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Dr. Dre

Published Jul 29, 2021, 7:02 AM

As one of rap music’s most successful artists/producers turned record label founder and executive, Dr. Dre is arguably the best in the game. His outrageous persona helped him build an empire, but when the line between image and reality blurred, people started getting hurt. Despite the controversy, jail time, and multiple assault charges, Dre’s commercial success is unrivalled. Listen in for interviews with Dr. Dre, his family, and rap artists Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Daz and Kurupt and Jerry Heller (N.W.A. Manager) to learn the true story behind the music.

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He came straight out of Compton brought the sound of the inner City to suburbia. With an unrivaled ear for hooks, grooves and melodies, Doctor Dre called gangster rap on the pop charts with group and w A. Dray and his fellow members were an explosive success, feeding off the controversies they ignited. After parting with the group, Doctor Dre went on to build an empire with the most notorious man in the music business, Sugar Night. Drey's outrageous persona was a career asset, but when the line between image and reality blurred, people started getting hurt. He was the prince of the hood, indulging all his vices. But soon Doctor Dre found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Dre survived the gunshots, but then he suffered a wound that would never heal when he lost his brother to the violence of the streets. But when his partying and gangster lifestyle got out of control, Dr Dre ultimately had to face his conscience in the confines of a jail cell. Now the rise, fall and redemption of hip hop's most enduring maestro, Dr Dre. The story behind the music. Dr Dre and n w A stormed onto the music scene in like a vision out of the ultimate American nightmare. They terrified White America, They terrified bourgeois black people, and they even terrified some of us who are from the ghetto. They rose out of South central Los Angeles and wrapped with a ferocity that had never been heard before. In your face. It was everything that people were afraid of and didn't necessarily want on records. But we didn't care what people said. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Within w A and into his solo career, Dr Dre founded a genre of music that reveled in violence, drugs, and sacks. But despite his scowling street thug image, the father of gangster rap grew up the model's son. Dre was raised to be responsible, a good student who was determined to escape the traps of the inner city. I'm not the type of person I was going to get involved in any way in anything that was gonna, you know, um, risk my freedom. Violence surrounded Andrea Young from the very beginning, when he was just six months old. Racial tensions ignited the nineteen sixty five Watts riots. In this scarred landscape, Andre's teenage mother struggled to raise her son alone. When I had Andrea was only sixteen years old, and I had a lot of things coming at me, you know, people telling me that I wasn't gonna be nothing, and my baby wasn't gonna be nothing. They lived in the gang controlled city of Compton. I grew up in an area where it was a lot of um, drug dealing and you know everything that comes with that, you know, a lot of violence. Determined not to let her son become a statistic, Andrea's mother created a refuge inside their apartment. With little money, their only escape from the bleak surroundings was music, sounds that left a lasting impression on young Andre. My mother was was big in the music, big in the early seventies. Found the Dramatics, the Temptations, Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, and James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye. This is the music that I grew up on, you know, and and I love it for that. By age four, Andre was already sitting behind the turntable playing DJ at his mother's parties. She would give me a little list, you know, and I would sit there and just play director saw a knife for them with their parties. You know, that's what I like to do. Held be the little DJ and befour record players could go back and forth. You know, he destroyed a few of them. You know. His mother married and had two more children, a boy named Tyree and a little girl named Shimika. But when the marriage fell apart, a teenage Andre became the man of the house, caring for his younger siblings while his mother worked. My brother was my best friend and we did everything together. He was just a lot of fun to be around. You know, he walked in the party, got live. With their mother's guidance, Dray and Tyree helped each other avoid the gang and drug culture that consumes so many of the neighborhood kids. And my mother was the biggest influence because she started teaching us about drugs at a very young age, you know, you know, showing us, you know, right from wrong. When he was fifteen, Andre's mother saved enough money to give him a mixer for Christmas, a DJ's tool that allows to turn tables to play at once. This was like the the ultimate thing to have, you know, you know, damn a bike. You know, I gotta mix it. And it was funny because he stayed in that bedroom all day long. He would not come out the room. Try to get him to come out to eat. No, he wasn't hungry. When I finally went in there later on that night, he had actually went to sleep with these headsets. They headsets are just blasting away. By the time he was eighteen, Andre was good enough to DJ at the Neighborhood Club. He chose the stage name Dr Dre. I take off on Basketball Great Dr J. That was the ultimate high for me, for me to be able to put a song on and have the crowd just started screaming. You see people putting their drinks down, running too. The Dance Florida Party. Dr Dre's mastery of the turntables earned him an invitation to join the world class Wrecking Crew, a local group of the smooth R and B sound and a glamorous stage presence. So I will put on like a shine any doctors outfit with the temoscope and the whole thing, and come up and put on the show. But by the age of twenty one, Drey was tired of the glitter and the sequeens. I wanted to go off and do my own thing, but I didn't have the money to do it, you know. So there were a couple of people that I knew that had the kind of money that they would take to do what I wanted to do. And Eric was one of those people. Eric Easy E. Wright was a childhood friend who had grown up to become a fear drug dealer in Compton. He was a heavy guy, at least in our neighborhood, at least we all thought so. So with Easy's money and Drey's music, they decided to form a new crew with a raw sound that reflected the streets. They recruited the best local DJs and rappers and called themselves n W A. Ran was gonna be one of the top m c s. He was gonna be the front man. Cube of course, was going to be another front man. Yellow was good at the technical part, you know, figuring out how to hook things up, and also he was good on the turn tables. I'm the organizer, you know what I'm saying, the producer, and just make sure to make sure everything that we're doing comes out right. And Easy was supposed to be the wid one that would put on the glasses where one lends out or step up in the bulletproof vest. He was our character. Easy came up with the cash to press the demo single Boys in the Hood, and they sold copies out of the trunks of their cars. It became a big local hit and caught the attention of a well known manager. When I heard Boys in the Hood, I just felt it was the most important music that I had heard in many, many years since the beginning of rock and roll. Jerry Heller had spent his career representing pop groups like Sticks and Journey, but he was fascinated by n W as fal Mouth Street sensibility. Convinced he had found a diamond in the rough, Heller says he left his other clients and helped Easy start up a label they called Ruthless Records. Nobody that I took the records through. For the first nine or ten months, every thought that this would go to the airplane. Ultimately, Heller persuaded Priority Records to distribute n ways first LP straight out of company. The album introduced the world to the brutal realities of south central Los Angeles, years before images of Rodney King being in the l A Riots were seared into the American consciousness. You know, we're not saying that where we're from, you know, you know is crazy and competent his ghetto. But this is where we're from, this is where we're born and raised, and this is what we're going to talk about for the first time was Straight out of Compton. We had an album in its total, in my opinion, that just basically laid out here's who we are, like it or not. But in nine that vision was too raw for television. MTV refused to air the video Straight out of Compton, citing us of violence. Black music historically has always talked about sex and violence, going away back to Robert Johnson and the Boos, but this was the most explicit it had ever been. One cut, in particular, was a lightning rod the police played like a call to arms, overtly threatening police officers. The lyrics sparked a firestorm of protests from law enforcement. We caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI took the extraordinary step of sending a letter to the record company accusing n W Way of encouraging violence against police, pointing out that seventy eight law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty in the previous year. It was very frankly to me telling us that we're responsible for for the deaths of law enforcement officers in the United States of America. I've never heard of anybody being able to kill somebody with a CD you know what I'm saying. But the controversy only to sell more records. Straight out of Compton broke into Billboard's top forty without the benefit of mainstream radio play. But I have to say, thanks to that FBI agent that rotice that letter. You did a big service to us, and I really appreciate that letter. You said it. You made us a lot of money. But Dr Dre wouldn't have long to savor his success because life would soon be imitating art. Just ahead, the brutality of the streets strikes close to home, and later a run in with a TV host earns Dre a violent reputation when behind the music continues. In the spring of Dr Dre and n W A were riding a wave of success. Straight out of Compton was on its way to selling two million copies. The Boys from the Hood took their street show on tour, and teenagers of all races couldn't get enough of their ghetto outrage. Kids were fascinated, and I was one of those people that I felt like I felt fascinated by it, but at the same time, I felt like I could relate to it because just their whole attitude, their whole rebellious type thing. Within w A Dr. Dre had found his ticket out of the ghetto. And no one was happier about Dre's success than his little brother, Tyree. Tyree he idolized him. He idolized if every anything that Andre was into, wherever he was, if he was performing, Tyree was there. And I saw this one video he was right there in the front row with his little Compton hat on and just bobbing away. You know, I can remember my first my first Mercedes. You know, I want to pick him up, you know what I'm saying. It was like he came out there. I was like, we gotta bus in the family, you know. Yeah, he was really proud of and he showed him that he was proud. They had a lovely relationship, you know, was the big brother little brother relationship. He used to always say, when you go, when you're gonna put me on the record, let me get down. I got I got song I got that I want to say. As Dre left on tour with n w A. In May of nine, one year old Tyree was settling down. He had a new job and planning to marry the mother of his young son. But on the night of June, Tyree found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as he walked out of a store in south central Los Angeles. He was coming coming across the street from a liquor store or something, and and this guy in his car almost hit him. It was a group of guys in the car, and he jumped out the way and said something like watch out, you know, or something. And these guys got out of the car. These guys are pretty big guys, like, you know, two and fifty pound guys from what I am, And they got into a fight this and that, and I guess they were fighting and they fell, all of them fail And my brother was at the at him. My son was just the little guy. But he threw him down on the ground and it in it broke his neck and d up it up. He never gained consus. On the road that night, Dr Dre's beeper started buzzing NonStop. I remember getting these nine one one pages and you know, I never get nine one one pages from home, you know, just back to back, nine one one pages. He stopped at a pay phone to call home. His girlfriend answered distraught. She was, you know, screaming and crying and what happened? And she just said Tyree is dead, you know, and bugged me out. Man. That was crazy, super nuts. Dre abandoned the tour and returned home for Tyree's funeral. He couldn't believe the little brother he had grown up protecting was gone. That was the first time I had seen him since he was a little, you know, a little bitty kid. Because Andre never shows he never shows emotion. And when I saw him crying, and that was the hurt. It that was so oh my, I don't even want to think about that. But it was just unbelievable, you know what I mean. I mean, this is my best friend, you know what I mean. It's like yo, I just couldn't believe it. You know, it was no this is you know, he's gonna be on in a minute, you know what I'm saying. It was just real hard to believe. You know. That was the biggest thing. That was the biggest thing that was going through my mind, just the disbelief your own. In the summer of nine, Dr Dre was still reeling from the death of his brother Tyree. When he returned to the n W A tour, he was confronted with another crisis. Nice Cube was angry because he had reportedly received only thirty two dollars for his work on two platinum albums, Straight out of Compton and Easy Easy Easy Does It. Cube announced he was quitting n W to start a solo career. But we were looking at him at the time, like, you know, he're turning your back on the group, But it turned out he was a smart one. Cube's parting was bitter, but it didn't hurt record sales. N W Release shot to number one on the Billboard Pop Chart, the first hardcore rap album ever to do so. The multi platinum success of the group had up the financial stakes. Now was Dr Dre, who was unhappy with his share of the profits. He wanted to renegotiate his deal with Easy Ease Ruthless Records. He was being paid certainly according to his contract, but maybe he wasn't being paid what his value had become. Despite their long standing friendship, Easy refused to renegotiate with Gray or let him out of his contract. I would have to say, was disappointing. You know, a childhood friend and you know Cube already left. You let him do that. Now you're you're you're turning your back on me too. So in early Dr Dre decided to bring in some muscle. I would say that that once Sugar Knight came, I'm as saying that it stopped being fun. A former football player and bodyguard. Suge Knights stood six ft three inches tall and weighed over three pounds. Real big guy, you know, and had a presence, you know what I mean when he came in, you know, coming a room. He had a present something about him. You know. Many believed Knight used his way to persuade rapper Vanilla Ice to hand over a portion of the publishing proceeds from his hit Ice Ice. Baby. Sugar denied allegations that he had physically threatened Vanilla Ice, but his reputation now preceded him, and Dr Dre planned to make full use of it. I thought he was confident enough to get to get business handled, you know what I'm saying. But it was how Sugar handled business that would become fodder for fear and litigation. According to a lawsuit filed by Eric Eazy E Wright, suge Knight confronted him in a record company conference room in April. The complaint alleged that Sugar was accompanied by men carrying baseball bats, pipes, and other weapons. Easy claim that Shook threatened bodily harm and forced him to sign a release allowing Dr dre out of his contract with Easies Ruthless Records. We had anticipated that something like that could happen, I don't know, was something we had talked about before, and it did happen. Suge Knight denied the allegations, and the lawsuit was settled out of court. Now, thanks to show Drey was free from Ruthless Records, and he says he wasn't particularly concerned with how the job got done. I looked at it like this, he got the releases you out. That's how I looked at it. Let's move on and let's make something happen. And that's exactly what they did. It's going to be. In February of ninety two, they threw a party to celebrate the creation of Death Row Records. The label would be run jointly by Dr Dre in Suge Knight. Dre went to work on a solo debut. Shug focused on the business, but label insiders say sugars aggressive tactics helped create an atmosphere at Death Row where brutality was common. Shub was like, uh a dog, not to not uh to degrade him, but because mentality is somewhat like that mean that if you showed, if you're scared and you intimidate it or then you're probably gonna get smashed. On come we should be like going Vegas star a gamble. Dr Dre says at the time, he enjoyed the air of notoriety that surrounded Death Row, and he was developing a dangerous reputation of his own. I think I started drinking too much. I would just say parties, just wilding out, like didn't care man. We would just going to parties and push people around, have fun. The ones calm and responsible. Andre Young was turning into Dr Dre menace to society. I was wild the people around me a while. There was nobody there to say, yo, we don't need to do that. That's not cool. He had money, a big new house in the hills outside Los Angeles and dozens of new friends stroking his ego. You'd walked in here early in the morning and you subject to walk over bodies just laying around. That's wherever they could get, you know, just hanging out. Dr Dre had grown up avoiding trouble, but now he was seeking it out and the law was about to catch up with him. In January, Dr Dre ran into former friend and TV host d Barnes in a holl he would nightclub. He kept zig zagging and making his way towards me, and I was like, no, he's up to something. He had been drinking, and Barnes claims Drey was angry because his former bandmate Ice Cube had insulted in w A on her show Pump It Up. Barnes says Drey was furious about the broadcast and began arguing with her, and then before I knew it, he grabbed me by my hair, picks me up, and starts slamming me into a brick wall. I'm all disoriented, and I'm like, you know, oh, man, I can't believe dress openness to me. I was thinking he's trying to kill me. I'm like, wow, Doctor Dre says, the Barnes greatly exaggerates the incident. We asked him words went back and forth, got in my face, this and that. I pushed her. Next thing I know, I'm on the news, Drey assaulted her, grabbing her hair, slamming her face and body into a wall. They said I threw it down a flight of stairs and kicking her in the ribs. We dig it into an argument and I did push her and stuff like that, but it wasn't at all, you know what the media made it out to be. Doctor Dre was arrested and played guilty to battery. Then d Barnes filed a twenty two point seven million dollar civil suit against him. He was reportedly settled for a six figure song. I definitely regret putting my hands on it. If I had to go back and just relived that night, it definitely wouldn't have turned out the way it did. That was an amazing, major mistake for me, but it didn't stop his reckless behavior. In May of ninety two, Dre was arrested for assault after a brawl in the New Orleans Hotel. The next month, Drey was charged with assaulting a record producer during an argument in Los Angeles. Drey was convicted in both cases. He received probation fines in a sixty day house arrest, but having a tracking device locked to his ankle did little to curb his appetite for the wildlife. The only thing I was getting with slaps on the wrists, and I thought I was just untouchable, you know what I mean. This smug attitude took it to act hip when the Invincible Doctor Dre got a harsh reminder of his own mortality. In August of ninety two, Dr Dre and his entourage arri for a party at a Los Angeles hotel. A rowdy crowd he gathered outside. We were in front of the hotel in the parking lot, and a scuffle broke out. Drac the pistol and start running. Yeah you'll remember that, You remember his d He was running. Shots were fired, Yeah, I got him filled the bullet hit me or any of that. Somebody was lying. I think it were dance like Drey. I think you in he saw the both the back both of my pants lash just bloody in the back, you know. So I looked back like, oh damn, I'm hit, you know. Oh he looked. That's a pain like you never you never want to experience. Doctor Dre underwent surgery to repair the bullet wounds to his legs. The police never discovered who shot him, and for the first time, Drey began thinking about changing his lifestyle. That's when I decide, too, I need to be inside the studio and that's it. Yeah, let me slow down. But Doctor Dre apparently hadn't learned his lesson because his most serious troubles were still ahead. Coming up l A's finance, catch up with Dr Dre and then incarceration leads to personal revelation when behind the music continues. By the end of two Dr Dre's self destructive behavior was all too evident. He had been shot and convicted of three violent crimes. I was on a role for for failure, man, I was on a role to failure for real. But he stayed out of trouble long enough to complete his first solo project, the Chronic Dr Dre Front, and most of the song on the record, But he also chose to spotlight up and coming artists, including a twenty year old street rapper called Snoop Doggie Dog. Everybody was so anxious to get in the studio with Dre because he was peeking at the time as far as producing, and we were all the hungry, unseen, unheard talents. Snoops, laid back Delivery was a perfect match for Drey's melodic, groove driven tracks. The result was rap music with pop a fuel. We don't come pop, We come street and make Pope cross over the Street the dig. Drey was the first producer in hip hop to put melody in the records he made him songs. The Chronic became a hip hop sensation, remaining in Billboard's Top ten for eight months, selling more than eight million copies. There was the first record like that played on MTV during the day. There was a you know, first music like that on the cover of Rolling Stone. It was first time that music was played on top forty radio. For Dre, the Chronic was proved and could succeed without his val Easy, and he devoted an entire song to mocking his old friend. He lampooned Easy and manager Jerry Heller in the video for Dre Day. I'm glad you and I trust each other. You trust me? Don't ship? Oh no, no, I worked for you. I worked for sleazy eat. I wouldn't have it any other way. We're gonna make lots of money. I know that easy Was was insulted and he was hurt. Andre were like brothers or more. And I think that that Easy felt that Dre was was was being fulled by guys like like shut Knight. Dre, on the other hand, was reveling in the success of the chronic. It had made Dre rich beyond his dreams, and he had no trouble living up to the hedonistic image he had created. Dr Dre. You know, it's just our party and he's living it up cause jewelry. In early be four, he bought a one hundred and ninety thousand dollar Ferrari Testera Rosa and decided to break it in After a night of drinking in Hollywood. I decided I want to test it out on Wilshire Boulevard. Yeah, I'm just flying down will Ship, you know, acting crazy. You know, I'm like it a hundred and forty miles or something stupid like that. The police spotted him and pursued him at a high speed chase through Los Angeles. I got to my garage and couldn't get in. Next thing, I know, I'm surrounded. Show me your hands, get out, get out, show me your hands. All right, I'm caught. He pleaded no contest to drunk driving charges since it violated his probation. He was sentenced to a five month work release program in the Pasadena, California jail. I said, when you when you get to a freedom snatch from you, you know, a whole a whole lot of things come to light. You know, you start looking at lot of things different. Huh. And that's what I did. A couple of months into his sentence, Drey received another blow when a friend phoned him with some startling news and he was like, you know, Easy's got AIDS. I'm like, get out of here, you know, come on, so enough it was. It was true. In early Drey's old friend had gone to the hospital after a violent coughing fit. Doctors discovered Easy had full blown AIDS, even though he had no external symptoms. Old Drake could think of was the angry feud he had waged with Easy. After they're split up, I feel like yo all the time. To mean a couple of years that we spend mad at each other, there's nothing compared to the time and we spent together and had happy times. Dre rushed to the hospital, hoping to talk to his friend one last time. He wanted to say his piece and put their feud to rest. When he got there, Easy was unconscious and close to death. You know. I went in and I saw him, and he looked he looked normal, you know what I'm saying. It looks just looked like he was sleep but you know, he's looked up to this life support system and it's like and his chest is going up and down from this machine, you know, helping him breathe. I just looked at him, you know, I just looked at him, and it was it was crazy. And I can remember like the way everybody was looking, the way everybody looked, it was like, okay, it seemed like everybody just knew that he was gone. Nine days later, on March Eric easy E Wright died. He was just thirty one years old. Dre was haunted by the fact that they missed their chance to reconcile. Being Easy we practically grew up together. We grew up in the same neighborhood, you know, so it was almost like losing a brother. You know. I felt bad that we you know, I didn't get the kid and have more fun before he passed away. I think that changed Drey his life because he was so close to Easy and they built this West Coast rap car and the louse Easy, you know, in the time when it wasn't cool. You know. I think that when he hurt him, you know, it really tested him and made him want to leave Death Rowing, you know, move on and do his own thing. The combined effect of five months in jail and the loss of his close friend rout dr Dre to a turning point. It was totally me just really sitting down thinking about what's going on with my life, the people around me. You know, I sat down and thought like, Okay, I've got all these people around me, Um, how many of them do I really need? You know, Dre was even questioning his future with Death Row, the label he spent years building. By late his partners Shook Night, had been convicted of at least seven crimes, include an assault with a deadly weapon. Drey was growing tired of shugars rough shod style. There's got to be some kind of rules and regulation going on in a place of business or everything goes Hey, why the final straw came when Dre witnessed an unprovoked act of violence committed by a member of an artist's entourage. If I had to put my finger on just one incident that made me want to just to say I'm out, I would have to say when I am I saw an engineer get beat down, or we're running the tape too far, you know, That's when I said, Okay, this is not the place for me at all. In March of Dre publicly announced he was leaving death Row. That's when his future wife, Nicole says she was most worried. No, I was scared for him because you never know, you know, when people are angry, and you know we're talking about money issues and business issues, anybody could pull out a gun at any time, you know, out of anger. It may have ninety six. Dr Dre says Sugar Knight showed up on his doorstep with eight men demanding the valuable master recordings of his music. I don't fear nothing but God and I r s you know what I'm saying. That's it for me. So I'm like, if something was gonna go down, it was gonna go down, period whatever, you know. But turned out everything was cool, nothing happened, and we parted on a peaceful note. Dre agreed to hand over the master recordings and Sure let them out of their partnership. Afterwards, should claim Dre had left death Row with nothing. Oh had nothing against Dre. The Trey choose to go ahead and start a new production company. Here my blessing, so be it, so be it. But Drey didn gets zero from death Row to go move forward. And that's very false. I mean I definitely left. I definitely left with some money. I didn't leave with it what I was opposed to, but I left with something that was a lot more valuable, valuable to me, and that was peace of mind. And in the months following his departure, Dr Dre stood back and watched as Death Row began to fall apart. On September seven, Suge Knight and rap artist Tupac Shakur were gunned down in Las Vegas while they were riding in Shug's BMW Sugar recovered the Tupac died five days later. The assailants were never caught, and for Dre it was tragic confirmation that he had done the right thing by leaving Death Row. I think I really think my timing was. It was incredible because I always look at it like this. You know, I could have been in that car in Las Vegas. How about that? Just five months after Tupac's killing, death Row was dealt another blow. Your prior record indicates one of violence. You are a danger to the community. Suge Knight was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating his probation from assault case. Where there was once a lucrative partnership, only bitterness remains. It was a lot of sawt dropped on my name. It was a lot of accusations about me. There was a whole bunch of nonsense that was said about me that I didn't think was cool. So there is no relationship with me and him, and there'll never be another one. Seven Dr Dre was putting his life back together. Suge Knight was in prison, Andre was free to form a new label he called Aftermath. His first release on that label was a compilation that included his own single, Been There Done That. It was his way of stepping back from the gangster rap image that had defined him for ten years. It was just like, um, a break away from what I was doing, A little side relief. You know, just to get away from get away from me for a second, do something different. There blade good angel to a devilish eminem On the song Guilty Conscience, the godfather of gangster rap denounced violence. Dre's toned down public image reflected a newly found piece in his personal life. He had married his girlfriend Nicole and devoted himself to raising their two children. Now calmed down like drastically. Yes, he's definitely a major part of me. Taking time out to smell the roses at home. He's popped. You know, he's not Dr Dre. He's popped, and it is a completely different person. In November, Dre reunited with Snoop Dogg and released as much anticipated follow up to the chronic, The Hardcore Hip Hop is Me. You know I have to do that. You know, it's like breathing to me. Dr Dre two thousand one plays like a personal manifesto, a problem nation of survival in an industry with a very short memory. Still Dre, but without a doubt, older and wiser, Dre grew up. You know what I'm saying. I mean his music is more mature now, but it's still is still wrong. In the beginning, he was more outgoing, you know, just didn't give. But as you get older, you have to change, You have to get wise, you have to get smarter. My husband is an absolute survivor, and no matter what obstacle comes in his way, the way he sees it is there's a solution. Dre has weathered a relentless barrage of professional adversity and personal tragedy. Yet there's one loss that will forever haunt him, the violent death of his brother, Tyree. Dre's only solace is his belief that the little brother he grew up protecting is now looking out for him. Andre has always tell me how angel watching over him, I mean, and his brother. You know, nothing's gonna happen to me. I have an angel watching over me. I honestly believe that he feels that Tyree has been here with him the entire time. I do believe that because there has been situations that, you know, it seems like somebody almost talks to me and tells me, yo, don't turn left, turn right, you know what I'm saying. And I do that, and everything has just been going perfect for me. Yeah, straight up. So when a song called the Message Drey sends up a prayer for his little brother who was struck down on the streets of South Central a decade ago. It's basically me kind of talking to a writing a letter to guy. You know. It's like I'm talking to him asking him why did he have to Why did you have to pick my brother to take and what have you. It's a long life, man, I mean, you just never know. So that was my question. Who I am. They're very close and he misses him so much. Looking at a smile, you know, looking at d I have to say I found a new value for life, you know what I mean. You know, anything can happen at any time. That's why I'm trying to live mind to the fullest. You know, when I clock out, I'm gonna be able to say I had a good one. Despite a tumultuous career and personal life, Dr Dre has firmly established himself as one of the most influential artists and producers of all time. Under his label Aftermath Entertainment, he kick started the careers of many other superstar musicians, including Snoop Dogg, Tupac Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Anderson Pack. In two thousand and eight, he debuted his Beats by Dr Dre brand of headphones, adding yet another line to his long list of successes. With six Grammy Awards, multiple movie appearances, and the launch of a film production company, Dr Dre's influence reaches far and wide. A true pioneer in the hip hop genre, the Prince of the Hood's creations have left an indelible mark on the music business. Listen to Behind the Music on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Want more episodes, You can watch remastered best of the Vault and new episodes of Behind the Music only on Paramount Plus

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