Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine have pulled back the curtain on the timeless album 2001. In a sit-down interview with Apple Music, the Beats co-founders reflect on the process behind its creation, including hits such as “Forget About Dre” and “Still D.R.E.”
Noting The Chronic – Dre’s iconic debut – was a concept album, Iovine poses the question, “What were you thinking when you made 2001?” Dre then delves into detail, saying the approach was similar in that he didn’t want to feature himself too strongly.
“I’m trying to put myself in the studio with a bunch of great artists, as far as the microphone work goes,” he says. “I’m trying to just get on a song or two, here and there. My first album, The Chronic, and the 2001 album, I believe I might be on (only) like four or five songs.”
He continues: “I didn’t want to appear on the album at all. To be honest, I just wanted to find artists and produce them. The D.O.C. talked me into getting on the mic.”
While 2001 was an exercise in starting over with a fresh group of artists for Dre – like he did with with The Chronic – he highlights how Iovine made the difference the second time round, specifically when picking the lead single.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk7Wgj9s2eQ&feature=youtu.be
Dre says they were already celebrating wrapping up the album, when Iovine stepped in saying, “You need one more song.” Iovine wasn’t satisfied with Dre’s idea to push “The Next Episode” as the first single, despite being a fan of it.
“It was a great song,” he said. “I just felt the album needed something coming out from a different way. He added that he felt, “that’s great, but we can do something better and different.” Dre gave another nod to Iovine’s touch for executive oversight, saying, “again, he was right about it.”
Dre also emphasizes the instrumental role of his protégé Eminem in making the album, describing him as “the missing link.”
“He was hungry. I was hungry,” he says. “And it was just like that, you know, spontaneous combustion. We just clicked, and that just brought everybody and everything together that was happening at that time.”
He continues, “Then we found out what we were doing, it really works. And that’s all we really needed. It’s like, OK, the Slim Shady LP, they really like that. Now that we know that it works, wait ’til they hear this.”
Listen to Dre’s 2001 on Apple Music here and watch the video above.
What a album. A classic. One of my favorites for sure!
They need to also interview Jake Steed about his role in the album especially when he blinded the women on set and they told him “that they couldn’t see”. How did it feel when they told him how he “f**ked the s**t” out of them and highly insulted the fine gentlemen by calling him a “big d**k bastard”? Was Dr. Dre apart of the session during the escapade and decided to waste a good instrumental? These questions have been crucial for 2 decades.
The session was hilarious! Jake came through with India and a few other porn actresses to do the voice-over work for that skit. And if you knew how much fire Dre has in the vault you would know that he can afford to “waste a good instrumental” or two.
Jimmy Iovine is annoying
Dr. Dre is a woman beater. Why does he get a pass? The woman he beat was a sista.
Because he’s black its ok. If he was white the j-w-sh media would make a big deal out of it and use social media outrage mob to put him out of work
That Eddie Griffin skit was too funny tho
That album wasn’t a classic. Dre had better albums.
What the hell are you talking about? He only really has 3 official “Dr. Dre” albums. “2001” “The Chronic” and “Compton”. What are his “better albums”?
Dres greatest contributions have been putting on people like Eminen, 50, game, ect… In reality, Dre hasn’t been making full out beats since NWA. Majority of Chronic 2001 was produced by Mel Man, then the favorite singles with some Dre credits had the melodies and such by Scott Storch, with Dre actually creating very little of the beats. The original chronics beats were mostly produced by others, such as Daz Dillinger, as were the majority of the beats on Doggystyle, and Tupac himself often talked about this publicly. I had always been a gigantic Dr Dre fan, but lost my hope in his music the past decade, as the leaks and releases have kind of sucked… Compton album was average at best, and not a classic album, quite comparable to how Dr Dre Presents The Aftermath felt. Dr Dre hasn’t shared ANY production for Kendrick Lamar, which I wouldn’t even care anymore, as Kendrick himself is rapping with fucking future and trash like that now… And then, again, the leaks from Dre the past few years, such as “naked” or “gun fiyah”, have both complete trash. The more you learn about your favorite Dre beats, the more you learn it was somebody else. Most people who love Dre are under the impression that he was behind beats like “lose yourself”.
If what you say is true, then why do the beats his collaborators do on their own not come close the stuff they do with Dre?
Thank you.
Not true. Scott Storch made plenty of shit that is on-par with Dre’s work. Since 1992 when he made The Chronic, Dre has strictly been a mixing engineer, not a beatmaker. Look up Dre’s production process, he programs the drums only, then he has other producers/musicians do the rest of the beat (like 90% of it).
That reply was for “Nah”
Dr Dre is a producer, not a beatmaker. Learn the difference !!
I’m sick of people like you saying that bullshit lol. Dr Dre is revered as one of the best BEAT MAKERS, by many. Hence BEATS BY DRE. Dre was famous for his beat creation. His mixing may be good, but Compton album flopped, and nobody outside of hiphop heads heard it. Dre has 2 great albums, 2 not great albums. Don’t pretend when people call Dre a great at producer that they aren’t referring to his beats. Because nobody is referring to the other content. Dre never made introspective songs. It was all about gangster rap over dope ass beats
Even dre said his greatest talent is knowing exactly what he wants to hear, meaning he gets a room full of beatmakers producing the sound he wants and then dre mixes it altogether into a hit record. I didn’t say dre couldn’t make beats, he can. But he prefers to produce other beatmakers into making the sound he wants to hear
You dudes wana talk like you were there… lol.
Just shut up man. You can literally hear when its a Dre beat
oh how great it must be to give your opinion and be considered some grand genius. Let me get in a studio and dictacte to Dre what he should do and I can make a classic too.
2019… and where is Dr. Dre in music industry? I’m talking about real music, not a money game.
I think “Tha Next Episode” that was supposed to be on Doggystyle is better than the one from 2001. Ya’ll should listen to it to see what you think.
No it’s not better. Simple case of everyone wants what they can’t have.
Here we go again with the hate on Dre. Dr Dre maybe the greatest producer in hiphop because of two reasons. He produced the majority of NWA tracks. NWA broke shit up and were instrumental in hiphop. The second reason is his ability to get the best out of talent around him,whether they are beat makers or rappers. Dre gets the best out of them. Dre is more producer than beat maker at the moment but don’t get it twisted, he can beat make. Name me one other producer that has given us as many talented artist as Dre has !! I will wait
Dr Dre didn’t GIVE us talented artists. These artists were destined to succeed no matter what. Kendrick had Buzz before Dre, and still has ZERO Dre productions. DRE has factually shelved more artists than he has helped get big. 50 Cent came from Emimen, not Dre. Dre has contributed tonssss to hiphop, that’s hot debatable. But he is often credited for shit he didn’t do, and is overrated as a beat maker. Plenty of other beat makers with more hits than Dre.
Silly kids are mad that older people shit on clowns like Migos so they cry about Dre did this and Dre did that, not even realizing that most of their favorite songs when they were little were produced by him.
I’m 38, I was grown in the 90s, I don’t like migos or any of that garbage. I hate people like you, who automatically claim someone likes migos, just because they call out people’s BS. Can you read? I sad what Dre has contributed is undeniably great. Just extremely over credited.
And no, most of our favorite songs weren’t produced by Dre. Most of the chronic and 2001 were not produced by Dre. Most of doggystyle wasn’t priduced by Dre. Most of GrODT wasn’t produced by Dre. Most of Eminems first few albums weren’t produced by Dre. Most of dres biggest hits had the melodies, and majority of the beat produced by others, not himself.
Lol what? Kids don’t even know Dr Dre made music. They only know him for his headphones. Hell, kids today don’t even know much about DMX. So no, that dude taking about Dre isn’t a child.
This is just not correct on plenty of ways lol. Give the man his credit it’s not hard
umm he’s on more than 5 songs on 2001!!
Still hard to accept Dre lost his touch. Hip hop just not the same without him producing a classic every 2 to 5 years that changed the game. R.I.P Dre era 1987-2009