![]() All are clearly bringing their “A” game to appear on such a big album as one being put out by Dre. Kendrick Lamar, Ice Cube, The Game, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Cold 187Um (From Above The Law) as well as other big names such as Jill Scott and Eminem. ![]() The guests on the album, much like Dre are mostly west coast royalty. ![]() On “Darkside/Gone” behind the main parts of the verses, the beat switches and we hear Dre’s signature piano beat that we have come to know from tracks he produced like “Oh!” for Obie Trice, “Rich Girl” for Gwen Stefani and Eve and “Crack a Bottle” for Eminem. There are some great Easter eggs on this album. Dre’s voice sounds a little more gravelly compared to his earlier work, but let’s not forget, he’s now a 50 year old man. It has Dre’s signature hard drums as we have come to expect but has a mixture of soulful sounds and harder tracks. This album is the modern west coast sound and sounds in key with some of the offerings from other L.A. It’s clear that Dre has been listening to the streets. If you are listening for the west coast G-Funk style that Dre created on the original Chronic album, you won’t find it here. I think the thing that stands out for me, and a few of my friends have said this as well when discussing the album is this track would have been perfect for the late great Nate Dogg. He also uses this track to go through his past for anyone that doesn’t know his history. “It’s all On Me” shows Dre discussing the pressure he felt between dealing with family issues, the industry trying to get a further album from him and attempting to get his friends away from the dangerous streets. This comes to be shown on one of the stand out tracks. Dre has taken everything that Compton had to throw at him and carried on working to prove he’s not a man to be underestimated. Compton has been his high and his low, with rising to fame in NWA and the public backlash to them, being painted as very much the gangster when making music with Death Row and the fallout that happened when he finally had enough and left, The creation of his new Aftermath label and finding Eminem, 50 Cent and a number of other massively successful artists but the beefs that came in the industry with those artists, losing his son in 2008 to an overdose at the age of just 20 (which can’t have been easy for a man whose first solo album was named after a street reference to very strong Marijuana), starting Beats and his deal with apple, and the arrest of Suge Knight for murder upon leaving the set for Straight Outta Compton (he wasn’t granted access to the set). For the first time since the Death Row days, does Dre directly name Suge Knight, talk more openly about Eazy E (which started on “The Message” on 2001) but he seems more at peace with his relationship with his lost friend and happy reminisce on the past as well. Overall this album (and no doubt the making of the NWA film – Straight Outta Compton) seems to soothed some of Dre’s demons. You can take the man out of Compton, but not Compton out of the man. Starting as a somewhat dream advert for the American dream and then moving into introducing the idea of crime and gang culture that leads to the statement “…make some blacks want to leave…” in a seemingly big middle finger to Dre’s detractors and a sign that even though it’s been 16 years, Dre still hasn’t left and is still deep routed in Compton regardless being hip hop’s first apparent billionaire and not actually living there anymore. And as always with Dre, he was honest about it, he wasn’t feeling it, and he wouldn’t do that to his fans.Ĭompton is a pretty good name for an album of a man who is intrinsically linked with his home city.įrom the beginning, even the intro to this album is dedicated to Compton. Detox was doomed to be the next “Chinese Democracy” and would never have lived up to people’s expectations just due to the wait. It wasn’t a surprise that it was an Apple music exclusive knowing Beats’ are now owned by Apple, but it was a very pleasant surprise that Dre will donate his royalties to being put to good use in the city of Compton.ĭre made the best move he could by scrapping Detox and moving on to Compton. I’ve been really excited about this since it was announced around 10 days ago and was even up at 6am to get it downloaded before I had to leave the house. Finally, the “Good Dr” has blessed us with a new album.
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