Stat Quo recently detailed his experiences working on Detox with Dr. Dre. In an exclusive conversation with HipHopDX, the former Shady/Aftermath artist says that he became frustrated with making songs that would never be released.
“I just felt like Detox was just not going to come out,” Stat Quo says. “I was writing so much music and doing so much shit and my frustration with it not coming out began to effect me and Dre’s relationship. I became frustrated to the point where I had become bitter about working.”
Stat Quo says that Interscope CEO Jimmy Iovine considered Dr. Dre’s Detox team “The greatest practice team of all time.”
“I remember Jimmy Iovine said, ‘It’s like the greatest practice team of all time,’” Stat Quo says. “’Imagine a team that just practices and never plays the game. That’s what you guys do in here. All these great songs, nobody’s ever going to hear them.’ It was true. It’s so much music. I started getting frustrated with it. The mental strain on me and not having my album come out, shit started hitting me. I just distanced myself and stopped coming around.”
Stat Quo decided to leave Shady/Aftermath and return to his home in Atlanta, Georgia. While in the South, Dr. Dre reached out and asked him to return to Los Angeles, California and continue working on Detox.
“Thank God he called me back because financially I was fucked up,” Stat says. “We went to Hawaii to work. Game was working with him. We’re just working and doing all this music and it feels like I came back into the same shit I left and we’re just recording new songs everyday. It’s like, ‘Yo, this shit is never going to come out. It’s never going to come out. Why am I doing this?’
“At the same time, he was making so much money doing the headphone thing,” Stat Quo continues. “I’m watching him and he’s telling me stuff about the business—the other side of it. I found myself losing my love for rapping. I didn’t want to rap anymore. That’s why that Statlanta album was kind of not good to me because I didn’t really want to rap. I was just fulfilling that obligation because [Sha Money XL] had gave me that opportunity. I didn’t really want to rap because I’m watching Dre make all this money and he’s talking about, ‘You gotta get into the business. You gotta get into the business.’ I’m just losing my passion for music like, ‘I don’t want to rap.’”
Stat Quo Says Top Dawg Reunited Him With Dr. Dre
Stat Quo also says that he later fell out of touch with Dr. Dre and that TDE CEO, Top Dawg was instrumental in reuniting them.
“It wasn’t until recently that I was talking to Top Dawg one day and he’s like, ‘Yo, you talked to Dre,’” Stat continues. “I’m like, ‘Nah.’ He’s like, ‘Man, you need to call that man, dude. What you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.’ He said, ‘You need to call that man. He looked at you like a little brother. Y’all was close.’ And we was. I called [Dre] and I was like, ‘Yo, I just want to tell you I love you. I don’t know if you know it or not.’ He was like, ‘What? Man, come to the studio, man!’ I went to the studio and he’s playing the Jon Connor shit and we just caught up.”
Stat Quo was signed to Shady/Aftermath/Interscope from 2003 to 2008. He is the only artist other than 50 Cent who was signed to both Eminem’s Shady Records and Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment.
Stat Quo’s latest EP, ATLA (All This Life Allows) is currently available on iTunes. The project is also available for stream exclusively through DJBooth.
Related: Stat Quo: How Long Was 50 Cent Going To Stay Under Eminem & Dr. Dre
real hiphop heads stopped check for detox about 4-5 years ago
also fake ones
U high? I see trashy whiteboys with chronic t-shirts 24/7.
what does white people wearimng chronic shirts hve to do with a detox album? im missing your point.
i been meaning to buy a chronic t-shirt to represent
I farted and shit my pants….swag….anyone listen to stat quos album???????? think it sold double wood at least.
I love how sales define what makes for great art these days. If that was always true, you’d never have seen a Picasso, Van Gogh, etc. in your life.
all them niggas didnt even get recognized til they died too
who the fuck wants a picasso rap album? nigga we enthralled by the superstardom fame and the money. that’s a big part of rap. dont try to turn it into white indie rock where only a bunch of weird outcast people buy your music
LMFAO ^^^
I think in the next year or 2 Dre will release the 200+ Detox songs all at once for free. He’s been on the Beats Money tip and now that he’s finally secured his $100 mill net worth he should be feeling philanthropic.
or when he dies
This will never happen, and also, it’s more like 300-400 million.
you sucking dres accountants dick? if not why are you worried about another mans finances. is he paying for your bitch?
so everyone has stopped checking
what the fuck are WE doing here??
we here to tell you ass to get a job and quit reading hip hop websites. you already commenting in they sections. you done gone too far with this shit. there’s bills to pay my nigga.
I’d be frustrated too. Pac said it best on thuglife album bury me a G. “Whats the sense of working hard if you never get to play?” P.S. Jimmy Iovine is another Jerry Heller.
first off — fuck pac and fuck you too.
shit man can u blame him?! gotta look out for yourself in the end cuzzo. wasnt like dre was go break him off a small piece of the pie from those headphones
nah he aint break off no headphones. but he def broke him off. dre is gay like that
nigga working for dre making unreleased songs is better than being a famous superstar rapper selling millions. you getting paid so dont be all diva on us. his shit would probably never make the final cut of the album any damn way.
Hypothetically speaking, how is selling millions of records worse than recording music for a mythical ass album that is getting you nowhere career wise? Dre isn’t the greatest career manager out there, look at who he used to have on Aftermath. How many albums has Aftermath even dropped in the past 5 years? If you ain’t Em, Dre gives no fucks.
It’s all about being practical my brother. Superstardom ain’t in most niggas roster. So don’t get hard up for something in the clouds when U got something in front of u right here and now.
True, but why waste your efforts? You don’t gotta be a superstar to be successful. Stat talked about how fucked up he was financially so its evident that whatever he was earning recording with Dre, if anything, wasn’t sufficient.
you are just dumb period!
someone needs to rob that studio and leak it all damn
Lets start planning :D.
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truu
its a shame stat ain’t big in the game like that… he’s one of the most talented artist out there.
this dude been irrelevant. he’s been signed to shady/interscope for 30 years and can’t sell 3 copies of his album. Why is his interviews news?
only he is not signed to them anymore
Then go read TMZ if that’s what you care about. I bet you havent even checked out this dude’s album you sheep
LOL @ 35 year old being signed for 30 years
a couple tracks came out that were dope.
dre’s pulling a pac for his family. in 50 yrs when that nigga passes, it’ll be released posthumously.
Nobody gonna be checkin for that then.They barely checkin now for him
BROTHERLOVE? LOOK WHAT DRE AND EAZY DID YOU THE D.O.C. IF YOU LOVE DRE HE WILL USE YOU.
respect, this is the most honest i have heard anybody speak on detox that had anything to do with it.
Looks like Dre’s tryna put lil bro on to something beyond music (the headphone business, or just business in general), you know, tryna make him see a larger picture.
Can’t really be mad at Stat tho, the love for music can do that to you if there’s no real movement other than getting paid. But its 2014 Stat, better get with the program lol.
Dre is pulling a 2Pac. Aftermath will release 50 a month after he’s dead.
2 bad Stat and Bishop Lamont never came out….
Dr.Dre is the most overrated nigga in the history of music and he weird as hell too. This nigga has been surrounded by an army of talented niggas since N.w.a. Seriously, I never knew how much shit he sampled n stole from old records n shit.This nigga is a thief. Between stealin samples and ideas and the talented producers he ALWAYS had with him, like Yella,Daz,storch,mel-man…its no wonder he got big. ANYBODY coulda blown up like that. This nigga been recording an album now for 15 years thats never gonna drop. What kinda weirdo does that shit? Its just music fam lol!
I get what the goal of detox is. It will be the highest selling album of all time when it drops. Right now the promo is handling itself.
no one cares anymore
The only way Stat Q gets into the headphone business is if he sells them at Radio Shack.
LMAO!! HAHAHAAAAHA!! Shit wasn’t funny.
i dont dre meant get into the headphone business, just business in general
there will NEVER be a detox album, it will never come out..stop checking and wasting your time bc itll never come.
The kids that were born when Detox was announced are about to be in middle school, maybe even high school. That’s a long time and now it’s the most accurate album title ever because it’s really out of our system now. Originally Detox was supposed to compliment Relapse and Recovery. Dre fucked up the theme, kinda like when we were expecting Good ass job to follow Graduation.
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Why would Dre bring out an album, that will generate income for the owners of Ruthless Records and Death Row Records? Both of those labels are starving for some more income lol.
if he was really a boss he would have bought deathrow
Face it, Dre just has bigger fish to fry than an album that will be illegally downloaded anyway.
Why would they put out an album for a risky bit of money when they have made basically the most popular brand of headphones going…. Everyone owns Beats by dre, that puts like $150 in Dres pocket per pair AT LEAST. Where if the same people bought Detox, it’d put like $10 a sale in Dres pocket. There is no money to be made off the album so he’s just not interested in it. He’s saving it for a rainy day because people will cop it no matter what…… You hear Detox drops ever and your ass is buying/downloading it just to hear what the fuck made it after 15 years of hype… admit it. I aint care about or checking for this album but if I ever saw it drop I’d check it out at least.
Dr. Dre dont need to release Detox cuz he getting enough money.
But he should release it for his fans, for the people that bought his shit in the first place and gave him the opportunity to sell those headphones.
“But he should release it for his fans”
In that case, Detox is NEVER gonna come out
If Dr. Dre did what Beyonce did with her album or like Jay-Z, platinum probably in the 1st two weeks on itunes and amazon.
my best friend’s sister-in-law makes $71 hourly on the laptop . She has been without work for five months but last month her income was $12576 just working on the laptop for a few hours. straight from the source
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