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Dr. Dre (born Andre Romel Young on February 18, 1965, in Compton, Los
Angeles, California) is an African-American record producer, rapper, and
record executive, and is one of the wealthiest, most successful and well-known
producers in the field of hip hop music.
Dre is best-known for his collaborations with West Coast hip hop artists
such as Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Tupac Shakur, and also as a former member
of pioneering gangsta rap group N.W.A. He is also notable for being the co-founder
of Death Row Records (with Suge Knight); and the founder of Aftermath
Entertainment, a label distributed through Interscope Records that features
multi-platinum artists such as Eminem, 50 Cent, and more recently Busta
Rhymes, Eve, Stat Quo, The Game and of course Dr. Dre himself.
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Dr. Dre started his producing career as a member of the World Class Wreckin'
Cru during the first half of the 1980s. In 1986, he and fellow World Class
Wreckin' Cru member DJ Yella were two of the founding members of N.W.A, a
highly successful and controversial group which created the prototype for
much of what was termed "gangsta rap" in the 1990s. Dr. Dre enjoyed
significant success in N.W.A.. 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.
Dr. Dre released his first solo single, "Deep Cover,"(AKA 187) in the spring
of 1992. This was the the beginning of his collaboration with rapper Snoop
Doggy Dogg (known as simply "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.
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 biggest-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 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.
In 1998, Dr. Dre signed aspiring 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 (6 beats), by the time The
Eminem Show was released in 2002, Eminem was producing the bulk of his
output himself.
Dre released his second solo album, Dr. Dre 2001 (sometimes referred to by
fans as "The Chronic 2001: No Seeds"), 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, 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), was
featured on the soundtrack to The Wash.
In 2003, 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;
former N.W.A member Ice Cube is currently negotiating a contract with the
label. However, in November 2004, Dre and Interscope confirmed that Detox
was still in the works and is currently scheduled to be released in Fall
2005. On the Eminem song "Encore", featuring Dre himself, Eminem mentions
that the Eminem crew will "make" him do the album. Dre will also be
producing Snoop Dogg's next album, The Blue Carpet Treatment which will be
released in 2006. |
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DR DRE PICTURES |
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