Line #27 Music/DrDre


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dre.jpg]]
2
3	->''Who you think taught you to smoke trees?''
4	->''Who you think brought you the oldies?''
5	->''Music/EazyE's, Music/IceCube's, and D.O.C.'s''
6	->''The [[Music/SnoopDogg Snoop D-O-double-G's]]''
7	->''And [[Music/{{NWA}} the group]] that said, [[Music/StraightOuttaCompton "Motherfuck the Police?”]]''
8	-->-- "Forgot About Dre"
9
10	Dr. Dre (born Andre Romelle Young, February 18, 1965) is an American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur. He gained fame as a member of gangsta rap group Music/{{NWA}} and helped popularize G-funk through his first solo album ''The Chronic''. He has helped launch and grow the careers of many other key rappers, including Music/SnoopDogg, Music/{{Eminem}} and [[Music/FiftyCent 50 Cent]]. His stage name is based on Dr. J, the nickname of his favourite basketball player Julius Erving, mixed with his own name.
11
12	Starting out as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru and working in nightclubs as a DJ, Dre joined up with other aspiring rappers like Music/IceCube and Music/EazyE to become a member of the influential rap group Music/{{NWA}}, whose work helped bring gangsta rap to the mainstream, selling millions of records in the process despite huge controversy and backlash from legal authorities.
13
14	However, Dre had a falling out with Eazy-E and left N.W.A. to help start Creator/DeathRowRecords with Suge Knight. The first album released on the label was Dre’s ''The Chronic'', which proved highly successful and a key influence on trends for years to come in the rap genre, primarily through popularizing the G-funk sound. He also worked a lot with protégée Snoop Dogg, who was featured on many of the album's tracks, even producing his first Death Row album ''Doggystyle'', which also proved to be highly influential and commercially successful. Dre further collaborated with [[Music/TupacShakur 2Pac]] when he was signed to Death Row, their joint works including the number 1 hit "California Love". Dre eventually left Death Row in 1996 due to concern over Suge Knight, whom he felt was financially dishonest and becoming increasingly thuggish.
15
16	Dre then formed a new record label called Aftermath Entertainment. It had some difficulties in its first couple of years, releasing poorly received records, but it turned around when Dre signed Eminem, whose debut album ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'' proved to be a huge hit. Dre also released his second album ''2001'' on the label, which was also a huge success. Since then, Dre has been more focused on producing works for other artists ranging from Music/MaryJBlige to Music/GwenStefani rather than releasing solo records. This also included Aftermath signee 50 Cent, whose first 2 albums both went multi-platinum. Dre would also continue to work with Eminem throughout the 2000s, producing many successful releases for him.
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18	For many years, Dre was working on a new solo album called ''Detox'', though it was [[DevelopmentHell constantly delayed]] to the point of becoming hip hop's equivalent to {{vaporware}}. By 2015, Dre announced he was officially scrapping ''Detox'' for good, and instead released ''Compton'', which was inspired by the film ''Film/StraightOuttaCompton'', a biopic on N.W.A. of which Dre served as a producer, which also looked at his time at Death Row.
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20	In addition to music, Dre has also worked as an entrepreneur. Most notably, he created the headphone brand Beats by Dre in 2008, which was later sold to Apple in 2014 for 3 billion dollars. Dre has also done a small bit of acting work, having roles in films like ''The Wash'' and ''Film/TrainingDay''.
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22	For tropes in Dre's fictionalised and [[{{Ghostwriter}} ghostwritten]] role as part of Eminem's Slim Shady mythology, see [[Characters/{{Eminem}} Eminem's Character Sheet]].
23
24	----
25	!!Albums:
26
27	* ''Music/TheChronic'' (1992)
28	* ''2001'' (1999)
29	* ''Detox'' (never released, but the promotional singles "Kush", "I Need A Doctor" and the album track "Die Hard" were released in 2010 and 2011)
30	* ''Compton'' (2015)
31	* ''The Contract EP'' (released via ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'') (2021)
32
33	----
34	!!"Tropin' With Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')":
35	* ArtifactTitle: The "Dr." part of his name was relevant during his World Class Wreckin' Cru days, in which his persona was that of a doctor. It still gets referenced from time to time, but the doctor gimmick was dropped come the N.W.A. era.
36	* CallAndResponseSong: Eminem and Dre's "Guilty Conscience" is sung in this style, with the two playing the two sides of a person's conscience.
37	* TheDissTrack: "Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')" was aimed at Music/EazyE; Tim Dog, an East Coast rapper who slighted the whole West Coast rap scene and released an incendiary diss track towards N.W.A titled "Fuck Compton"; and Luther (Luke) Campbell from Music/2LiveCrew, whose track "Fakin' Like Gangstas" from his debut solo album ''I Got Shit On My Mind'', featuring JT Money from the group Poison Clan, was taken personally for making references to some of the popular rappers in the "gangsta" category (specifically referring to N.W.A). There were also some lyrics alluding to Music/IceCube, who departed acrimoniously from the group in 1989 and ridiculed Dre on "No Vaseline". The lyrics: ''"Then we gon creep to South Central, On a Street Knowledge mission, as I steps in the temple, Spot him, got him, as I pulls out my strap, Got my chrome to the side of his White Sox hat, You tryin to check my homey, you best check yo self, Cause when you diss Dre you diss yourself"'' had references to Cube's production operation Street Knowledge Productions (now Lench Mob Records), the lyrics "steps in the temple" referring to Ice Cube's affiliation with the Nation of Islam and his hit single "Check Yo Self". However, by the album's release, Ice Cube was on friendlier terms with Dr. Dre, even having a cameo appearance in "Let Me Ride", so unlike Eazy-E and Luke, he was not parodied in the music video.
38	* EvilSoundsDeep: "Natural Born Killaz"
39	* GangstaRap: Blue Collar during his N.W.A days and commercial during his time with Death Row. He largely left the genre once he formed Aftermath.
40	* GFunk: The TropeMaker.
41	* MidVidSkit: The video for "Forgot About Dre" has a skit in the middle of Eminem's verse where Slim Shady burns down a house and is interviewed by a news reporter [[KarmaHoudini yet they still don't find out Shady did it]].
42	* MinimalisticCoverArt: ''2001'' basically has "Dr. Dre" in one corner and "2001" in another with a small marijuana leaf on an otherwise completely black cover.
43	* MisogynySong: "She Swallowed It" and "Bitches Ain't Shit" are considered amongst the forefathers of the 'bitches and hos' tendency in rap.
44	* MockHollywoodSign: The cover for "Compton" has a Hollywood-esque sign spelling "Compton" overlooking the titular city.
45	* NotThatKindOfDoctor: A frequent joke dating back to his World Class Wreckin' Cru days, and appearing throughout his song and album titles thereafter. Music/{{Eminem}}, with his [[MunchausenSyndrome Munchausen's-by-proxy victim]]/ slightly insane persona, especially loves using this joke, often begging the Dr. for surgery, psychiatric help or pharmaceuticals.
46	* OdeToIntoxication: Dre's first solo album, The Chronic was named after Marijuana and references smoking weed several times. This is despite these lyrics from N.W.A.'s [[Music/StraightOuttaCompton "Express Yourself"]]:
47	-->"Yo I don't smoke weed or sesh, 'cause it's known to give a brother brain damage\
48	And brain damage on the mic don't manage"
49	* RatedGForGangsta: Went from having a dangerous militant persona to being the StraightMan in [[HamAndDeadpanDuo a duo with the rampaging goofball Slim Shady]]. Then he became an Apple executive.
50	* {{Sampling}}: Each track on ''The Chronic'' contains at least one sample and the intro track alone used 6 different songs to sample from. There is also some sampling on 2001 though not nearly to the extent as ''The Chronic''.
51	* SlippingAMickey: In the second verse of the Eminem/Dr. Dre song "Guilty Conscience," Em, as the [[GoodAngelBadAngel Bad Angel]], has slipped something into a 15-year-old girl's drink and is pressuring the guy to take advantage of her. Dre, being the Good Angel, vehemently objects to this.
52	* TenPacesAndTurn: Subverted in Dre's and Music/{{Eminem}}'s "Bad Guys Always Die".
53	-->'''Dre:''' ''He was [[{{Pun}} shady]]; I could tell by the look on his face\
54	He said "Take ten paces"; shit, I took eight''
55	* AWildRapperAppears: While he did produce the track, his rap verse on [=BlackStreet=]'s "No diggity" can be seen as this. It appears near the beginning and he doesn't return afterwords nor is he mentioned again.

Context Music / DrDre