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Information
Dre (Andre Young) was born in February
18, 1965, Los Angeles, California.
He was raised in Compton, and got his nickname by adoring basketball
superstar, Dr. J. His step-brother is Warren G. His brother got killed
in a fight while Dre was on tour with N.W.A "My brother was my best
friend. He was three years younger than me." Dre tells of being on
the road when he received a phone call with the bad news. "You
never forget that."
He started off as a D.J for parties as a
teenager, and soon earned himself a spot in the "Eve After
Dark" club, where he would play keyboards and sing.
Once a member of the rather anonymous group, "World Class Wreckin'
Cru", Dre earned himself a name by producing tracks for Eazy-E, the
D.O.C and others, and later became a gangsta rap pioneer as a
co-founder, member, co-producer and rapper in the controversial group,
N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude).
The band was extremely successful and was very promoted by endless
scandals and unfettered messages of street violence. The debut album
(Straight Outta compton) went platinum with minimal radio play, the
second LP entered the charts at number one. "We loved the
controversy. It's the reason we blew up as big as we did. It wasn't
hurting us, it was helping us."
The group disbanded in '91, but Dre didn't stop for a second:
He established Death Row Records along with Marion "Suge"
Knight, and shortly after released "The Chronic" (1992), which
sold over three million copies, won two Grammy Awards, and is still
considered to be one of the most influential rap albums ever.
The album introduced the new Death Row artists, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg
and Tha Dogg Pound, and marked Dr. Dre not only as one of the most
creative producers in the rap/hip-hop industry, but also as a fantastic
rapper.
The following Death Row album, Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Doggystyle",
was produced by Dr. Dre, and sold four million copies.
"I was trying to take it places no other record company had ever
been," he says.
"Not just limiting myself to R&B and hip hop. I wanted to
branch off into jazz, reggae,
and black rock 'n' roll."
In 1994 he directed the short film "Murder Was The Case", and
co-produced the soundrack. He also added a song to the soundtrack
entitled "Natural Born Killaz", which marked the reunion with
former fellow band member, Ice Cube. That was his last work with protege
Snoop Doggy Dogg. He decided that Snoop, who didn't make a single step
without his mentor, should stick to his own work. In that same year he
released a compilation album, entitled "Concrete Roots", which
contained some old and some newer material.
In 1995 Dre contributed a track for the "Friday" soundtrack,
"Keep Their Heads Ringin'". The track was a massive success,
and won Dre the MTV "Best Rap Song" award in '96.
In that same year he left Death Row, and started his own label,
"Aftermath Entertainment", a joint venture with Interscope
Records.
"At first it was just a big family thing," he says. "But
the more money that got made, the further apart everybody came. It's
like, certain people started becoming what they hated." He adds:
"I wasn't feeling comfortable with the people I was around.
Everybody wasn't professional. I always wanted things at Death Row to be
right and positive, because I'm a positive person. And the situation I
was in wasn't, plain and simple. It was too much negativity. Most
likely, there are gonna be records coming out dissing me, dissing people
I've worked with and am going to be working with. It's just a lot of
negative bullshit. So from here on out, Death Row Records don't even
exist to Dre."
In November 26, 1996, Dr. Dre released the compilation album "Dr.
Dre Presents... The Aftermath", which featured new performances
from several well-known artists as well as introducing more than a dozen
Aftermath Entertainment artists and producers.
The albums unites hip-hop and R&B , east coast and west coast,
hardcore and pop, male and female, old school and new school, delivered
by talented performers hand picked by Dre, the album's executive
producer.
One of the tracks in the album is "East Coast/West Coast Killas",
which collaborates various artists from both coasts such as Nas, KRS-1,
B-Real, RBX, and of course Dr. Dre.
"Now I'ma be able to do whatever I wanna do," he claims.
"If it works, it's on me. If it fails, it's on me. But I'm an
innovator. I like trying things." In that year he also released
another compilation album, "First Round Knockout".
On top of the list of Dre's future projects is Helter Skelter, Dre's
long-awaited reunion with Ice Cube, which Dre wanted to do since '94.
"If Cube is still into it, I definitely wanna do that record. I
don't give a fuck if it's 10 years from now, and we're like walking on
canes with gray hair. I wanna do that record, cuz I think it'll be
amazing."
There were also rumors of an N.W.A. reunion, but it seems that Dre is
not interested. "That was my past," he says. "What I
thought was the thing to do then. I mean, I think 'Straight Outta
Compton' was a classic hip-hop album. But I do look back on a lot of the
things we were saying and doing then and go, "Damn!". But the
shit was dope at the time. Would I ever do that N.W.A. material right
now? No. No way. I'm more into totally positive moves."
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