DR DRE - COMPTON - AUGUST 7

[Apollo]

Dr Dre has announced he will donate royalties earned from 'Compton', the rapper-producer's first album in 16 years, to the funding of a new performing arts and entertainment facility in the city of Compton. Dre revealed the news earlier today (August 6) to Zane Lowe on the DJ's Beats 1 Radio shot.

"I feel it's the right thing to do and I hope everybody appreciates the work I put into this album," said Dre, revealing that he'll be working with Compton Mayor Aja Brown on the project. "We've reached out to Aja Brown quite a few times in the last month or two. I've been really trying to do something special for Compton and just couldn't quite figure out what it was. She actually had this idea and she was already in the process of working on it. I said, 'Boom, this is what we should do.'"

Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/dr-dre/87410?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=drecompton#W10trEhTERsatRHZ.99

& Thanks bacardimayne for the link. Listening right now.

It's All On Me is killer. Production insanely clear.

That's cool.

All you white kids on here who BOUGHT the album should feel happy that you are helping fund a new performing and arts/entertainment facility in Compton.

Excuse me. What does being white have to do with any of this.

You are so edgy.

For the first time in months I actually agree with a Nate post. Why does it matter if white people are buying it?

Are you suggesting that white people shouldn't listen to rap, but instead to the music you like?

Please point out where I said that white people shouldn't listen to rap?

Please point out where I said that people should only listen to music I like?

The fact you guys take offense to the white kid part is hilarious.

Here, let me revise the post for you.

All of you who BOUGHT/PURCHASED/PAID MONEY FOR the album instead of downloading it for FREE (stealing) should feel proud, as you financially supporting the artist that you love is also going to help support that artist's charities.

[Apollo]

Dr Dre has announced he will donate royalties earned from 'Compton', the rapper-producer's first album in 16 years, to the funding of a new performing arts and entertainment facility in the city of Compton. Dre revealed the news earlier today (August 6) to Zane Lowe on the DJ's Beats 1 Radio shot.

"I feel it's the right thing to do and I hope everybody appreciates the work I put into this album," said Dre, revealing that he'll be working with Compton Mayor Aja Brown on the project. "We've reached out to Aja Brown quite a few times in the last month or two. I've been really trying to do something special for Compton and just couldn't quite figure out what it was. She actually had this idea and she was already in the process of working on it. I said, 'Boom, this is what we should do.'"

Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/dr-dre/87410?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=drecompton#W10trEhTERsatRHZ.99

& Thanks bacardimayne for the link. Listening right now.

It's All On Me is killer. Production insanely clear.

That's cool.

All you white kids on here who BOUGHT the album should feel happy that you are helping fund a new performing and arts/entertainment facility in Compton.

Excuse me. What does being white have to do with any of this.

You are so edgy.

For the first time in months I actually agree with a Nate post. Why does it matter if white people are buying it?

Are you suggesting that white people shouldn't listen to rap, but instead to the music you like?

No, where on earth did you get that from? He said all you white kids who bought the album should feel happy that you are funding a performing arts facility in Compton, how in the world do you go from that to 'so you're saying white people shouldn't listen to rap?!?'. He's saying white people listening to rap has helped fund a performing arts centre, you're really looking for it eh? And what makes you say Apollo doesn't like rap, if i recall he's mentioned a number of instances of being into certain rap/rappers. LL Cool J was one of em if I'm not mistaken.

Being white is a massive part of it too because without the white audience you wouldn't have NWA, thats something that is pointed out in every documentary, every book out there about them, thats not Apollos doing, he's just saying it like any number of thousands of other people do. And it's an interesting reference too, since so much is being made of Dr Andre Gandhi and his new performing arts centre, something else that is, again, not Apollos doing.

Thank you Len.

Glad to see some common sense in here.

I love all types of music. From rap to pop to hair metal to country to blues. A couple times a year I have my son come download some of his music onto my Ipod. As I type this I'm listening to some rap or hip hop song where the base of the song is "I don't give a f*ck about you" and the lyrics are a guy telling some ex about how much he doesn't give a f*ck about her. It's catchy as hell.

I LOVE music - I don't care what genre it is.

And yes! Thank you for seeing the cultural reference. Look at this forum. Val22 hates black people, but is posting on a GnR forum, the same forum that a 21-year old white kid is posting on applauding the new Dre album, and a portion of the profits from that album are going to fund an arts center that will be mainly used by black youths. Do black fans get mad if a black artist has a large teenage white kid fan base, do they think he is selling out for the dollar? But what if those dollars are helping to improve their community?

For somebody to see my post and think I'm being racist or saying that people should only listen to the music I enjoy? SMH. I think people just look for things to be outraged about.

[Gordon Comstock]

What's with all the love for Genocide? It's one of the worst songs on the album

[chevelle]

This album got a lot better for me on my second listen. The first time around is was hanging around a 6 for me, it was just a huge clutter of songs, guests and ideas. But it's opening up a little, there's a lot of really solid tracks (One Shot One Kill, It's All On Me, Animals, Medicine Man) and the production is really expansive. That drowning skit at the end of Deep Water (I think, anyway) really fucks with me too, I've seen some messed up death videos in my time and that's sort of what it reminds me of.

[drtydane]

Real muthaphukkin' G's was better than anything Dre has ever wrote imo.

Eazy had more potential but didn't get to show it.

Yeah that whole album is great. But once cube was gone it was BG knockout and Dresta writing his rhymes. Great ep tho.

Real muthaphukkin' G's was better than anything Dre has ever wrote imo.

Eazy had more potential but didn't get to show it.

True.

Lol, eazy was fucking garbage without cube and Ren writing all his shit

Dre might have been the same way but at least he's a godly producer

Also true, but eazy was a better rapper, and being a good rapper > being a good producer.

I think the Anderson Paak songs are the only ones I'll keep listening to.

Also you can always produce. Can't get too old to make dope beats.

Also. New Warren G>Compton anyway of the week!

Edited August 12, 2015 by drtydane

[wasted]

I'm just uncomfortable with a Dre album being so contemporary sounding, using now rappers. And also using the NWA movie play off. Then hes rapping about how amazing bulletproof he is? Is there anyway to look at this positive? Music wise it just hasnt hooked me like the last Em album did. Maybe once you see the movie it will make sense.

[Len Cnut]

Lets face it, the albums a sack of shit musically. And here's why.

1) The music is naff, Dre trying to be, as Wasted just said, all contemporary sounding. Read that as a fake Kanye, and Kanye ain't shit to begin with

2) It's extremely contrived. And not even well contrived either. There's absolutely no honesty of perspective, it feels completely like a put-on...cuz it is.

3) The young rappers ain't hard enough and the old rappers on it ain't at that place anymore to make an album representing the kind of thing that made that kind of music appealling.

That pretty much covers it. And all that fuckin' pro black shit coming out of Dre, quite honestly, is hollow as fuck, that 'concious' shit. Remember, this guy couldn't get on with the Mighty Rakim signed to Aftermath because Ra' was looking to make concious shit and Dre was giving him subject matters like 'rhyme about killing people, rhyme about robberies, rhyme about street shit'. And it doesn't take a genius to see why, it's called oppertunism, Trayvon Martin and that other fella (was it Michael Brown? Probably wrong) and all this shit being a made a big thing of in America at the moment with black people and then fuckin' the prodigal chipmunk and his bullshit album with all that Blacker the Berry shit, it's oppertunism, he thinks it's whats gonna sell right now so he's pimping it out, thats all that shit is about and people ain't fuckin' stupid, you can't be obvious like that and have people not notice.

This whole Compton thing, Dre as like the prodigal son of Compton, by all accounts, is pretty fuckin' insubstantial, it's been said by all and sundry really that Dre was never really a street person, never really lived anything resembling any kind of street life (and I'm not even talking about being a gangster here) and hasn't really had anything to do with Compton right away after he was famous, this is why, from the get-go with Dre, his 'Compton Compton Compton' songs have always been REALLY REALLY non-specific, his street shit has always been REALLY REALLY non-specific, unless it was Snoop writing his shit on Deep Cover.

And furthermore, to deviate further from the music, I also find it laughable that Dre is suddenly now positioning himself as some kind psuedo street civil rights figure, honestly, it's just obvious as fuck. Go back to ALL the old interviews, all the old documentaries, all the everything and you'll see Cube, Ren, Eazy always talking about like, this is a reflection of the street, this is something we seen and observed that we're showing back, this is to do with the plight of a section of society and Dres bit in those interviews is always just this kinda micheivious thing of like, we've caused all this fuckin' hoopla, lets see how outrageous we can get, lets push the envelope, OK, we got all this controversy for being loud crude etc, lets be louder and cruder, THATS what Dre is about, just look at the direction NWA went after Cube left and what direction Cube went and it becomes pretty clear. Suddenly know he's this concious Tupac figure, it's just fake, he was never that and never could be. In fact, depending on what he felt like pushing and what he felt sell-able, he'd switch that all day long, he was actually annoyed at Tupac for having gangsta shit on his verse for California Love, that song was put together for a Cube and Dre collab' album that never came to being and Dre was pissed off at Tupac for not making it more party orientated, which kinda illustrates my point about Dre and how he's always needed to have someone to ride on otherwise he ain't shit really.

I'm not trying to devalue his contribution to hip hop because it is huge and, for better or worse, he was a major part of NWA and NWA did have that social signifiance but it's ridiculous to say it was cuz of Dre, quite frankly Ice Cubes 3 solo albums carried on the work of Straight Outta Compton whilst, left with Dre at the helm, those boys were left to rhyme about gang banging 13 yr old preachers daughters at drive thru's on Efil4Zaggin.

Or, more briefly, fuck Dr Dre Nobody wants to hear some secluded Grandad with 600 million in the bank going on about street life, it just ain't convincing.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Len B'stard

[wasted]

Its hard not to be a complete hypocrite when you get rich. Its just this thing is in the crosshairs of three contradictions. The NWA movie, current rappers, then this old man black activist thing combined with we still more gangster than ever.

I think it's meant to have mass appeal of a soundtrack album so its got contemporary rappers and style but also brings old school gangsterism and politics. Entry-ism. It's ballsy but also cringey. Luckily its not my problem!

But all the gangster stuff falls flat. Maybe business wise he's a force. Maybe he'll get into a brawl in Vegas with Suge's cousin. Snoop was on Larry King for the love of Mike Tyson.

Everything gone fake. Fake rap, fake boxing.

Everything's fake, time to wake up!

[Len Cnut]

Snoop will always be a G whatever happens and this is illustrated admirably whenever some beef kicks off. When your Xzibits were getting their ho card pulled and Dre and them were busy beefing with such titans as Jermaine Dupri and Ja Rule Snoop was the only one with the stones to take on Suge Knight and other assorted real street beef, make no mistake about it, Snoop is a real one and always will be. He made a point of this as well, regarding Dre, Em' all of them, like why are you guys chasing beefs with people like Everlast and Jermaine Dupri and basically ducking the obvious one? The answer was obvious, people like Xzibit were getting slapped up in clubs over it. The story goes when Suge and his boys turned up to the video shoot they all cleared out, all of em, every cameramen, crew etc, only people who stood their ground was Fif', G Unit, Em' and Proof, Proof refused to shake Suges hand.

There's real ones out there, theres nothing fake about 50, or Snoop or Ghost-Deini, all of the Wu in fact, D12 were proper lads too, as were No Limit (as evidenced by the fact most of em are in prison doing 10 year plus bids, C Murders doing life i believe). Bobby Shmurda is another, nothing fake about him. There real are out there.

Edited August 12, 2015 by Len B'stard

[Johnny Drama]

Lets face it, the albums a sack of shit musically. And here's why.

1) The music is naff, Dre trying to be, as Wasted just said, all contemporary sounding. Read that as a fake Kanye, and Kanye ain't shit to begin with

2) It's extremely contrived. And not even well contrived either. There's absolutely no honesty of perspective, it feels completely like a put-on...cuz it is.

3) The young rappers ain't hard enough and the old rappers on it ain't at that place anymore to make an album representing the kind of thing that made that kind of music appealling.

That pretty much covers it. And all that fuckin' pro black shit coming out of Dre, quite honestly, is hollow as fuck, that 'concious' shit. Remember, this guy couldn't get on with the Mighty Rakim signed to Aftermath because Ra' was looking to make concious shit and Dre was giving him subject matters like 'rhyme about killing people, rhyme about robberies, rhyme about street shit'. And it doesn't take a genius to see why, it's called oppertunism, Trayvon Martin and that other fella (was it Michael Brown? Probably wrong) and all this shit being a made a big thing of in America at the moment with black people and then fuckin' the prodigal chipmunk and his bullshit album with all that Blacker the Berry shit, it's oppertunism, he thinks it's whats gonna sell right now so he's pimping it out, thats all that shit is about and people ain't fuckin' stupid, you can't be obvious like that and have people not notice.

This whole Compton thing, Dre as like the prodigal son of Compton, by all accounts, is pretty fuckin' insubstantial, it's been said by all and sundry really that Dre was never really a street person, never really lived anything resembling any kind of street life (and I'm not even talking about being a gangster here) and hasn't really had anything to do with Compton right away after he was famous, this is why, from the get-go with Dre, his 'Compton Compton Compton' songs have always been REALLY REALLY non-specific, his street shit has always been REALLY REALLY non-specific, unless it was Snoop writing his shit on Deep Cover.

And furthermore, to deviate further from the music, I also find it laughable that Dre is suddenly now positioning himself as some kind psuedo street civil rights figure, honestly, it's just obvious as fuck. Go back to ALL the old interviews, all the old documentaries, all the everything and you'll see Cube, Ren, Eazy always talking about like, this is a reflection of the street, this is something we seen and observed that we're showing back, this is to do with the plight of a section of society and Dres bit in those interviews is always just this kinda micheivious thing of like, we've caused all this fuckin' hoopla, lets see how outrageous we can get, lets push the envelope, OK, we got all this controversy for being loud crude etc, lets be louder and cruder, THATS what Dre is about, just look at the direction NWA went after Cube left and what direction Cube went and it becomes pretty clear. Suddenly know he's this concious Tupac figure, it's just fake, he was never that and never could be. In fact, depending on what he felt like pushing and what he felt sell-able, he'd switch that all day long, he was actually annoyed at Tupac for having gangsta shit on his verse for California Love, that song was put together for a Cube and Dre collab' album that never came to being and Dre was pissed off at Tupac for not making it more party orientated, which kinda illustrates my point about Dre and how he's always needed to have someone to ride on otherwise he ain't shit really.

I'm not trying to devalue his contribution to hip hop because it is huge and, for better or worse, he was a major part of NWA and NWA did have that social signifiance but it's ridiculous to say it was cuz of Dre, quite frankly Ice Cubes 3 solo albums carried on the work of Straight Outta Compton whilst, left with Dre at the helm, those boys were left to rhyme about gang banging 13 yr old preachers daughters at drive thru's on Efil4Zaggin.

Or, more briefly, fuck Dr Dre Nobody wants to hear some secluded Grandad with 600 million in the bank going on about street life, it just ain't convincing.

Whenever there's a thread on hip hop being shit in this day and age, I'm copying and pasting this post. Holy shit man.

[wasted]

Snoop will always be a G whatever happens and this is illustrated admirably whenever some beef kicks off. When your Xzibits were getting their ho card pulled and Dre and them were busy beefing with such titans as Jermaine Dupri and Ja Rule Snoop was the only one with the stones to take on Suge Knight and other assorted real street beef, make no mistake about it, Snoop is a real one and always will be. He made a point of this as well, regarding Dre, Em' all of them, like why are you guys chasing beefs with people like Everlast and Jermaine Dupri and basically ducking the obvious one? The answer was obvious, people like Xzibit were getting slapped up in clubs over it. The story goes when Suge and his boys turned up to the video shoot they all cleared out, all of em, every cameramen, crew etc, only people who stood their ground was Fif', G Unit, Em' and Proof, Proof refused to shake Suges hand.

There's real ones out there, theres nothing fake about 50, or Snoop or Ghost-Deini, all of the Wu in fact, D12 were proper lads too, as were No Limit (as evidenced by the fact most of em are in prison doing 10 year plus bids, C Murders doing life i believe). Bobby Shmurda is another, nothing fake about him. There real are out there.

Its just they talk WAY more than anything happens. Like 50s twitter is fun but it's not real beef as he has said. It's gossipy bitch stuff. The fact they are semi celebrity rappers that face off and shoot each sometimes means it's all very silly. It's a bit like drugs in drug, give it up y'all it's not that interesting.

[Len Cnut]

Snoop will always be a G whatever happens and this is illustrated admirably whenever some beef kicks off. When your Xzibits were getting their ho card pulled and Dre and them were busy beefing with such titans as Jermaine Dupri and Ja Rule Snoop was the only one with the stones to take on Suge Knight and other assorted real street beef, make no mistake about it, Snoop is a real one and always will be. He made a point of this as well, regarding Dre, Em' all of them, like why are you guys chasing beefs with people like Everlast and Jermaine Dupri and basically ducking the obvious one? The answer was obvious, people like Xzibit were getting slapped up in clubs over it. The story goes when Suge and his boys turned up to the video shoot they all cleared out, all of em, every cameramen, crew etc, only people who stood their ground was Fif', G Unit, Em' and Proof, Proof refused to shake Suges hand.

There's real ones out there, theres nothing fake about 50, or Snoop or Ghost-Deini, all of the Wu in fact, D12 were proper lads too, as were No Limit (as evidenced by the fact most of em are in prison doing 10 year plus bids, C Murders doing life i believe). Bobby Shmurda is another, nothing fake about him. There real are out there.

Its just they talk WAY more than anything happens. Like 50s twitter is fun but it's not real beef as he has said. It's gossipy bitch stuff. The fact they are semi celebrity rappers that face off and shoot each sometimes means it's all very silly. It's a bit like drugs in drug, give it up y'all it's not that interesting.

Gunplay getting the fucking shite kicked out of him outside the BET awards a year ago weren't all talk, Slowbuck getting robbed at the Summer Jam before last wasn't talk.

[wasted]

Hip hop isnt shit now. Its just a little more introspective and that's good to move a bit not just be gangsters.

What Dre is doing is genius in someways but I think he missed being real to himself. He's buried any progression behind self parody. Maybe Detox was like that, this is me but he realized he was sucking. It's like if Axl started writing songs about smack and strippers again and had Dj Ashba and Shrillex produce right now today because it was cool. Bono can pull that off. Like jump on the bandwagon today but still sing about spirtual stuff. But bringing Kendrick into a Dre record is weird enough but then implant that in the NWA movie? That's insane! I like it! So I'm onboard, then I don't know. Let it Be, let it be, there will be an answer...

[Crazyman]

I just laugh every time I think of Dre STILL trying to play the "I don't get any respect" shit...when the guy is worth a billion dollars. That was perfectly fine when The Chronic came out and even when 2001 came out, but now?

Agreed with the contemporary criticism. Kinda disappointed by that, to be honest.

Still think the "name" rappers did really well on this, however. Em and Snoop have their best verses in years, Xzibit has a great part on Loose Cannons (why isn't Em on that?!), Kendrick with his usual great verses, etc.

[wasted]

Its not that it's contemporary but that doesnt vibe well with the NWA movie. It's kind of okay on a Dre album too if that what he want.

Not sure if there is any activism on it, that intro is a joke maybe?

But then the pressure is showing when he's paranoid about what people expect. As paranoid as Axl sounded sometimes.

Maybe the bandwagon jumping is a business rap move which is maybe right for Dre to be as huge as possible.

In Rock, Axl did much better grinding what he enjoyed no matter how unlike GNR it was. He still expressed feelings like he was set up but it was all his choice.

So they both could be said to have done it right for themselves. Dre just comes over a bit cheap in a rock context, Axl a bit self sabotaging artist in the rap perspective.

[bacardimayne]

wahhh no gfunk snoop dogg single it's shit

Edited August 13, 2015 by bacardimayne

[Len Cnut]

wahhh no gfunk snoop dogg single it's shit

Since when was that a Dre standard expectation though, wheres the G Funk single on 2001?

[J Dog]

I'm just uncomfortable with a Dre album being so contemporary sounding, using now rappers. And also using the NWA movie play off. Then hes rapping about how amazing bulletproof he is? Is there anyway to look at this positive? Music wise it just hasnt hooked me like the last Em album did. Maybe once you see the movie it will make sense.

That's probably my biggest problem. Dre has his own sound. Always has. Even those old school NWA beats were different from everybody else. This is like, not really Dre but just, production, if that makes sense. It's growing on me though. Def hope they do something else for the movie. Like music from the motion picture or something.

I don't get too caught up with breaking down Dre's rapping. When a man says from the beginning of his career, I don't consider myself a rapper but a producer, when he's that self aware I take it into consideration. And I don't know, he's 50, he's been around 25 years, he's a billionaire, not really sure what he supposed to be rapping about.

[RussTCB]

There's just nothing of substance on the record. I listened to it once straight though and there's nothing that I feel I'd ever want to hear again. I wouldn't avoid it, but I wouldn't seek it out either.

[wasted]

I guess if rappers had a soul they could cry about chicks and shit. I guess the first track is the best, thats all it is about, bravado and greed. The last track Talking to my diary is the other one I like. The rest are like growers, dexterious ninja tracks. You have to work to like them.

If he a producer then dont release solo albums. But i guess that frees him up to exploit the market. Get Em, get new comers to produce.

A rap mogul billionaire is something to be.

Cube like Slash stayed closer to roots and that works easier for artists. Snoop has had amazing career, dancing with the devil. He make Katy Perry cool.