftermath label, including Eminem, 50 Cent, Eve, The Game, Stat Quo, and Busta Rhymes. However, in November 2004, Dre and Interscope confirmed that Detox was still in the works and is currently scheduled to be released in late 2006. On Eminem's song "Encore", featuring Dre himself, Eminem mentions that "we'll make him (Dre) do it."

Currently, Dre is working on Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's next album. He and Busta Rhymes just completed Busta's Aftermath debut The Big Bang. He will also reunite with Snoop Dogg to produce several records on the latter's next album, The Blue Carpet Treatment, which will be released in 2006.

Dr. Dre's son is also a rapper named Hood Surgeon (born Curtis Young, on December 15, 1981). Another son of his is called Marcel Young, he is nine years younger than Curtis.

Also, Dre can be seen at the end of the video "I Love My Bitch [Chick]" by Busta Rhymes.

Technique

Early work

Dre's production technique has evolved considerably over the span of his career, and has often been influential to the sound of other producers, especially those from the West Coast. Early on, while working with the World Class Wrecking Cru, he was still strictly a DJ--though witnesses from the time cite that he had a good musical ear. After beginning to make actual beats with N.W.A. in the mid-1980s, often co-producing beats with DJ Yella, his style was still steeped with the characteristics of the time: a very regular meter, with heavy drums and thumping bass. His backings were largely funk-influenced and usually very uptempo, ideally dance and party music.

Later in his tenure with N.W.A., he began a series of three albums produced almost entirely by himself (Dre had and has a habit of co-producing beats with another artist, usually leading to allegations that he has ghost producers). The D.O.C.'s 1989 debut No One Can Do It Better featured roughly the same production as N.W.A.'s albums had, but with more differences in tempo (both faster and slower tracks), and Dre delved into reggae and rock music on some of the songs.

G-funk

For more details on this topic, see G-funk.
The second of this trio, The Chronic, was considered the flagship of G-Funk. Similarly funk-feuled and alternately rugged and smooth, The Chronic and other songs he did for soundtracks at the time (Murder Was the Case, Above the Rim and Deep Cover) utilized heavy samples from George Clinton and Funkadelic. Snoop's ensuing album Doggystyle (which would be the final project thus far that Dre produced completely for an artist besides himself) featured a smoother and more laid-back style of G-Funk, shifted to suit Snoop's style. Doggystyle borrows beats, samples and quotes from the movie Superfly, and the soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield.

After this, Dre produced two songs on 2Pac's Death Row debut All Eyez On Me ("California Love" and "Can't C Me") which would be the last overtly G-Funk tracks he would release.

2001 and beyond

When he released the Presents...The Aftermath compilation, Dre was in transition, somewhere between G-funk and the spacey synthesizers and organs of 2001, his sophomore release. That album (produced mainly with the help of Mel-Man) still had thumping bass and hard drums, but also heavily used synthesizers and organs instead of his previous flutes and funk samples.

Production would continue in this vein for four years on beats such as "The Watcher pt. 2" for Jay-Z, "Truck Volume" for Busta Rhymes, and "Kill You" for Eminem. On 50 Cent's major-label debut Get Rich Or Die Tryin', Dre experimented with dynamic violins ("In Da Club") and worked the sound of a gun cocking into "Heat." Violins and pianos have played more of a role in his recent productions for the projects of his artists, most notably for The Game's The Documentary and Busta Rhymes' latest release The Big Bang; Dre did another track on that album experimenting with sounds similar to the beat for "Heat," this time working a shovel-digging-a-grave sound into the beat for "Legend of the Fall Offs."

Music samples

As a performer

As a producer

Discography

With N.W.A

Solo

Album cover Album information
120px
The Chronic
120px
2001
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Detox
  • Released: TBA
  • Label: Aftermath/Interscope
  • Chart positions: TBA
  • Last RIAA certification:TBA
  • Singles: TBA

Compilations

Production

Mixtapes

  • Detox - Millennium Of Aftermath (by DJ Rukiz), Pickwick, 2005. #183 UK
  • Pretox 2005
  • Dretox 2005
  • Look Out For Detox
  • Dr. Dre 2006 2006

Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 US R&B/ Hip Hop US Rap UK Singles Chart
1993 "Nuthin' But a "G" Thang" #2 [Platinum] #1 #1 #31 The Chronic
1993 "Dre Day" #8 [Gold] #6 #13 #59 The Chronic
1993 "Let Me Ride" #34 [Grammy] #34 #3 #31 The Chronic
1996 "Been There, Done That" - - - - Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath
1999 "Still D.R.E." #93 #32 #11 #6 2001
1999 "Forgot about Dre" #25 [Grammy] #14 ?? #7 2001
2000 "The Next Episode" #25 #11 #9 #7 2001

Featured Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 US R&B/ Hip Hop US Rap UK Singles Chart
1992 "Deep Cover" - #46 #4 - Deep Cover OST
1990 "We're All In The Same Gang" (West Coast All-Stars) #35 #10 #1 - We're All In The Same Gang VLS
1994 "Natural Born Killaz" (Dr. Dre & Ice Cube) - - - 45 Murder Was the Case
1995 "Keep Their Heads Ringin" #10 [Gold] #10 #1 #25 Friday OST
1996 "No Diggity" (Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre) #1 [Grammy] #1 - #9 Another Level
1996 "How Do U Want It"/"California Love" (2Pac feat. Dr. Dre) #1 [2X Platinum] #1 #1 #6 All Eyez on Me
1997 "Puppet Master" (feat. DJ Muggs and B-Real)) - #73 - - Soul Assassins Vol.1
1998 "Zoom" (with LL Cool J) - - - #15 Bulworth OST
1999 "Guilty Conscience" (Eminem feat. Dr. Dre) - #56 - #5 The Slim Shady LP
2000 "Chin Check" (NWA feat. Snoop Dogg) - #71 - - Next Friday OST
2000 "Just Be A Man About It" (Toni Braxton feat Dr. Dre) #32 #6 - #6 The Heat
2001 "Fast Lane" (Remix) (Bilal Feat Dr. Dre & Jadakiss) - #41 - - 1st Born Second
2001 "Put It on Me" (feat. DJ Quik) - #62 - - Training Day OST
2002 "Knoc"(Knoc-Turn'al with Dr. Dre & Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott) #98 #67 #13 - The Way I Am
2002 "Bad Intentions" (Dr. Dre feat. Knoc-Turn'al) - #33 - #4 The Wash soundtrack
2002 "The Wash" (Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg) - #43 - - The Wash soundtrack
2003 "Symphony In X Major" (Xzibit feat Dr. Dre) - #63 - - Man Vs. Machine
2004 "Encore" (Eminem feat. Dr Dre & 50 Cent) #25 #48 #20 - Encore

External links

 

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