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| Birth Name(s) : André Romell Young |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Rapper, producer |
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Full Dr. Dre Biography
André Romell Young (born February 18, 1965 in Compton, California), better known by his stage name Dr. DRE(Digital Rectal Examination), is an American record producer, rapper, actor and record executive. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records.
André Young was born in a suburb of Compton, California in 1965. His parents divorced before he was born and his mother later married Warren Griffin, Jr., father of future West Coast rapper Warren Griffin III, artistically known as Warren G.
In 1996, just as Death Row Records was signing rapper 2Pac and positioning him as their major star, Young left Death Row Records amidst a contract dispute and growing concerns that label boss Suge Knight was corrupt, financially dishonest and out of control. In an interview with The Source shortly after his departure, Dr. Dre alluded to incidents such as Knight's beating of an engineer as pivotal in his decision to leave. He formed his own boutique label Aftermath Entertainment directly underneath Death Row's distributor, the Jimmy Iovine-helmed Interscope Records. Not long after Young's departure, the fortunes of Death Row took a dramatic turn, following the death of 2Pac and racketeering charges against Knight. Within the next few months, the label's final major star Snoop Doggy Dogg would also leave and Knight would go to prison. The label entered a steady decline, and now makes profits almost entirely off of old works recorded during its heyday.
The Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath album, released at the end of the year, featured songs by the newly signed Aftermath artists, and a solo track "Been There, Done That". The track was intended as a symbolic good-bye to gangsta rap, in which Young suggested that he was moving on to another level of music and lifestyle. While initially going gold (500,000 units), the album was considered a critical disappointment by Dre's standards, failing to raise much talk of the label. Today, the compilation album is most notable for the fact that none of the artists introduced on the record went on to successful careers. In 1997, Young produced several tracks on Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album; although the album went platinum, it was met with similarly negative reviews from critics. Rumors began to abound that Aftermath was facing financial difficulties.
By the time Eminem's third album The Eminem Show was released in 2002, Mathers was producing the bulk of his output himself. However, Eminem's association with Dr. Dre remained a large part of Eminem's identity in rap. The Eminem Show sold over 20 million copies worldwide and was an unqualified success.
In 2003, Dr. Dre and Eminem produced the major-label debut Get Rich or Die Tryin' for Queens rapper 50 Cent, featuring the Dre-produced hit single "In da Club", as a joint production between Aftermath, Eminem's boutique label Shady Records and Interscope. On the eve of its release Dre declared it to be one of the best rap albums made in the past ten years, an opinion the record-buying public enthusiastically agreed with. The album went on to sell over 11 million albums worldwide, establishing yet another major rap star under Aftermath and the Interscope umbrella.
Young has been a regular on Rolling Stone magazine's "Annual 50 Richest Rock Stars" list since its first installment in 2001. In 2001, he earned $51.9 million U.S., including $35 million from the sale of 30% of his share of Aftermath records to parent label Interscope.
Beatmakers make beats. A lot of niggas make beats. produces tracks. So that ain't disrespect what I'm saying. I'm just telling you what's real. I seen him make tracks from scratch. My whole record the nigga made damn near everything from scratch. "Ain't No Fun", Daz and Warren G brought him the little , that's all they had! Dre took that muthafucka to the next level! Warren G brought in the Donny Hathaway , "Little Ghetto Boy, laying in the ghetto streets". Dr. Dre flipped it like "Hold on, gimme that!" Took that muthafucka and made it straight hit!... They made beats, Dre produced that record. Point blank, and I'd say it in they face...I can make a beat, but I can't produce! I can make a beat, but can I tell a nigga what to rap about, can I tell him when to come with the hook? Can you break the beat down? That's what producing is.
It is also widely acknowledged that most of Dr. Dre's raps are written for him by others, though he retains ultimate control over his lyrics and the themes of his songs. As Aftermath Producer Mahogany told Scratch: "It's like a class room in . He'll have three writers in there. They'll bring in something, he'll recite it, then he'll say. 'Change this line, change this word,' like he's grading papers." (See references for details.)
In 2007, Dre struck back at the now defunct Death Row Records one last time. In the company's bankruptcy, Dre felt that the masters of his debut album, The Chronic, should go to him rather than be auctioned off. The case is still pending. |
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