Since the launch of Apple Music last month, Beats 1 Radio has managed to become an unstoppable weekly event. Last week alone, Drake unleashed his first offensive attack on Meek Mill through “Charged Up” on his OVO Sounds radio show. A week later, Dre made one helluva announcement on his own Beats 1 show The Pharmacy.
After making Hip Hop wait for what seemed like a millennia for Detox, he’s scrapped the idea completely for Compton: A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre. Allegedly inspired by his work on N.W.A. bio-flick Straight Outta Compton, the album will be his first full-length project in almost two decades. However, will the album be worth the wait? Features Editor Andre Grant and Senior Features Writer Ural Garrett give their thoughts on if Mr. D.R.E. can pull off an album reaching the magnitude of The Chronic and 2001.
Can Dr. Dre Pull Of His Own Three-Peat with “Compton?
Andre: The most difficult thing to do is repeat. You did something great and you received a ton of accolades and so everyone loves you! The one’s who don’t are contrarian and looked at with scorn. You’re so happy. Then you have to do it again. The pressure builds because can you? I mean, can you actually pull that kind of shit that you did before, again? Was it skill or just lightning in a bottle. Think about that phrase. It means you caught something in a finite space that moves at the speed of light.
Dr. Dre is beyond skilled. One of the most skilled folks at this thing called production, called Hip Hop and so he did do it again. Even with all the hoopla that surrounded him during his life, including his own glaringly nefarious mistakes have turned to butter, he stayed consistent. And that consistency is what is fascinating about Dr. Dre. It’ll be good because of that. Because Dr. Dre won’t release something that’s below a certain standard of quality. At the very least, he won’t release something that he’s reasonable okay with. I trust his taste and judgement more than anything else because he’s already two-for-two, even if his last true solo triumph was some 17 years ago. Sure, not everything Dre does strikes gold.
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There were the lean years at Aftermath after emcees he cosigned came and went without a word. Then there was the Detox album, which quickly grew to mythic proportions as time churned on. But through it all, he’s remained steadfastly focused on the music, and if you’re willing to bet against Dre at this point in his career then you’re a person that knows something I don’t know.
Where It’ll Probably Rank In Dre’s Catalogue: A close third.
Ural: It’s incredible hard to focus primarily on Dr. Dre as an iconic producer when he’s manage to have so much reach outside of Hip Hop. This is the same guy who almost became the culture’s first billionaire and is slowly changing radio through Beats 1. Since dropping 2001, he’s essentially pushed himself to the background of music through light feature and production work. This didn’t stop him from announcing Detox as his last album along with an instrumental projects based on the solar system years later. Clearly, his main focus was building his Beats brand. There was hope Detox would find a release around 2010, 2011 with the release of two subpar yet, commercially successful singles. Despite being a high-profile look for producer DJ Khalil, “Kush” featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon didn’t make whatever Dre was cooking appetizing enough for the long wait. By the time “I Need A Doctor” featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey came out, the stadium sound producer Alex Da Kid made popular slowly began went out of style. Both singles failed to build significant excitement for Detox.
Between the release of those singles and now, Dre has executively produce two of the greatest West Coast albums of this decade in Good Kid, m.A.A.d City and To Pimp A Butterfly. However, while those two albums owe a great deal of inspiration from The Chronic and 2001, they’re completely different thematically. Times have definitely changed for Hip Hop and the Aftermath Records head himself. How will Compton reflect this thematically and sonically? This makes the possibilities infinite. Right now, things are for sure uncertain. But, best believe Dre’s been watching everything moving the industry at the moment.
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Where It’ll Probably Rank In Dre’s Catalogue: Better than 2001, under The Chronic.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
