Dr Dre: Classic or Dud ?

Exactly. This is Dre's A$AP Rocky album.

OTM.

It's definitely better than the A$AP Rocky album.

*the actual A$AP album

Oh definitely, yes.

idg how Eminem can keep up that drama queen underdog persona
can't hurt me more than I give a fuck
even if my image ends up taking a personal hit
wow such courage

delivery is decent and I guess he keeps his fans happy

Slightly off topic, this is Ice Cube from now widely quoted upcomin RS feature:

If you're a bitch, you're probably not going to like us. If you're a ho, you probably don't like us. If you're not a ho or a bitch, don't be jumping to the defense of these despicable females. Just like I shouldn't be jumping to the defense of no punks or no cowards or no slimy son of a bitches that's men. I never understood why an upstanding lady would even think we're talking about her.

A lot of rap songs deal with a similar binary, but the project of justifying misoginyst/sexualized slurs somehow seems doomed. Heard this for the first time recently, and although there is no questioning Cube's tautologics it has to be one of the silliest/worst verses ever:

A bitch is a bitch
So if I'm poor or rich
I talk in the exact same pitch
Now the title bitch don't apply to all women
But all women have a little bitch in 'em
It's like a disease that plagues their character
Taking the women of America
And it starts with the letter B
It makes a girl like that think she better than me
See, some get mad and some just bear it
But, yo, if the shoe fits wear it
It makes 'em go deaf in the ear that's why
When you say 'hi' she won't say 'hi'
Are you the kind that think you're too damn fly?
Bitch eat shit and die
Ice Cube coming at you at a crazy pitch
(Why?) I think a bitch is a bitch

I dunno, maybe there was something liberating at the time abt using that kind of language on a mainstream record - seems very dated now.

eminem sounds good, its just that the flow/phrasing/emphasis is too familiar now.

i kinda like this album, in parts - even if nothing is that remarkable, and while it gets better every time kendrick appears, he isnt really a 'dr dre' kind of artist. the rip that i have of it probably isnt helping much, but i do wonder why, more than his beats getting sterile and over produced, why modern dre, or since 2001 at least, dres production has gotten so over minimal, and more than that, so SLUGGISH. its like hes become the enemy of any kind of syncopation in the drums. its all plod-plod-plod (though at least, not an eminem-production kind of plod). its like hes trying to resist funkiness, when that is exactly what i want to hear from him (and im not expecting straight outta compton style breakbeats, just some sort of rhythmic finesse in there, somewhere).

"If you're a bitch, you're probably not going to like us. If you're a ho, you probably don't like us. If you're not a ho or a bitch, don't be jumping to the defense of these despicable females. Just like I shouldn't be jumping to the defense of no punks or no cowards or no slimy son of a bitches that's men. I never understood why an upstanding lady would even think we're talking about her."

lol, is that from 1989?

Def reads like it

yeah that does not sound like the cube of 2015. then again, i have often been surprised by rappers being stuck in their views, so whos to say.

weirdest thing about this whole album is dr dres voice.

Just like I shouldn't be jumping to the defense of no punks or no cowards or no slimy son of a bitches that's men.

otoh if this was 1989 you just know he would've used a different epithet here

who is still listening to this? i find it far from bad, but far from that remarkable too. its oddly non descript a lot of the time. dre grabbing from interesting sources, but not really making it into anything as attention grabbing as what he might have done before. i feel like most of the talking point on the album are that its dre borrowing from 'underground' guys that you might not have expected from someone with his stature.

I stopped listening the moment I had reviewed it. There are a couple of nice songs but overall... nah.

The real news is that apparently D.O.C. got his voice back!

surprised this was panned so hard on ilx, i thought it was pretty great. not nearly touching his first two obv but there are some jams imo

the problems i have with it are, that yes, its got that dre perfectionism in the mixing and engineering (though is this even that special anymore? it just sounds sterile), but i need some more musical meat. all his OCD tinkering i think seems to have left little of that in the songs (also, not enough funkiness, i know that was already on the way out on 2001, but i mean, theres enough new/hip/younger artists making funkiness okay again so...). also, not enough dre on the songs, as in he never really dominates like he used to. maybe thats just the impact of the flow, im not sure yet. but apart from the final song, its like, i need more dre on a dr. dre album (even a soundtrack). the only songs i really care about are the ones with snoop, xzibit, eminem (in spite of the poor rape jokes, though cmon, its eminem, its par for the course at this stage), and talking to my diary. other than that, i can take it or leave it. the beats i find to actually be quite boring tbh. they just plod along boringly.

also i think dre sounds shaky on the mic - partly thats age, but also i think he feels funny about rapping now, and also what should he as someone of his stature/age/reputation be rapping about? on one hand i dont want to think dre has to just be a gangsta for EVER, OTOH, i dont really care that much for dre when he isnt playing that role, as except in small doses, its never quite that good (though of course, i have lots of time for songs like lil ghetto boy).

going to listen to the leaked detox tracks to see how they stand up. if i was dre, i would get dj quik to help him produce, and avoid his crippling dre-ness

iirc he rapped about owning everything, which seemed v. accurate but like he wasn't even that happy because of it

its actually kinda boring when rappers talk about owning everything even if they do own a lot. more fun/enjoyable when they are still fantasising about it, when they havent made it yet. dre's prob just done everything at this point and is now just plain bored.

its actually kinda boring when rappers talk about owning everything even if they do own a lot. more fun/enjoyable when they are still fantasising about it, when they havent made it yet.

something about this position really bothers me even though I understand it -- you can relate to somebody who wants things and has dreams of wealth and power, it's harder to relate to people who don't have to work at all if they don't want to

i mean, im pleased for dre that hes so ridiculously rich, good for him, but i mean, do i need to hear about it? (unless its in a funny/OTT/unbelievably ostentatious sort of way like idk, kool g rap's lifestyles of the rich and famous, which is entertaining rather than just dry bragging) and then theres also the thing that, while im pleased someone whose albums and songs i have enjoyed didnt end up poor, from a boring moralistic POV, what has dr dre really contributed to anyones life? great music (as in the sheer aural content), not so great everything-else.

I only think Dre sounds shaky when he's trying to do Kendrick verses, but that style would be hard to emulate & doesn't really play to Dre's strengths as a rapper

dre needs someone with a slower flow to write for him, not eminem or kendrick

then again, he prob wouldnt want that out of fear of sounding old

ts got that dre perfectionism in the mixing and engineering

what, no. quite the opposite.

its ultra buffed clean in the manner of 2001 and pretty much everything hes done since. there might be more instrumentation, but for the most part, its true to the modern dre sound.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/22/arts/music/dr-dre-apologizes-to-the-women-ive-hurt.html?_r=0

Maybe this was mentioned on the Compton movie thread

its actually kinda boring when rappers talk about owning everything even if they do own a lot. more fun/enjoyable when they are still fantasising about it, when they havent made it yet.

i would argue that there are other rewarding ways of engaging with lyrics besides just relating to their content on a personal level

He had all the time in the world to apologize if he truly regretted his actions.

dre needs someone with a slower flow to write for him, not eminem or kendrick

― StillAdvance, Monday, August 24, 2015 8:18 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is my #1 takeaway from this album

I still say it's TI. But yes. He should enlist Berner.

weirdest thing about this whole album is dr dres voice.

― StillAdvance, Thursday, August 13, 2015 3:39 PM (2 weeks ago)

I cannot recognize his voice at all, so weird

dr dre and quincy jones in conversation -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/post/idsa.2b4855c9-59bd-11e5-8348-dfa0394d1ab0
not heard it yet, but its weird to hear dre trying to sound so hype.
also, why is this show called the pharmacy, with the voice of a woman introducing it by saying the doctor will see you now'. erm doctors dont work in pharmacies?

this album kinda sucks.

Dr. Dre Reportedly Threatens Lawsuit Over Upcoming Michel’le Biopic

http://www.okayplayer.com/news/dr-dre-reportedly-threatens-lawsuit-over-upcoming-michelle-biopic.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7FfCJb8JZQ

Busta Rhymes breaking a ram's neck at 3:44 is def classic

Beat's obv great too, but quite uncharacteristic for Dre? Anyone have an idea how much Storch did on it?

Nicety, or whatever you wanna call it
Ask my opinion and I think that all it is
Is just an excuse to givin the boots
For dollar and cents, and remain innocent
Dre with the Ruthless attack, check it
Cause all that you talkin about ain't Jack!
Step off of that, try a new approach
You get smoked because I ain't no joke
Yeah, yeah...

lol

tried listening to The Chronic again recently and wasn't really feeling it, which i don't chalk up to the album but more my own shifting tastes.

"The Next Episode" came on the radio the other day and man that is some classic shit

xp could never make it through the entire Chronic

dope singles though

Next Episode is great, 2001 has aged well

Beat's obv great too, but quite uncharacteristic for Dre? Anyone have an idea how much Storch did on it?

Storch / Dre collabs were often Storch writing, recording and producing a song, then Dre consulting & polishing. Dre did have a mini-period of arch, spindly beats like that around that time, though. His arrangements have never been maximalist, but at the time I took that refinement to be a reaction to Timbaland's breakthrough.

Yeah, there's def a Timbaland vibe.
Thanks!

loooool it's on StorchTV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EsmhkAxh4c

You're a multi platinum producer, you know everything about getting the sound just right, and yet... this is how you hold a microphone:

https://i.imgur.com/5SIa8J6.jpg