Dr. Dre 1966–
Dr. Dre 1966–
Rap singer, producer
Platinum, Production, and Posses
Though Dr. Dre’s music career has not always been a “’G’ Thang,” (“G” stands for “gang-sta”), his own recordings combined with his production work made ganqsta rap among the most vita pop genres of the 1990s. Born Andre Ramelle Young in Compton, California, Dre was raised by his mother. From the time he was four years old, he loved playing DJ at her parties. In 1981, he heard a song by Grandmaster Flash that inspired him to change his name in honor of basketball star Julius “Dr. J” Erving and become a full-time DJ.
Dre began spinning records at a Los Angeles nightclub called Eve After Dark. He produced the dance tapes in the club’s four-track studio during the week, then played them on the weekends. In addition to using the rap trademarks of sampling, scratching, and drum machines, he added keyboards and vocals. “I would put together this mix shelf,” Dre told Jonathan Gold in Rolling Stone, “lots of oldies, Martha and the Vandellas and stuff like that. And where normally you go to a club and the deejays play all the hit records back to back, I would put on a serious show. People would come from everywhere, just to see Dre on the wheels of steel.”
In 1982, when Dre was 17 years old, he formed the World Class Wreckin’ Cru with Yella (Antoine Carraby), his fellow DJ and manager of Eve After Dark. Dre’s demo, “Surgery,” became the group’s first independently released single and sold 50,000 copies. Dre graduated from Compton’s Centennial High School in 1983. Impressed with his studies in mechanical drafting, Northrop Aircraft offered him a job, but he turned it down. Dre discovered he could make more money as a DJ, and all of his spare time was spent preparing for the release of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru’s second album.
Dre left the World Class Wreckin’ Cru in 1984. “They wouldn’t do my songs,” Dre said in a Death Row Records biography. “They said they’d never get on the radio.” Dre joined with Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson), who was in a group with his cousin at the time. Together they performed live wherever they could, including dates at skating rinks, where they played in
At a Glance…
Born Andre Rameile Young, February 18, 1966, in Compton, CA; married Nicole Threatt, May 1996; children: (with singer Michelle) Marcell (son).
Rap artist; record producer for various artists, including Eazy-E, the D.O.C, and Snoop Doggy Dogg. Began career as a DJ in high school, early 1980s; formed World Class Wreckin’ Cru, 1982; released two albums; joined N.W.A., 1985; released three albums and one EP; produced eight albums for Ruthless Records; cofound-edDeath Row Records, 1991; released first solo album, The Chronic, Death Row, 1993; left Death Row and founded Aftermath Entertainment, 1996.
Awards: Grammy Award for best rap solo performance, 1994; Source awards for best producer, solo artist, and album, 1994; named “One of the Top Ten Artists That Mattered Most, 1985-1995” by Spin magazine; named one of “The 101 Most Powerful People in Entertainment” by Entertainment Weekly, 1996.
Addresses: Record company— Aftermath Entertainment, 15060 Ventura Blvd., Ste. 225; Sherman Oaks, CA 91403; telephone: (818) 385-0024.
front of 2,000 people at a time.
The Birth of N.W.A.
In 1985, Dre and Eazy-E (Eric Wright) decided to start up their own record company with Eazy-E’s capital and Dre’s producing talent. Dre produced the label’s first project, “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” featuring Eazy-E as the artist. They sold about 10,000 copies out of the trunks of their cars and used the money to finance the first single for their newly formed group, N.W.A. (Niggaz with Attitude). N.W.A. included Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Yella, M. C. Ren (Lorenzo Patterson), and Arabian Prince. Dre wrote and produced the group’s first single, “Dopeman.” He also produced Eazy-E’s first platinum album, Eazy-Duz-It, that same year.
N.W.A. began their controversial and successful career in 1987 with the release of N.W.A. and the Posse on Macola Records. Two years later, the group released Straight Outta Compton on Ruthless Records and sold more than two million copies. “Of course, the controversy behind the group” and the album only assisted in launching their sales. Milt Ahlerich, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of Public Affairs, wrote a letter to the group’s parent record company objecting to the lyrics of the song “F—tha Police.” Police throughout the country added fuel to the fire by allegedly making it standard operating procedure to pull over any car driven by African American men blaring N.W.A. “We loved the controversy,” Dre said in his record company biography. “It’s the reason we blew up as big as we did. It wasn’t hurting us, it was helping us.”
Keeping his career as a producer alive, Dre produced the D.O.C. (Tray Curry), a rapper he had discovered in Dallas, Texas. The D.O.C.’s album, No One Can Do It Better, became Number One on Billboard’s R&B album chart, Number 20 on the pop chart, and reached platinum sales. The track titled “It’s Funky Enough” became a Number One rap single. Dre also produced an album for his girlfriend, Michel’le, which went platinum and reached Number One on Billboard’s R&B chart.
In January of 1990, Ice Cube left N.W.A. over a financial dispute and started a solo career. Later that year, N.W.A. released the platinum EP 100 Miles and Runnin ’ on Ruthless Records. The group’s third album, Efil4zaggin (“Niggaz 4 Life”), hit the stores in 1991, sold over a million copies in just two weeks, and reached Number One on Billboard’s album chart.
N.W.A.’s success and controversy brought them lots of attention, and Dre began receiving attention for his antics outside of the recording studio. On January 27, 1991, Dre allegedly hit Denise (“Dee”) Barnes, the former host of Pump It Up, a FOX-TV show, and tried to push her down a staircase at an L. A. nightclub. Pump It Up had aired a segment about the separation of Ice Cube and N.W.A., with Ice Cube and the members of the group talking about each other. N.W.A. and Dre decided the show made them look bad. After the incident, Barnes filed assault charges and a $22.75 million suit against Dre; he settled out of court.
On Death Row
Later in 1991, Dre and Marion “Suge” Knight inspected Dre’s contract with Ruthless Records. Dre, the house producer at Ruthless Records, had watched seven of the eight albums he produced go platinum. Knight claimed Ruthless had taken advantage of Dre by paying him a substandard royalty rate and withholding back pay. Dre left Ruthless, and Knight engineered his release from his contract with the label. Ruthless Records president Eazy-E claimed that he only agreed to end the contract because Knight and two other men threatened him with baseball bats and pipes.
“I got Ice Cube his start. I also launched Eazy,” Dre said in his record company biography. “There ain’t no question that N. W. A. became what it was in large part because of my music and my producing. Me and Eazy had agreed from Jump Street that we was to be partners. Now Eazy says he’s the owner of the record company, Ruthless. Well, let him own it then. But I was never supposed to be signed to him or owned by him.” Eazy-E filed suits against Dre at the end of 1991 and late 1992 for racketeering and conspiracy. A federal judge dismissed the charges on August 9, 1993.
Suge Knight and Dre founded their own label, called Death Row Records, and searched for major label distribution. They had Dre’s first solo effort, The Chronic, completed by the time they formed a partnership with Interscope Records in 1992. “People didn’t want to take a chance on us, and it pissed me off,” Dre said in Newsweek. “I mean, I had talent-alent that had already been proven with huge record sales from N.W.A.–so you had to wonder what the f—the problem was.”
Dre continued to keep his name in the press and on police records before the release of his solo album. On June 5, 1992, Dre surrendered to police after they had issued a warrant for his arrest on charges that he assaulted record producer Damon Thomas. Then, in October of 1992, Dre pleaded guilty to battery of a police officer during a May 22 brawl. He served “house arrest” sentences for each charge, which necessitated his wearing a police-monitoring ankle bracelet. On a more positive note, he also became the co-host of Yo! MTV Raps with Ed Lover.
Platinum, Production, and Posses
In 1993, The Chronic arrived in stores-the first release for Death Row Records. It sold three million copies and spent eight months in the Top Ten of Billboard’s album chart. The first single, “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang,” sold more than a million copies, and “F—wit Dre Day” went gold. The Chronic featured other budding rap artists from Dre’s “posse,” including Snoop Doggy Dogg, Rage, RBX, Jewell, Nate Dogg, Daz, and Kurupt. Dre then went behind the scenes of the music video business, following the release of the album with his directorial debut, Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang. He also starred in the movie Who’s the Man? with Lover, his MTV cohost.
Dre went on to produce the debut of his brother’s best friend, Snoop Doggy Dogg. Doggystyle, released on Death Row, sold 800,000 copies in its first week. In August of 1993, Dre and other Death Row artists headlined a national tour that included Run-D.M.C, Geto Boys, Onyx, and Boss. The $200,000 stage show included a 14-piece band, a 1964 Impala, a makeshift liquor store, a garage, a 10-foot skeleton, and a 42-person entourage.
Dre found himself in serious trouble in 1994. It all began on January 10, when he led Los Angeles police through the streets on a high-speed chase. When Dre was finally apprehended, the police found his blood-alcohol level to be 0.16, twice the legal limit in California. Since he had broken his 1993 probation, he received an eight-month jail sentence, a $ 1,053 fine, four years summary probation, and an order to complete a 90-day alcohol education program.
Later that same year, Dre received a Grammy Award for best rap solo performance. He also producedhis younger brother Warren G’s debut single on Death Row’s Above the Rim compilation. By August of 1994, albums he had rapped on or produced had sold nearly 28 million copies. On September 27, 1994, Death Row Records released Murder Was the Case, which featured a song by Dre and Ice Cube called “Natural Born Killaz.” Dre also directed an 18-minute video, starring Snoop Doggy Dogg, called Murder Was the Case: The Movie.
Dre and Ice Cube reunited on their album Heiter Skelter. The first single, “You Don’t Want to See Me,” featured an appearance by funk founder George Clinton. However, Heiter Skelters release was postponed due to Dre’s jail sentence, which started on January 10, 1995. In the meantime, he contributed the single “Keep Their Heads Ringin’” to the soundtrack for Friday, a comedy film starring Ice Cube. Meanwhile changes were taking place inside Dre’s head. “That was my wake-up call because all I could do in that cell was think,” he told Neiusweek’s Allison Samuels and David Gates. “My mom said that going to jail was the best thing that could have happened to me, and she was right.”
Dre realized that the negative influences at Death Row were distracting him from his number one love-making music. A maturing Dre also felt that Death Row, constantly involved in one trouble or another, was a scene that was hindering the positivity he was feeling in his own life as a happily married with children. As he told Vibe, “The mentality there [at Death Row] is, you have to be mad at somebody in order for yourself to feel good, even to be able to make a record.” He added, “I have nothing bad to say about anybody that’s with Death Row. It’s just not my vibe.”
In 1996, Dre stunned the rap world when he departed from Death Row, citing differences in philosophy. He had once hoped that the label would expand into other genres, including jazz, reggae, and “black” rock music. However, the irony was that gangsta rap-spurred by his own classic, The Chronic-continued to bring in the bucks, and according to Vibe, “Dre began to realize that no one else was seeing his larger vision for the label.”
Instead, Dre started his own label, Aftermath Entertainment, as a joint venture with Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope. Dre recruited five black women he refers to as “Dre’s Angels” because as he told Vibe, like tv’s fictional character from Charlie’s Angels, he plans on being “unseen, just heard.” Later he stated in Newsweek, “black women are the strongest, most hardworking people on earth. The sh-t I talk on records [about women] is just that: sh-t.”
Relishing his new autonomy, Dre asserted in Vibe, “Now I’ma gonna be able to do whatever I wanna do. If it works, it’s on me. If it fails, it’s on me. But I’m an innovator. I like trying things. I take people that have a talent, mold it, make it presentable to the public, put ’em out there, and have their back 110 percent.” Carrying that tune to Aftermath, Dre’s first new release was a compilation of various hard-core hip hop and r&b artists entitled Dr. Dre Presents … Aftermath, featuring his own single, “Been There, Done That.”
Bypassing the “East Coast-West Coast” riff between artists from the two different camps, Dre has been able to work with the top people in the business, causing Vibe to suggest that “he sets trends. While others smoke beef, he brings home the bacon.” Dre’s attitude about the geographical “war” is a strong one. “Kill the noise!,” he exclaimed in Vibe. “There’s definitely no reason for it. That’s the biggest case of black-on-black crime I’ve seen in my life.”
Most of the repercussions from Dre’s leaving Death Row have been good. He commented in Vibe, “People are giving me respect as a person, for being a wise black man, and I’m loving it sh-t. Right now, I’m exhaling in a major way.” The only drawback has been his inability to work with some of his old cronies, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg. In addition to producing others and recording solo materials, Dre’s adventures with Aftermath have afforded him the opportunity to continue editing videos; working in film, including a small role in 1996’s Set It Off, and penning an autobiography.
“Dre has vision,” Iovine commented in Dre’s biography. “I believe he’s one of the great producers around today because his approach combines a lot of different worlds, in music and life. He can reach everyone. Because of his creativity and innovation, pushing the limits like most producers don’t anymore these days-whether in rap or rock-he deserves his own label. He’s that gifted.” In Dre’s own words, as reported in Vibe, “I just wanna be positive, helping people help themselves, not saying anything bad about anyone, just being the real Andre Young…. I’m not trying to be no gangster…. The only thing I want to do is make records, live a comfortable life, and chill with my family.” The aftermath seems to have been hard earned and worth the wait.
Selected discography
With N.W.A.
N.W.A. and the Posse, Macola, 1987.
Straight Outta Compton, Ruthless, 1989.
100 Miles and Runniri, Ruthless, 1990.
Niggaz4Life, Ruthless, 1991.
Greatest Hits, 1996.
Other (as artist and/or producer)
The Chronic, Death Row, 1993.
Concrete Roots, Triple X, 1994
(Contributor) Murder Was the Case, Death Row, 1994.
(With Ice Cube) Heiter Skelter, Death Row, 1995.
“Keep Their Heads Ringin’,” Friday (soundtrack), Priority, 1995.
First Round Knock Out, Triple X, 1994.
Dr. Dre Presents… The Aftermath, Aftermath, 1996.
Sources
Books
Beckman, Janette, and B. Adler, Rap: Portraits and Lyrics of a Generation of Black Rockers, St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
The Trouser Press Record Guide, edited by Ira A. Robbins, Collier, 1991.
Periodicals
Billboard, October 14, 1989; April 7, 1990; June 22, 1991; July 6, 1991; July 13, 1991; September 7, 1991; June 6, 1992; June 20, 1992; October 24, 1992; January 16, 1993; January 23, 1993; May 8, 1993; July 3, 1993; July 10, 1993; August 23, 1993; November 27, 1993; December 25, 1993.
Details, April 1993; May 1993.
Entertainment Weekly, February 26, 1993; December 31, 1993; November 11, 1994; February 3, 1995; October 25, 1996.
Jet, September 19, 1994.
Musician, June 1989; December 1990; March 1991; February 1994.
Newsweek, August 22, 1994; October 31, 1994; November 25, 1996, pp. 74-5.
New York Times, March 10, 1993; April 23, 1993; January 2, 1995.
People, May 23, 1994; September 19, 1994.
Rolling Stone, June 29, 1989; August 8, 1991; September 19, 1991; March 18, 1993; September 30, 1993; June 2, 1994; October 20, 1994.
The Source, September 1993; June 1995.
Spin, January 1994.
Vibe, September 1996, p. 65; October 1996, pp. 75-8.
Additional information for this profile was obtained from an MTV News transcript, January 9, 1995, and Death Row Records press material, 1995.
—Sonya Shelton and Lorna M. Mabunda
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Dr. Dre 1966–