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Commentary On Some Old News: Dr. Dre vs. Death Row [Post a Comment]
This has been out for a while now but I want to reflect on the lawsuit between rapper and producer Dr. Dre and the newly reconstituted Death Row Records.
Having recently watched the two-and-a-half hour documentary on the rise and fall of Death Row on the Ovation Channel, as part of its Black History Month celebration, I was reminded of that era in rap music in the nineties. Who’s old enough to remember Dr. Dre before Emimem? Let’s reminisce a bit.
Dr. Dre — Andre Young — started out in the eighties with an old school group called The World Class Wreckin’ Crew. Then, he was the DJ in a group that combined eighties hip hop and quiet storm singing (my favorite song by them is Turn Out The Lights which also featured Michel’le.
Afterwards, he hooked up with the late Eazy E., Ice Cube (who young people today probably know better as an actor in the Friday and Barbershop movies than as a gangster rapper), MC Ren, and DJ Yella to form N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude).
N.W.A. were about as dangerous a rap group as you could get, especially with such incendiary songs as F*** The Police. Needless to say, they didn’t get a whole lot of commercial airplay on the radio but that didn’t stop them.
However, things eventually fell apart within the ranks of the group and everyone ended up going their separate ways. Dr. Dre then ended up co-founding Death Row Records with one Suge Knight and gave birth to The Chronic. It was the rise of Snoop (Doggy) Dogg, Michel’le, The D.O.C., and various others. It was the birth of the G-Funk sound, which rode the beats of Parliament Funkadelic.
The documentary on the Ovation channel gave a very thorough history of the evolution of the rap sound in the nineties and the behind the scenes events at Death Row and Interscope. The drugs, the violence, the intimidation, and the ridiculous west coast vs. east coast rivalry that led to the senseless deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.. Needless to say, Dr. Dre had good cause for eventually distancing himself from the label that he helped found.
Now, years later, Dr. Dre is suing the new incarnation of the label for unpaid royalties for his legendary recording The Chronic and for a repackaged reissue that was done without his permission. Seems the shenanigans are still going on.
Nowadays, Dr. Dre is known for his production wizardry and for his new headphone system product line that HSN carries.
Those of you who remember those infamouse days in hip hop, what are your thoughts and memories of those times? What do you think of Dr. Dre’s chances in getting compensation for his classic?
Share your thoughts — people want to hear from you.
This has been out for a while now but I want to reflect on the lawsuit between rapper and producer Dr. Dre and the newly reconstituted Death Row Records.
Having recently watched the two-and-a-half hour documentary on the rise and fall of Death Row on the Ovation Channel, as part of its Black History Month celebration, I was reminded of that era in rap music in the nineties. Who’s old enough to remember Dr. Dre before Emimem? Let’s reminisce a bit.
Dr. Dre — Andre Young — started out in the eighties with an old school group called The World Class Wreckin’ Crew. Then, he was the DJ in a group that combined eighties hip hop and quiet storm singing (my favorite song by them is Turn Out The Lights which also featured Michel’le.
Afterwards, he hooked up with the late Eazy E., Ice Cube (who young people today probably know better as an actor in the Friday and Barbershop movies than as a gangster rapper), MC Ren, and DJ Yella to form N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude).
N.W.A. were about as dangerous a rap group as you could get, especially with such incendiary songs as F*** The Police. Needless to say, they didn’t get a whole lot of commercial airplay on the radio but that didn’t stop them.
However, things eventually fell apart within the ranks of the group and everyone ended up going their separate ways. Dr. Dre then ended up co-founding Death Row Records with one Suge Knight and gave birth to The Chronic. It was the rise of Snoop (Doggy) Dogg, Michel’le, The D.O.C., and various others. It was the birth of the G-Funk sound, which rode the beats of Parliament Funkadelic.
The documentary on the Ovation channel gave a very thorough history of the evolution of the rap sound in the nineties and the behind the scenes events at Death Row and Interscope. The drugs, the violence, the intimidation, and the ridiculous west coast vs. east coast rivalry that led to the senseless deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.. Needless to say, Dr. Dre had good cause for eventually distancing himself from the label that he helped found.
Now, years later, Dr. Dre is suing the new incarnation of the label for unpaid royalties for his legendary recording The Chronic and for a repackaged reissue that was done without his permission. Seems the shenanigans are still going on.
Nowadays, Dr. Dre is known for his production wizardry and for his new headphone system product line that HSN carries.
Those of you who remember those infamouse days in hip hop, what are your thoughts and memories of those times? What do you think of Dr. Dre’s chances in getting compensation for his classic?
Share your thoughts — people want to hear from you.
Posted by T-Mad on 02/25/2010 at 1:02 PM
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