Since The Chronic (Death Row/Interscope) was released in December 1992, DR. DRE's debut solo album has reached the double platinum mark and is now approaching three million copies sold. Led by the singles
"Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang' (certified platinum, #1 R&B, #1 rap, #2 pop) and "Dr Day" (also Top 5 across the charts), The Chronic has shot to the top spot R&B and rap, and to #2 pop. It has become one of the best-selling rap albums
in history. ("Lil Ghetto Boy" is the third single).
As for himself, DR. DRE has proved to be one of the most successful of producers/writers/artists. Of the seven albums he's produced, four have climbed to #1 of various charts and six have sold more than one
million copies. Today, DR. DRE is considered by many to be the most creative producer on the music scene - whether rap, hip-hop, R&B or pop.
He is also one of the most controversial. As member, producer and co-founder of N.W.A., his work has reflected urban society and incited those outside it. But the flip side of the notoriety of N.W.A. (aka Niggaz
With Attitude) is that DR. DRE 's musical talent has often been overshadowed. On The Chronic, Dre harvests the promise and the future of urban music.
"My level's the 13th floor," Dre says, "where nobody else is". Whether dealing with the LA riots ("the Day The Niggaz Took ver") or everyday life in he violent world of the gangsta ("Nigga Witta Gun", "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat",
"Lil' Ghetto Boy"), whether dissing and boasting (the first single "Nuthin But A 'G' Thang", "Fuck Wit Dre Day") or having a lowriding good time ("Let Me Ride") and partying ("Deeez Nuuuts"), on The Chronic Dre displays a range of style and
subject unheard of on a rap album. Using original R&B funk vocals and melodies as well as samples from the likes of George Clinton, Donny Hathaway and Isaac Hayes, his songs flow into each other, creating a sense of life as it's lived on the
street - the anger, the sex, the warfare, the dope, the rhythm, even the humour.
Says Dre, "Give credit to the people who inspired you. Clinton, Bootsy, Parliament, I've listened to their shit for years, I have every record they ever made. But for rap to stay around, it has to come up with new ideas.
You can't just lay down a sample and rap over it. Get creative or be left behind on the caboose. I'm up at the engine, full steam ahead."
While musically he's a step ahead, lyrically he's determined to stay true to the street: The Chronic is the name of an especially potent strain of marijuana. "I'm doing on record what people are doing and talking about in
real life and I think the hippie shit is coming back, We've talked about the streets, the police - and still do. But violence can play out. That's why there's comedy on the record too. You have to put shit on to make people laugh sometimes.
While being raised in a Compton, California housing project by his mother and grandmother, Andre Young won his nickname playing basketball and idolising Dr. J. (Julius Erving). There, his mom's taste in music - James Brown,
Funkadelic and Marvin Gaye - inspired him to take up DJing as a teenager for parties and high schools. Soon he earned a spot at Eve After Dark, putting together up tempo dance demos in the club's four track studio during the week and playing them
on weekends. Unlike many rappers who cut their teeth on sampling, scratching and drum machines, Dre was playing keyboards and laying down music vocals too.
With another DJ, Yella, and the manager of the club, The World Class Wreckin Cru was formed with the 17 year-old Dre as a member. One of his demos became their single "Surgery" (1982) which released independently sold a
phenomenal 50,000 copies. After graduating high school in 1983, having studied mechanical drafting, he was offered a job at Northrop Aircraft but passed it on. By the he was making more money DJing anyway and besides, The Cru was releasing its second album.
Unfortunately, the group's style didn't suit him. "They wouldn't do my songs", he recalls. "They said they'd never get on the radio". He left in 1984 and with him scratching and his homie Ice Cube rapping, they began to perform live,
highlighted by gigs at skating rinks where 2,000 people would show up.
In 1985, according to Dre, he and Eazy E decided to start their own record company. Their first project was "Boyn 'N Tha Hood" which Dr. Dre produced with Eazy as the artist. Dre says about 10,000 copies were sold out of the trunks of
their cars and the profits financed the first N.W.A. single "Dopeman", which Dre wrote and produced. He then helmed Eazy's album Eazy-Duz-It " (1985), which went gold, and the group "did more show than James Brown that year". At that time, N.W.A. was Dre,
Cube, Eazy, Yella, Ren and Arabian Prince.
Then Straight Outta Compton (1989) exploded. "What can we say that'll piss poeple off? What crazy shit can we do that'll make 'em made but they'll love 'cuz it's so hardhittin'? We know we wouldn't get any radio or video. It had to be
a word of mouth thing and it worked".
The album earned double platinum certification, selling more than two million copies. A hardcore classic featuring the track "Fuck Tha Police", it brought on not only the F.B.I. but police throughout the country, who made it standard
operating procedure to pull over any car driven by black men blaring N.W.A. "We loved the controversy. It's the reason we blew up as big as we did. It wasn't hurting us, it was helping us."
Dre then produced The D.O.C., a rapper he discovered in Dallas, Texas who contributed to the first N.W.A. album. His No One Can Do It Better (1989) was platinum, reaching #1 on the R&B album chart and #20 pop. "It's Funky Enough" was a
#1 rap single. That year Dre also produced the self-titled debut from Michel'le. It too went platinum and was #1 on the R&B chart.
The N.W.A. follow-up was 100 Miles and Runnin' (1990), again platinum (Ice Cube had previously exited to some hard feelings. "He wanted to do his own thing", says Dre.) In 1991 N.W.A.'s third album, Niggaz4Life, sold one million copies
and shot to #1 on Billboard's pop chart.
Dre then went solo. He bought a studio and installed it in his house with the intention of producing artists a la Quincy Jones. In the summer of 1992, Dre granted Interscope the opportunity to release his debut album and head his own label.
Dubbed Death Row Records, Dre's initial inmates are RBX, Jewell, Rage, That Nigga Daz, Emmage, Kurupt and Snoop Doggy Dog (who was featured with Dre on "Deep Cover", the #1 rap single from the Deep Cover soundtrack, and whose Doggy Style album will be the label's next release). All will be produced by Dre, who will also direct the label's videos. "I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I wanna do. My only test is if someone else did it would I buy it rather than swing from my own vine?"
"Dre has vision," says Jimmy Lovine, Interscope head and a producer in his own right. "I believe he's one of the great producers around today because his approach combines a lot of different worlds, in music and life. He can reach everyone. Because of his creativity and innovation, pushing the limits like most producers don't anymore these days - whether in rap or rock - he deserved his own label. He's that gifted." Adds manager Suge Knight, "Dre's in a class by himself."
Now having Death Row Records, Dre says he's finally at a place where he can concentrate on this music rather than any personal controversy. "Not only do i have the best artists around but I'm working with people I got love for and trust in. Now I can concentrate on my mission: Tell the truth and be true to the music I hear."
As it goes in the intro to The Chronic,
"Niggaz with attitudes? Naw loc, niggaz on a motherfuckin' mission."
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