Earlier this week, the numbers for Dr. Dre’s third and final album Compton: A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre were revealed. Of course, they were nothing short of amazing with nearly 300,000 in sales. This doesn’t count my review in which I called the project, “equal parts biopic companion piece and topical insight into West Coast Hip Hop’s greatest success story.” Add Straight Outta Compton’s blockbuster killing spree the past weekend and 2015 is really the year of Dre. Despite the controversy regarding Dee Barnes being left out of the biopic, the Aftermath Entertainment head at least felt remorseful in his recent interview with Rolling Stone. However, Compton does feature two pivotal moments that made me ultra uncomfortable regardless of how sonically near perfect they were.
The first is near Compton’s halfway point in the Xzibit, Cold 187um and Sly Pyper featured “Loose Cannons.” During the track’s last 90 seconds, the man formerly known as Big Hutch shoots a woman pleading for her life before the crew disposes the body. As I mentioned in my review, part of what makes the album so great is how D.R.E. plays with dramatics. “Loose Cannons”s final moments are visceral and quite jarring. Interestingly enough, there simply isn’t anything connecting it to Compton’s overall themes which reach from personal responsibility in reaching one’s goal to police brutality. Why end the track so aimlessly? That’s something that’ll essentially be answered in due time. Right now, there isn’t any metaphorical or thematic context. According to the Center For American Progress however, 34 percent of all women murdered were killed by their romantic partner. Out of that number, 55 percent were killed with guns. Those statistics hit personally. Last year, a man I once considered my mentor put a bullet in his wife’s head before doing the same to himself. During that tail-end of “Loose Cannons,” that’s the first thing that came to mind. In terms of Dre himself, his ex-wife and baby mother Michel’le mentioned something that could be considered attempted murder.
Then there’s this particular line on “Medicine Man” featuring Eminem, Candice Pillay and Anderson .Paak. As Shady spazzes out on the Dem Jointz and Focus produced track, he spits this hair raising bar: “Pain in the ass and get shot in the ass with a paint gun / Ain’t no one safe from, non-believers there ain’t none / I even make the bitches I rape cum.” Let’s be very clear, Em drops one of the best verses one will hear throughout Compton’s 61-minute runtime. But, can this be excusable in 2015? As someone who just proposed to his future wife and thinking about life with kids, I become fearful of potentially bringing a daughter into this world knowing that some find these actions entertaining. Domestically, a woman is raped every 107 seconds and there are an average of 293,000 cases of rape each year in a study done by the U.S. Department of Justice. Yes, I get it. Eminem has spent his entire career pushing buttons. Then again, one would think he’d outgrow that mindset. Who am I to judge though? If he still finds rape comical, it’s his choice.
Compton is a blast from the past with slick modern conventions. The album 16 years in the making totally deserved all the critical and commercial success. Just too bad some archaic ideas of women still remain. The Ural of 15-years past wouldn’t think anything of it. Between then and now, experiences with a variety of people have put certain issues in perspective. No, uncontrollable violence against women shouldn’t be used for empty dramatic effect and rape isn’t funny. Could I be considered hypocritical for enjoying an album that possibly promotes this type of behavior? Maybe. One’s feelings about the musical integrity of a particular work and fucked up ideologies doesn’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. If art is an imitation of life, exposing the ugly truths behind the music could at least become one step into fixing a very serious problem.
Great write up
Dr dre and Eminem are legend
real talk. thanks for this article.
no wonder i never heard this interview i cant stand her voice
But medicine Man was Dope!!!her voice was not bad
she isnt in medicine man
this article is corny as corn on the cob. not surprised it is written by Ural. get a life dude, let the past be the past. Dr Dre’s album is amazing. get a life you hater. DX should fire you, but you’re good at writing controversial BS. you’re a rabble rouser, nothing more. I love DX, but you guys need to fire Ural. i know you won’t though, because he brings a special aspect to your site.. corny hot garbage.
Your a cornball Ural
Co sign.
*You’re
He may be a cornball, sir, but your poor use of grammar and spelling makes YOU, dear heart, an idiot.
Screw you for calling out someone over grammar on the internet you scum
I truly appreciate your views and insights but why the attack on HIP HOP like this when there are THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of movies that entertain you in the same fashion? Why is it when HIP HOP gives you an audio on extreme behavior it gets bashed and becomes an unforgiving example and not regarded as favorable art? But when Quentin Tarrantino drops a movie the explores these same realms of artful expression it’s considered a masterpiece. If you gonna judge then attack ALL forms of this artistic expression!!!!
I was thinking this same shit last night. I was watching reservoir dogs and where he was torturing a police officer. And I was like damn this is okay and the movie gets hailed as an amazing movie. Any type of rap song containing those lyrics (more than half the time influenced by said movies getting the same praise) and oh shit we gotta take this serious how dare they say such profound things these are menaces and etc. Etc when a black man makes a lyric we gotta take this one with a plate of salt. Like cmon we can’t be as rich or as smart or as creative as them. Why hold back our opinions and our vision and creativity and even if we slip anything revolutionary or such. Were public enemy number one.
It’s cause that is Ural Garret’s style of writing. He is hot garbage and a hater. Screw Ural to hell!!!!!!
Writer is right. Him promoting women abuse is terrible.
I’ll beat your mom, and it won’t be terrible
He’s not promoting women abuse, though.
What a whack article
This is one of the main problems with society today.. People are offended. By anything and everything. No matter what you say, there will always be someone who is offended. And so what?
What a stupid thing to say, this isn’t getting offended at anything and everything. This is rapping about raping women and playing skits of women being murdered and the homies laughing about it after. Art and expression has a place if there’s a message but this was poor taste.
Then don’t listen. Fuck boi
What a sensitive article. Get this man a tampon and a ballot for Hillary Clinton. You must protest outside of Strip Clubs haha. Where is your attack on Hollywood and the movies that are made which portray women in a negative light? Please, excuse yourself from Hip-Hop. We’d appreciate it!
Lmaoooo at tampon and hiliary ballot
fuck off with this weak shit. did the line make you feel outraged or disgusted? Maybe that was the feeling Em wanted your dumb ass to feel. You gonna look over picassos shoulder and tell him bout his content huh
this song kind of sucks…forget the article…too poppy for my taste. You can have her saying “F*ck the world, go F*ck yourself”, but it feels like overcompensation for being kind of soft. Stop putting Em doing these “harder” style verses on songs with Rhianna and this one right here…killing me.
Could’ve swore Em says, “i even make the bitches that run cum.”
Yeah man!
Only way i can explain this article is the writer is low down gay and upset over what eminem raps about. What a panzy
if u break down any music u will find similar ironic moments…stop reaching and let that man be GREAT…Go fuck wit cosby u wanna call out injustice
Dr. Dre fathered 12 children with several women, beat the crap outta at least 3 women, probably more, what do you expect? The guy is a scumbag.
Like you know anything about Dr. Dre. You’re just a troll hater. Dr. Dre’s contribution to music is greater than all of his mistakes… get a life.
So terrible that we can hate a man based off small portions of what we think we know about his life. Alas, ignorance spawns jealousy and envy, the very destroyer’s of peace and posterity.
To Dre’s credit, he’s gone on record recently, saying, that he’s done and said a lot of stupid shit to women in the past, particularly in his NWA era. Doesn’t excuse what he did, but at least his general outlook has changed a bit (or so he eludes to) over the last nearly 30 years.
Cube, on the other hand, still stands his ground for the most part.
it’s just music. so chill da fuck up.
if just music then why you give a fuck?
Some women need violence to be maintaied, and out of all it is just music, nothing effective, the society is just like that, those subjects matters aren’t a taboo, we read, see and hear about them everytime.
This article sounds biased, it’s just music, parental advisory content!
A lot of artists make things unattached from how they may truly feel and or behave. It’s just music and yet you analyze it like it’s an instruction manual, like some dweeb pointing out false intricacies of what the average fan considers “bars”. Just calm down and enjoy if you like it.
Ural, u sound like a bitch dog, let dre be dre foo Everything doesn’t need to be analyzed
When are we going to get an article about all of the men killed on rap songs?
never, we won’t even get articles written by women complaining about this shit, it’s always queered-out dudes like “we must do better brothers.”
Most of these comments are disturbing, insensitive, and downright disgusting. Great article, Ural. Just because an artist makes great stuff, doesn’t give them the right to put these types of messages in their work. Uncomfortable was a good word choice.
Why is this sh!t only in rap music ??????????
It’s not only in rap music. This kind of bullshit is everywhere. Many other genres are just less direct in how they mention it.
Great article Ural, I was a victim of domestic violence once. I came home to my home that I paid for “late”. I was at a tattoo shop and it took longer than I expected. Still there is no excuse for how he reacted. I heard “where have you been” and saw five flashes of lights. Then I realized as I was getting kicked over and over that I had been sucker punched until I hit the ground by a 6’2 36 year old man I was dating who didn’t live with me. A black eye with broken blood vessels, a busted lip and a knee cap out of place later I was told no one loved or cared about me. He was dead wrong. I am loved, married and very happy now and I was loved then. Just not by him. Male or Female, no one deserves abuse.
Oh ok so lets go on a music site and tell everyone about my personal shit to make a point. Lol I think we all know domestic violence is wrong we dont need to hear why you hate men so fucking bad.
I agree I just skip that loose cannon track now usually so I dont have to hear that shit. But its just a song. If you listen to that song and it makes you wanna beat some bitch up then I think you probably got bigger problems
Get over it. It’s just a song and nobody is forcing you to listen to it, but most of the people who complain about this won’t boycott this album because they’d rather satisfy their own needs for great music. Hypocritical.
This is bullshit! Its just music… That shit em says is funny too, no sense of humor guys? FOH