Career Killers — Mass Murderers Edition: How Dr. Dre Killed a Bunch of Careers
https://victor-li.com/career-killers-mass-murderers-edition-how-dr-dre-killed-a-bunch-of-careers/
“Yo Dre, stick to producing.”share
Ice Cube wasn’t alone in his assessment of his former N.W.A. bandmate’s skills (or lack thereof) as a rapper. Always more comfortable as a producer, few saw much of a future for Dr. Dre as an M.C. when he went solo in 1991. Indeed, with his new record label, Death Row Records, which he co-founded with former NFL lineman and bodyguard Suge Knight, Dre’s talents would probably best be utilized behind the scenes, doing what he did best: producing killer songs and albums for other rappers.
Arguably, he wasn’t even the most well-known Dre that had a doctorate in the hip hop world. I’m sure most people were wondering why the co-host of Yo! MTV Raps was dumping Ed Lover and going solo — I know I certainly was.
So, of course, Dr. Dre rolled up his sleeves, went to work and released a solo album in 1992 that became one of the greatest and most influential of all time. It’s been said by many that while The Chronic did not invent gangsta rap, it certainly popularized it and made it mainstream. It made Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (then “Snoop Doggy Dogg”) into household names and blazed a trail for many, many other rappers to follow.
In fact, The Chronic’s success was so profound and complete that if rappers wanted to have any success in the period immediately following its release, they pretty much had to follow Dre’s G-Funk template: slow-to-medium tempo, laid-back vocals, a sing-song chorus, heavy synthesizers and funky Parliament-inspired samples.
That’s not to say that any rapper who didn’t follow the blueprint suddenly found themselves with tons of free time on their hands. The Beastie Boys continued churning out multi-platinum albums throughout the 90s while the Fugees released one of the most successful and acclaimed rap albums of the decade. The East Coast rap scene also thrived, which set up the bi-coastal feud that ended up having tragic consequences.
But for the rap acts listed below, they found out, the hard way, that it wasn’t just Dre Day. It was the Dre Era.
“I’m in a murderous mind state with a heart full of terror/ I see the devil in the mirror,” — “Natural Born Killaz,” Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.