The last official word on Detox from Dr. Dre, came in November of 2011. While the N.W.A. co-founder didn’t completely rule out the possibility of another studio album, he did say he was going to “take a little bit of a break.” The news came just before his rumored Detox single, “I Need A Doctor” was certified double platinum. And in the months leading up to Dre’s announcement, everyone from The D.O.C. to DJ Quik, Battlecat and others claimed to be involved with the project in some way. Add Mississippi upstart Tito Lopez to that growing list.
“I went over there, and I was just supposed to play him a couple joints,” Lopez told ThisIs50.com’s Jack Thriller. “I said, ‘Fuck that. It’s real. It’s raw. Let me just spit for you.’ A lot of niggas can make they self sound good in the studio…he liked what he heard, and he said, ‘Fuck it. Let’s go write some shit.’ So we stayed up until seven in the morning writing shit.”
The now infamous freestyle session with Dr. Dre became a bit of a YouTube sensation and boosted the Gulport Mississippi emcee’s profile leading up to his most recent mixtapes—Conversation With Tito and The Hunger Game. Lopez, added that he assumes the songs were for Detox, but they could have ended up on any number of projects or locked away somewhere. Lopez said ultimately, Dre is the only person who knows where his lyrical contributions will end up. Previous collaborators with Dr. Dre such as DJ Quik and Bishop Lamont have confirmed a similar collaborative process that includes multiple writers and assistant producers.
True to the words of that November 2011 interview, there have been no Detox updates. The last eight months have seen Dre’s Beats Electronics brand expand, while Kendrick Lamar gets closer to his Aftermath/Top Dawg Entertainment debut. The full ThisIs50 interview with Tito Lopez, including how he survived Hurricane Katrina, can be seen below.
RELATED:Tito Lopez Details His Approach To Rhyming And Honoring Hip Hop’s Past
