WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are looking 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.900 at a figure who is, I mean, he's essentially 00:00:05.900 --> 00:00:07.879 a living paradox. That's a good way to put it. 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:11.279 We're talking about a guy who built a billion 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.759 dollar empire on, you know, a foundation of anti 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:17.539 -establishment rage. Right. A guy who is arguably 00:00:17.539 --> 00:00:20.140 the most famous producer in music history yet. 00:00:20.809 --> 00:00:23.370 He openly admits he doesn't write his own lyrics 00:00:23.370 --> 00:00:26.010 and barely plays the instruments on his own tracks. 00:00:26.269 --> 00:00:28.449 Which is just fascinating. We are looking at 00:00:28.449 --> 00:00:30.710 the architect of the West Coast sound, Andre 00:00:30.710 --> 00:00:34.030 Rommel Young. Better known to the world and definitely 00:00:34.030 --> 00:00:37.850 to the bank as Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre. And look, usually 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:39.689 when we do these deep dives, we're kind of tracking 00:00:39.689 --> 00:00:41.670 a linear progression. You know, someone starts 00:00:41.670 --> 00:00:44.509 small, gets big, maybe fades away. A pretty standard 00:00:44.509 --> 00:00:47.450 arc. But looking at the research here, Gray's 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:50.310 career doesn't look like a line. It looks more 00:00:50.310 --> 00:00:52.990 like a heart monitor. It's these massive spikes 00:00:52.990 --> 00:00:56.210 of industry defining success. And then they're 00:00:56.210 --> 00:00:59.130 followed by these like flat lines, legal disasters 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:01.390 and just periods of total silence. That's a great 00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:03.289 way to visualize it because he didn't just change 00:01:03.289 --> 00:01:05.549 hip hop once. He did it three distinct times. 00:01:05.689 --> 00:01:08.450 Right. In three completely different decades 00:01:08.450 --> 00:01:11.730 with three totally different sounds. And then. 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:14.689 You know, as if that wasn't enough, he pivoted 00:01:14.689 --> 00:01:16.349 and completely changed the hardware industry 00:01:16.349 --> 00:01:19.329 with beats. Right. But before we crown him the 00:01:19.329 --> 00:01:21.810 king of Midas, I kind of want to challenge that 00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:23.849 narrative a little bit. Okay. Because there's 00:01:23.849 --> 00:01:27.069 this great man theory around Dre where everything 00:01:27.069 --> 00:01:30.069 he touches just turns to gold. But when you really 00:01:30.069 --> 00:01:32.170 dig into the notes, and we have a lot of them 00:01:32.170 --> 00:01:34.510 today, you see a lot of wreckage. Oh, for sure. 00:01:34.609 --> 00:01:36.989 You see failed supergroups, you see scrapped 00:01:36.989 --> 00:01:40.239 albums, a trail of lawsuits, and a... a very 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:43.519 dark history of personal violence. So is he a 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:45.640 genius architect or is he just the guy who survived 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:48.519 the chaos long enough to cash out? That is the 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:50.680 central question, isn't it? And I think to answer 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:52.659 it, we have to look at a theme that runs through 00:01:52.659 --> 00:01:55.640 his entire life, which is control versus chaos. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.319 Control versus chaos. Yeah. Dre is obsessive 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.920 about control in the studio. I mean, we're talking 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:05.780 Kubrick levels of perfectionism. But outside 00:02:05.780 --> 00:02:09.289 the studio, his life has been defined by... absolute 00:02:09.289 --> 00:02:12.349 unmanageable chaos. And his success, it seems, 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:14.229 usually comes down to whether he can build a 00:02:14.229 --> 00:02:16.509 wall thick enough to keep that chaos out. Well, 00:02:16.590 --> 00:02:18.389 let's see where that wall started building. Yeah. 00:02:18.449 --> 00:02:20.990 Because the origin story isn't straight out of 00:02:20.990 --> 00:02:24.430 Compton. It's... Straight out of a swimming pool. 00:02:24.550 --> 00:02:27.870 It is, yeah. Andre Young, born 1965 in Compton. 00:02:27.949 --> 00:02:29.930 And you're right, the image of the hard -bitten 00:02:29.930 --> 00:02:32.530 gangster rapper doesn't usually include a speedo 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:35.310 and a swim cap. But at Fremont High School, Dre 00:02:35.310 --> 00:02:38.030 was a diver. A diver. I am trying so hard to 00:02:38.030 --> 00:02:41.229 picture the guy who made the chronic doing like 00:02:41.229 --> 00:02:43.830 a reverse pike off a diving board. Apparently 00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:46.009 he was pretty decent, but this is where we see 00:02:46.009 --> 00:02:48.830 that first crack in the discipline. He had the 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:51.669 physical talent, but he just... He didn't have 00:02:51.669 --> 00:02:54.050 the academic focus. Right. He was missing classes. 00:02:54.210 --> 00:02:56.930 His grades were tanking. There's actually a detail 00:02:56.930 --> 00:02:59.250 here that I love. He tried to get into an apprenticeship 00:02:59.250 --> 00:03:01.509 program at Northrop Aviation. To build planes. 00:03:01.789 --> 00:03:04.639 Yeah. Seriously. Exactly. I mean, can you imagine 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.620 a timeline where Andre Young becomes an aerospace 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:10.120 mechanic? The whole music industry would look 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:12.259 completely different. Completely. But his grades 00:03:12.259 --> 00:03:14.879 were just too low. He couldn't get in. So the 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:17.979 diving team is out. The aviation career is out. 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.280 And his mother, Verna, she essentially gives 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:24.439 him an ultimatum. Get a job or get an education. 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:27.699 And he chooses. Neither. Well, he chooses a night 00:03:27.699 --> 00:03:30.219 shift. He starts focusing on the social scene, 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:33.039 on the music. And this is where Dr. J is born. 00:03:33.219 --> 00:03:35.400 Dr. J, like the basketball player Julius Erving. 00:03:35.629 --> 00:03:37.909 Julius Erving, yes. That was his favorite player. 00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:41.189 So before he was Dr. Dre, he was spinning records 00:03:41.189 --> 00:03:44.050 at a club called Eves After Dark under the name 00:03:44.050 --> 00:03:47.110 Dr. J. Yeah. And we really need to linger on 00:03:47.110 --> 00:03:48.969 Eves After Dark for a second because this isn't 00:03:48.969 --> 00:03:50.969 just a venue. It's basically a laboratory for 00:03:50.969 --> 00:03:52.509 him. This is where he meets DJ Yella, right? 00:03:52.569 --> 00:03:55.150 He meets Antoine Caraby. Yeah, DJ Yella. But 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:57.449 more importantly, this club had a back room. 00:03:57.770 --> 00:04:01.449 And in that back room was a small four -track 00:04:01.449 --> 00:04:04.669 recording studio. So while everyone else is out 00:04:04.669 --> 00:04:07.430 front, partying, Dre and Yella are back there, 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:09.389 and they're not just playing records, they're 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:11.810 dissecting them, they're splicing tape, they're 00:04:11.810 --> 00:04:14.409 learning how to layer sounds. This is that crucial 00:04:14.409 --> 00:04:16.870 transition from just being a DJ to becoming a 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:19.310 producer. And that's when the name changes. Yep. 00:04:19.410 --> 00:04:22.550 He eventually modifies it to Dr. Dre, the master 00:04:22.550 --> 00:04:25.449 of mixology. Okay, but we have to address the 00:04:25.449 --> 00:04:28.569 elephant in the room here. Or maybe the sequins 00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:31.009 in the room. Because you look up photos from 00:04:31.009 --> 00:04:34.269 this era, the world -class Wrecking Crew era, 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:38.209 It is. It's jarring. It's the visual that Dre 00:04:38.209 --> 00:04:40.310 probably wishes he could scrub from the Internet. 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:42.670 Describe it for anyone who hasn't been lucky 00:04:42.670 --> 00:04:44.689 enough to see it. We are talking about shiny 00:04:44.689 --> 00:04:48.189 purple sequined body suits. It's a lot. Lace 00:04:48.189 --> 00:04:51.389 gloves. Stethoscopes worn as fashion accessories. 00:04:51.889 --> 00:04:53.970 I mean, it looked like Prince had a fever dream. 00:04:54.209 --> 00:04:57.410 It looks like a disco cabaret. So how do we reconcile 00:04:57.410 --> 00:04:59.949 this guy with the guy who terrified suburban 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:03.250 America just, what, five years later? Is the 00:05:03.250 --> 00:05:05.670 hard image a lie? Or is the sequin image the 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:08.569 real costume? Context is key here. I mean, you 00:05:08.569 --> 00:05:11.209 have to remember, this was the mid -80s West 00:05:11.209 --> 00:05:13.970 Coast electro -hop scene. Okay. The dominant 00:05:13.970 --> 00:05:16.810 sound wasn't gangster rap. It was fast electronic 00:05:16.810 --> 00:05:20.329 dance music. Think Afrika Bambaataa, Planet Rock 00:05:20.329 --> 00:05:22.850 style. If you wanted to be a star in Compton 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:26.069 in 1985, you wore the sequins. So it was just 00:05:26.069 --> 00:05:28.149 the uniform for the job. It was the uniform, 00:05:28.310 --> 00:05:30.889 and they were stars. I mean, their song Surgery 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:33.949 sold 50 ,000 copies just locally. That's huge 00:05:33.949 --> 00:05:36.379 for that time. Surgery. I guess the doctor theme 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:38.639 was consistent, at least. It was. The theme was 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:40.839 there. But that disconnect you're pointing out, 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:42.800 the difference between the shiny suit and the 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.920 actual reality of Compton, that is exactly what 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.360 triggered the first major pivot of his career. 00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:50.959 And that's where Eazy -E comes in. Enter Eazy 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:53.560 -E, Eric Wright, the drug dealer turned record 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:56.060 executive. Right. Eazy had the money, he had 00:05:56.060 --> 00:05:57.579 the strength credibility, but he didn't know 00:05:57.579 --> 00:06:00.779 a thing about music. He met Dre, and the whole 00:06:00.779 --> 00:06:03.860 dynamic shifted. EZ basically looked at the world 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:06.519 -class wrecking crew and said, this, this isn't 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:08.639 what the streets are actually like. So they form 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.089 in WA. But was it an instant switch? Did Dre 00:06:12.089 --> 00:06:14.370 just like take off the lace glove and pick up 00:06:14.370 --> 00:06:16.629 a microphone and suddenly he's a gangster? No, 00:06:16.649 --> 00:06:19.269 it was a calculated pivot. They looked at what 00:06:19.269 --> 00:06:21.250 Public Enemy was doing on the East Coast, that 00:06:21.250 --> 00:06:25.069 political, noisy, revolutionary rap. Very conscious. 00:06:25.250 --> 00:06:26.850 Very. And then they looked at their own lives 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:30.129 in Compton, the police brutality, the crack epidemic, 00:06:30.490 --> 00:06:33.930 the gang warfare, and they decided to make reality 00:06:33.930 --> 00:06:37.839 rap. Which the media immediately branded. Gangsta 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:40.180 rap. A term they hated, by the way. They always 00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:43.500 called it reality rap. But the sound. This is 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:46.600 where Dre's genius really starts to show. NWA's 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.100 production wasn't just loud, it was abrasive. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:50.939 It was designed to make you feel uncomfortable. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:53.540 Yeah. And when they dropped straight out of Compton 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:55.639 in 1989, it did something that should have been 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.540 impossible. It became a nationwide hit with virtually 00:06:58.540 --> 00:07:01.500 zero radio play. That's the part that I struggle 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:03.839 to comprehend in today's world. Yeah. How do 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:07.019 you go multi -platinum? Without the radio. How 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:09.199 does anyone even hear it? You rely on the taboo. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:10.660 The fact that you couldn't hear it on the radio 00:07:10.660 --> 00:07:12.620 made you want to buy the cassette tape even more. 00:07:12.819 --> 00:07:15.319 It makes it forbidden. Exactly. And then the 00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:17.839 government gave them the best marketing push 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:20.300 they could have ever asked for. The FBI letter. 00:07:20.620 --> 00:07:23.259 Milt Alarich, an assistant director at the FBI, 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:26.420 sends an official letter to Ruthless Records 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:29.519 condemning the song, Fuck They Police. Which 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:31.939 is just, I mean, that's the best marketing campaign 00:07:31.939 --> 00:07:34.240 in the history of music. You couldn't pay for 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.379 that kind of publicity. It validated everything 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:38.899 they were saying it proved to every kid in America 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:41.100 that they were dangerous It turned them from 00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:43.819 a rap group into a First Amendment issue Wow, 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:46.800 but Going back to our theme of control versus 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.860 chaos, NWA was pure chaos, and Dre wasn't in 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:53.120 control. Jerry Heller and Eazy -E were controlling 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:55.879 the money. Correct. Dre was the sonic architect, 00:07:56.279 --> 00:07:59.620 Ice Cube was the primary writer, but Eazy and 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:01.899 their manager Jerry Heller held the checkbook. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:04.180 And Cube leaves first. Cube left first because 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:06.579 he did the math and it wasn't adding up. Dre 00:08:06.579 --> 00:08:08.439 stayed a bit longer, but eventually he realized 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:10.639 the same thing. He was building a mansion and 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:13.220 being forced to sleep in the shed. So he leaves. 00:08:13.579 --> 00:08:16.660 1991. the biggest, most controversial group in 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:19.100 the world, and he just walks away. And this brings 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:21.980 us to Suge Knight. The infamous Suge Knight, 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:25.300 the bodyguard who whispered in Dre's ear he got 00:08:25.300 --> 00:08:28.040 Dre out of that ruthless contract. Allegedly 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.980 using some very persuasive tactics. Yes, allegedly 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:34.779 using some very intimidation -heavy tactics involving 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:37.340 baseball bats and lead pipes, and they go off 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:39.500 and found death row records. And this is where 00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:41.320 the sound completely changes. And I want to get 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.320 technical here for a second. Because people say 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:45.659 G -Funk and they nod their heads. But what is 00:08:45.659 --> 00:08:48.120 G -Funk? What did Dre actually do to the music? 00:08:48.179 --> 00:08:50.379 This is the critical innovation. This is pivot 00:08:50.379 --> 00:08:53.500 number two. Before the chronic East Coast hip 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:55.419 -hop production, you know, I think the Bomb Squad 00:08:55.419 --> 00:08:57.960 with the Public Enemy, it was really dense. A 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:00.559 wall of sound. A total wall of noise, collage 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:02.720 -style sampling, very heavy in the mid -range 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.899 frequencies. It was designed for boomboxes and 00:09:05.899 --> 00:09:08.220 headphones. It was frantic. It was noisy. Yes. 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:11.360 And... Dre, he slowed it all down. He dropped 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:14.000 the tempo way down. But sonically, he scooped 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.919 out the middle. He focused on two things and 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:20.340 two things only. Extremely low frequency sub 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:23.120 bows and high frequency synthesizer leads. That 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:25.120 high pitched whistle sound. That worm sound, 00:09:25.299 --> 00:09:28.820 yeah. Now, why did he do that? Because of where 00:09:28.820 --> 00:09:31.649 people in Los Angeles listen to music? They weren't 00:09:31.649 --> 00:09:33.870 on the subway with Walkmans. They were in cars. 00:09:34.169 --> 00:09:37.370 They were in cars. Lowriders. Right. He engineered 00:09:37.370 --> 00:09:40.070 the frequency range specifically to rattle the 00:09:40.070 --> 00:09:42.950 trunk of a 64 Impala. If you played a public 00:09:42.950 --> 00:09:45.269 enemy record in a car with a massive subwoofer, 00:09:45.269 --> 00:09:47.649 it just sounded muddy. If you played the chronic, 00:09:47.850 --> 00:09:50.230 it felt like a controlled earthquake. Okay. That 00:09:50.230 --> 00:09:51.909 makes perfect sense. Yeah. But there's another 00:09:51.909 --> 00:09:54.690 layer to this control aspect. You mentioned something 00:09:54.690 --> 00:09:57.110 in the pre -show notes about interpolation versus 00:09:57.110 --> 00:10:00.100 sampling. Yes. This is the secret sauce. This 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:02.879 is so important. Most producers back then would 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:05.159 just take a snippet of an old Parliament Funkadelic 00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:07.879 record and loop it. That's sampling. Dre stopped 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:10.799 doing that. He would find the record. Let's use 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:13.320 Leon Haywood's, I want to do something freaky 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:16.179 to you for nothing but a G -sang. And instead 00:10:16.179 --> 00:10:19.000 of sampling it, he would hire world -class musicians 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.679 to come into the studio and replay it. Why go 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:23.759 through all that extra trouble? Two reasons. 00:10:23.940 --> 00:10:27.009 One is business. If you replay it you own the 00:10:27.009 --> 00:10:29.210 master recording of the new track and you pay 00:10:29.210 --> 00:10:31.529 way less in royalties to the original artist. 00:10:31.750 --> 00:10:34.330 Smart. But the second and more important reason 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:37.750 for Dre is sonic control. If you sample a record 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:41.009 from 1975 you are stuck with the tape hiss, the 00:10:41.009 --> 00:10:44.039 mix, The slightly loose timing of the 70s drummer. 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:46.500 All the imperfections. All of them. But if you 00:10:46.500 --> 00:10:49.000 hire a guy to replay it, you can quantize it. 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:52.240 You can lock the drums to a perfect computerized 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.080 grid. You can tune the bass so it doesn't clash 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:57.580 with the kick drum. It allowed Dre to make funk 00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:00.399 music that sounded like a machine. It was clean. 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:02.980 It was polished. It was totally pop ready. So 00:11:02.980 --> 00:11:05.379 he basically cleaned the grit off the funk to 00:11:05.379 --> 00:11:08.080 make it more palatable. He sanitized it just 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.460 enough to make it palatable for the suburbs while 00:11:10.460 --> 00:11:13.500 the lyrics were made absolutely terrifying. And 00:11:13.500 --> 00:11:15.940 that combination, that smooth, polished music 00:11:15.940 --> 00:11:19.220 with those hard, violent lyrics, it was unbeatable. 00:11:19.340 --> 00:11:22.799 And the Chronic drops in 1992. And it's a phenomenon. 00:11:22.899 --> 00:11:24.840 It ends up being the number six best -selling 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:27.820 album of 1993. It's everywhere. And this is where 00:11:27.820 --> 00:11:30.710 he introduces the world to Snoop Dogg. His stepbrother, 00:11:30.750 --> 00:11:33.129 Warren G, actually introduced them. And Snoop 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:35.889 was the perfect vocal counterpart. Dre's beats 00:11:35.889 --> 00:11:38.570 were so laid back. Snoop's flow was just as laid 00:11:38.570 --> 00:11:41.070 back. It was a seamless marriage of sound and 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:43.230 voice. Then they turn around and do Doggy Style. 00:11:43.690 --> 00:11:46.629 First debut album ever to hit number one on the 00:11:46.629 --> 00:11:48.570 Billboard charts. Unheard of at the time. Then 00:11:48.570 --> 00:11:51.049 they sign Tupac. They do California Love. I mean, 00:11:51.070 --> 00:11:54.190 they are literally on top of the world. But the 00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:56.269 cast is creeping back in, isn't it? The chaos 00:11:56.269 --> 00:11:58.289 didn't just creep in. It kicked the door down. 00:11:58.429 --> 00:12:01.190 Death Row Records under Suge Knight was... It 00:12:01.190 --> 00:12:03.629 was a house of horrors. There are stories of 00:12:03.629 --> 00:12:05.529 producers being beaten up for using the wrong 00:12:05.529 --> 00:12:08.169 phone, people being forced to drink urine. It 00:12:08.169 --> 00:12:10.490 was a mob operation masquerading as a record 00:12:10.490 --> 00:12:13.769 label. And Dre, the control freak, is just watching 00:12:13.769 --> 00:12:15.789 all this happen. He's watching his sanctuary, 00:12:16.049 --> 00:12:18.669 the studio, turn into a gang hangout. Tupac is 00:12:18.669 --> 00:12:20.210 getting more and more volatile, Suge is getting 00:12:20.210 --> 00:12:22.899 more and more violent, and Dre realizes... I 00:12:22.899 --> 00:12:25.019 can't work like this. I can't sit here and perfect 00:12:25.019 --> 00:12:27.519 a snare drum sound when I'm worried about a drive 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:33.019 -by shooting. So he leaves. Again, 1996. He walks 00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:35.340 away from death row, leaves the rights to The 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:39.059 Chronic, leaves Tupac, leaves millions and millions 00:12:39.059 --> 00:12:41.440 of dollars on the table. He burns the entire 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:43.679 empire down to save himself. He does, and he 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:45.919 starts Aftermath. But this is the part of the 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:48.750 story that I think people forget. Aftermath didn't 00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:50.769 work, not at first. These are the wilderness 00:12:50.769 --> 00:12:54.250 years. The wilderness years from 96 to 98. Dre 00:12:54.250 --> 00:12:56.629 releases a compilation called Dr. Dre Presents 00:12:56.629 --> 00:12:58.309 the Aftermath. It gets pretty mixed reviews. 00:12:58.669 --> 00:13:00.830 Then he tries to launch this super group called 00:13:00.830 --> 00:13:04.049 The Firm with Nas, Foxy Brown, and AZ. On paper, 00:13:04.169 --> 00:13:06.690 that sounds incredible. Nas and Dr. Dre, that 00:13:06.690 --> 00:13:09.470 should be a classic. On paper, yes. It should 00:13:09.470 --> 00:13:12.389 have been amazing. In reality, it was glossy, 00:13:12.590 --> 00:13:15.610 it was overproduced, and it was just boring. 00:13:15.730 --> 00:13:18.039 It flopped. And that's when the whispers started. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:21.090 Dre fell off. Dre lost it. Maybe Siege Night 00:13:21.090 --> 00:13:23.330 was the real reason for the success all along. 00:13:23.509 --> 00:13:25.370 That has to be his absolute nightmare. It was. 00:13:25.409 --> 00:13:28.169 He was staring down the barrel of total irrelevance. 00:13:28.549 --> 00:13:31.490 And then Jimmy Iovine, the head of Interscope 00:13:31.490 --> 00:13:34.029 Records, walks into his office and says, Hey, 00:13:34.250 --> 00:13:37.090 I have this tape from a kid in Detroit. Marshall 00:13:37.090 --> 00:13:39.789 Mathers. Eminem. Now, we have to pause here and 00:13:39.789 --> 00:13:42.870 really contextualize 1998. Hip -hop was incredibly 00:13:42.870 --> 00:13:45.389 segregated. The only reference point most people 00:13:45.389 --> 00:13:48.789 had for a white rapper was Vanilla Ice, who was 00:13:48.789 --> 00:13:51.000 a punchline. Right. They told a joke. So for 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:53.620 Dr. Dre, the godfather of gangster rap, to sign 00:13:53.620 --> 00:13:56.240 a scrawny white kid who rapped about murdering 00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:58.519 his mom and doing shrooms, it looked like career 00:13:58.519 --> 00:14:00.240 suicide. People must have told him not to do 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.600 it. Everyone told him not to do it. His own business 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:04.679 partners, his own associates told him he was 00:14:04.679 --> 00:14:07.639 ruining his legacy. And Dre's response was legendary. 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:10.379 He just said, I don't care if he's purple. If 00:14:10.379 --> 00:14:12.279 he can rap, he can rap. And when they got in 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:15.549 the studio. It was instant. The story is. Dre 00:14:15.549 --> 00:14:17.649 played a beat. Eminem just started chanting, 00:14:17.769 --> 00:14:20.210 hi, my name's Iz. And they had the single recorded 00:14:20.210 --> 00:14:22.509 in minutes. Why did that combination work so 00:14:22.509 --> 00:14:24.250 well? They seem like polar opposites. Because 00:14:24.250 --> 00:14:26.309 they gave each other exactly what the other one 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:29.330 lacked. Dre gave Eminem credibility. If Dr. Dre 00:14:29.330 --> 00:14:31.830 co -signs you, the streets have to at least listen. 00:14:32.429 --> 00:14:34.990 But Eminem gave Dre a new kind of energy. It 00:14:34.990 --> 00:14:37.529 wasn't G -funk anymore. It was frantic, psychotic, 00:14:37.610 --> 00:14:40.389 cartoonish energy. It totally revitalized Dre. 00:14:40.610 --> 00:14:43.940 Which leads directly to 2001, the album. Yeah. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:46.100 Which came out in 1999. Yeah, don't even get 00:14:46.100 --> 00:14:48.899 me started on the title. Suge Knight, just to 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:51.159 be petty, released a compilation called Chronic 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:54.659 2000 to troll Dre. Unbelievable. So Dre had to 00:14:54.659 --> 00:14:57.679 call his album 2001 to avoid a trademark dispute. 00:14:57.980 --> 00:15:00.860 The pettiness is just incredible. But the sound 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:04.919 of 2001, this is another pivot. There are almost 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.419 no samples, right? Very, very few. This was his 00:15:07.419 --> 00:15:09.600 stripped -down era. Think about the song Still 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.139 D .R .E. It's just a simple piano riff, a bass 00:15:12.139 --> 00:15:14.379 line, and a drum beat. It's ominous. It's clinical. 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:16.860 It sounded like the future. And interestingly, 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:19.340 on that track specifically, Dre didn't write 00:15:19.340 --> 00:15:22.039 a single word. That was Jay -Z, right? Jay -Z, 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:23.980 the king of New York, wrote the definitive anthem 00:15:23.980 --> 00:15:26.500 for the king of the West Coast. Still representing 00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:29.419 for the gangsters all across the world, a guy 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:32.059 from Marcy Projects wrote that line. Does that 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:35.389 bother you? As a music fan. The idea that the 00:15:35.389 --> 00:15:37.870 most personal manifesto of Dre's career was written 00:15:37.870 --> 00:15:40.389 by someone else. You know, it used to. It really 00:15:40.389 --> 00:15:44.049 did. But then you realize, Dre isn't really a 00:15:44.049 --> 00:15:47.309 rapper. He's a director. Steven Spielberg doesn't 00:15:47.309 --> 00:15:49.889 write every line of dialogue in his movies. He 00:15:49.889 --> 00:15:52.490 curates the vision. He brings the best people 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:55.529 in. Dre's talent is knowing that Jay -Z could 00:15:55.529 --> 00:15:58.090 write a better Dr. Dre verse than Dr. Dre could. 00:15:58.309 --> 00:16:00.970 That brings us to his methodology. Because the 00:16:00.970 --> 00:16:02.970 stories about him in the studio are, I mean, 00:16:02.990 --> 00:16:05.090 they're terrifying. We call him a perfectionist, 00:16:05.090 --> 00:16:06.889 but it sounds more like psychological warfare 00:16:06.889 --> 00:16:08.990 sometimes. It definitely borders on it. There's 00:16:08.990 --> 00:16:11.129 a famous story from Snoop Dogg about a rapper 00:16:11.129 --> 00:16:13.389 named Bishop Lamont. Bishop is in the booth. 00:16:13.450 --> 00:16:15.190 He's excited to work with the legend. He wraps 00:16:15.190 --> 00:16:18.889 a bar, traced off the tape, again. Okay. He does 00:16:18.889 --> 00:16:21.110 it again, again. He does it again, again. How 00:16:21.110 --> 00:16:23.129 many times are we talking? Snoop swears it was 00:16:23.129 --> 00:16:28.269 107 times. 107 times. Oh. For one bar of music. 00:16:28.409 --> 00:16:31.490 One bar, not a verse. A single bar. Can you imagine 00:16:31.490 --> 00:16:34.009 saying the same 10 words for like three hours 00:16:34.009 --> 00:16:36.950 straight? By the end, Bishop is exhausted. His 00:16:36.950 --> 00:16:39.149 voice is raspy. He's probably incredibly frustrated. 00:16:39.409 --> 00:16:42.250 And Dre goes, that's it. That's the take. What 00:16:42.250 --> 00:16:44.750 on earth was he hearing on take 107 that wasn't 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:47.629 there on take 50 or take 100? Maybe the struggle, 00:16:47.750 --> 00:16:50.049 the fatigue, or maybe just a micro inflection 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:51.750 in the breath that nobody else on the planet 00:16:51.750 --> 00:16:54.549 could hear. Dre treats the human voice like it's 00:16:54.549 --> 00:16:56.830 a synthesizer. He wants to tweak the knobs until 00:16:56.830 --> 00:16:59.889 the frequency is absolutely perfect. But... And 00:16:59.889 --> 00:17:02.029 here is our control versus chaos theme again. 00:17:02.190 --> 00:17:05.230 This perfectionism, it became a trap for him. 00:17:05.509 --> 00:17:08.180 Detox. The great white whale of hip hop. The 00:17:08.180 --> 00:17:09.880 most famous album that never happened. It was 00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:11.700 announced in 2002. It was supposed to come out 00:17:11.700 --> 00:17:16.039 in 2004. Then 2005. Years went by. He released 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:18.500 snippets in Dr. Pepper commercials. I remember 00:17:18.500 --> 00:17:21.299 that. He had, by his own admission, 20 to 40 00:17:21.299 --> 00:17:23.799 songs done for it. And he scrapped all of them. 00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:26.000 Why would you do that? I think it was paralysis. 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:29.279 He had set the bar so impossibly high with The 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:33.039 Chronic in 2001 that the idea of releasing something 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:36.940 that was just good wasn't enough. It had to be 00:17:36.940 --> 00:17:39.000 earth shattering. It had to change the world 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:41.819 again. And because he couldn't guarantee it would 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:44.279 be perfect, he simply didn't release it. The 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:46.180 control freak couldn't let go of the product. 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:49.279 It's fascinating that while he was creatively 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.180 paralyzed, he made the biggest business move 00:17:52.180 --> 00:17:54.920 of his entire life. Let's talk about beats. This 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.059 is where he stops being a musician and becomes 00:17:57.059 --> 00:18:01.779 a tycoon. 2006. The iPod is everywhere. But everyone 00:18:01.779 --> 00:18:04.180 is listening on those cheap white plastic earbuds 00:18:04.180 --> 00:18:06.240 that came in the box. And the sound quality was 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:08.799 just trash. It was terrible. So Dre and Jimmy 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:10.720 Iovine are walking down the beach one day and 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:12.619 Dre's lawyer says, hey, you should sell sneakers. 00:18:12.779 --> 00:18:14.460 And Jimmy looks at Dre and says, screw sneakers, 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.160 let's sell speakers. Meaning headphones. Right. 00:18:17.299 --> 00:18:19.420 But here's the cynical truth that nobody wants 00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:21.980 to admit. Eats headphones didn't actually sound 00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:23.819 that good. Right. I remember the audiophiles 00:18:23.819 --> 00:18:27.019 hated them. They despised them. They were incredibly 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:29.200 bass heavy and muddy, but that wasn't the point. 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:32.160 So why did they sell in crazy? Marketing. Pure 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:34.279 marketing genius. They didn't market them as 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:36.200 a piece of tech. They marketed them as a piece 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:38.980 of jewelry. They got LeBron James to wear them 00:18:38.980 --> 00:18:41.160 into the arena. They got every athlete at the 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:43.839 Olympics to wear them. They made bulky, expensive 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:46.400 headphones a status symbol. And then Apple comes 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.700 knocking. Yeah. 2014, $3 billion. The largest 00:18:50.700 --> 00:18:53.359 acquisition in Apple history at the time. But 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:55.579 here's the interesting part. Apple didn't just 00:18:55.579 --> 00:18:57.079 want the headphones. They wanted the streaming 00:18:57.079 --> 00:18:59.900 service. Beats had started this service called 00:18:59.900 --> 00:19:02.420 Beats Music. I remember that. And it had a curated 00:19:02.420 --> 00:19:05.180 playlist algorithm that was way better than anything 00:19:05.180 --> 00:19:08.519 Apple had at the time. So Apple basically bought 00:19:08.519 --> 00:19:11.400 Beats to jumpstart what would become Apple Music. 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:14.420 But the deal almost died. because of a Facebook 00:19:14.420 --> 00:19:16.460 video of all things. Oh, the Tyrese incident. 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:19.740 This is pure comedy. The deal is being finalized 00:19:19.740 --> 00:19:23.140 in a secret war room at Apple headquarters. Strict 00:19:23.140 --> 00:19:25.720 NDAs are signed. Nobody is supposed to know. 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:28.619 Super secretive. And Tyrese Gibson, the actor, 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:30.380 is hanging out with Dre in the studio. They're 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:32.660 maybe having a few drinks. And Tyrese decides 00:19:32.660 --> 00:19:35.079 it's a great idea to post a video on Facebook. 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:37.680 I remember this video. They're celebrating. It's 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:40.819 shaky. It's so shaky. And Tyrese is screaming 00:19:40.819 --> 00:19:43.579 into the camera. The first billionaire in hip 00:19:43.579 --> 00:19:46.559 hop. The Forbes list just changed. And Dre's 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:48.779 in the background laughing, pointing at the camera. 00:19:48.940 --> 00:19:52.019 And Tim Cook is presumably not laughing. The 00:19:52.019 --> 00:19:54.599 executives at Apple went nuclear. I mean, Apple 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:58.019 prides itself on secrecy and control. Jimmy Iovine 00:19:58.019 --> 00:20:00.079 panicked. He got a call from them essentially 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:02.880 saying, what the hell is this? Did it actually 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.099 cost them? It did. The rumor, which is pretty 00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:09.039 well sourced, is that Apple knocked $200 million 00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:11.460 off the final purchase price because of that 00:20:11.460 --> 00:20:14.240 video. That is a $200 million selfie. It's the 00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:16.839 most expensive selfie in history. But the deal 00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:19.279 went through. Dre became an executive at Apple. 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:21.700 The kid from Compton who couldn't get a job at 00:20:21.700 --> 00:20:23.960 Northrop Aviation was now sitting in board meetings 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:26.160 at the most valuable company on Earth. It really 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:28.380 is the ultimate American success story. Yeah. 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:33.029 But. We can't tell this story, honestly, if we 00:20:33.029 --> 00:20:35.750 ignore the wreckage. We have to talk about the 00:20:35.750 --> 00:20:38.329 violence. Because there is a very disturbing 00:20:38.329 --> 00:20:41.250 pattern here that ran parallel to all of this 00:20:41.250 --> 00:20:43.730 incredible success. We absolutely have to talk 00:20:43.730 --> 00:20:46.210 about it. And for a long time, the media and 00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:48.450 the fans, and I'll include myself in this, we 00:20:48.450 --> 00:20:50.250 sort of compartmentalized it. We separated the 00:20:50.250 --> 00:20:52.329 art from the artists. But when you look at the 00:20:52.329 --> 00:20:54.430 source material, the accusations are brutal. 00:20:54.609 --> 00:20:57.009 Let's start with Dee Barnes. The year is 1991. 00:20:57.740 --> 00:20:59.900 Dee Barnes hosted a popular hip hop show called 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:02.339 Pump It Up. She aired an interview with Ice Cube 00:21:02.339 --> 00:21:05.000 after he left N .W .A. and he insulted his old 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:07.660 group. Dre felt disrespected. He saw her later 00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:09.960 at a record release party in Hollywood. And he 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:12.579 didn't just yell at her. No. According to the 00:21:12.579 --> 00:21:15.299 court documents and multiple witnesses, he assaulted 00:21:15.299 --> 00:21:18.259 her. He slammed her head and face into a brick 00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:21.539 wall. He kicked her. It was severe beating. She 00:21:21.539 --> 00:21:23.720 eventually settled out of court. But what's so 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:25.720 chilling is Dre's reaction at the time. What 00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:27.829 did he say? He gave an interview to Rolling Stone 00:21:27.829 --> 00:21:29.690 magazine and just said, I just threw her through 00:21:29.690 --> 00:21:32.650 a door. He completely trivialized it. He basically 00:21:32.650 --> 00:21:35.630 said she deserved it. And that wasn't an isolated 00:21:35.630 --> 00:21:38.880 incident. Michelle, his ex -fiancee. the mother 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.539 of his son. She has been incredibly vocal about 00:21:41.539 --> 00:21:44.359 this for years. She accused him of repeated domestic 00:21:44.359 --> 00:21:48.079 abuse, black eyes, broken ribs. In her biopic, 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:50.299 Surviving Compton, she alleges that he actually 00:21:50.299 --> 00:21:53.059 shot at her once. Why did he get a pass for so 00:21:53.059 --> 00:21:55.799 long? I mean, if a rock star or a pop star did 00:21:55.799 --> 00:21:57.779 this today, their career would be over. Why was 00:21:57.779 --> 00:22:00.339 Dr. Dre so bulletproof? I think part of it was 00:22:00.339 --> 00:22:02.720 the era. The 90s were just a less accountable 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:05.339 time. But another part of it was the brand. His 00:22:05.339 --> 00:22:08.119 entire brand was gangsta. Violence. was baked 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:10.279 into the marketing. So when he beat up a TV host, 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:13.420 strangely, it almost reinforced his street credibility. 00:22:13.740 --> 00:22:16.039 It blurred that line between the character Dr. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:19.140 Dre and the human being Andre Young. Did he ever 00:22:19.140 --> 00:22:21.980 actually own up to it? Not for decades. But in 00:22:21.980 --> 00:22:24.900 2015, when the NWA movie Straight Outta Compton 00:22:24.900 --> 00:22:28.099 came out, the filmmakers completely omitted the 00:22:28.099 --> 00:22:30.099 Dee Barnes incident. They just pretended it never 00:22:30.099 --> 00:22:32.480 happened. And the backlash was fierce. People 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.490 said, You can't just rewrite history like this. 00:22:35.609 --> 00:22:38.509 So he was forced to apologize. He was. He issued 00:22:38.509 --> 00:22:40.390 a formal statement to the New York Times. He 00:22:40.390 --> 00:22:43.390 said, I apologize to the women I've hurt. I deeply 00:22:43.390 --> 00:22:45.529 regret what I did. And he blamed it on being 00:22:45.529 --> 00:22:48.210 young, drinking too much and having no structure 00:22:48.210 --> 00:22:51.059 in his life. Do you buy that apology? It's hard 00:22:51.059 --> 00:22:54.319 to say. In the Defiant Ones documentary, he calls 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:58.079 it a major blemish on who I am as a man. It feels 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:00.339 like he understands the gravity of it now, especially 00:23:00.339 --> 00:23:02.400 as a corporate executive. You can't be an Apple 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:04.319 exec and have that hanging over your head without 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:07.079 addressing it. But for the victims, a press release 00:23:07.079 --> 00:23:09.720 25 years late doesn't really undo the trauma. 00:23:10.269 --> 00:23:11.789 It brings us right back to that control theme, 00:23:11.910 --> 00:23:14.009 doesn't it? The violence seems to happen when 00:23:14.009 --> 00:23:16.210 he feels disrespected or like he's losing control. 00:23:16.549 --> 00:23:19.069 It's this really ugly side of the perfectionism, 00:23:19.069 --> 00:23:21.390 the need to dominate his environment, whether 00:23:21.390 --> 00:23:23.769 that's a mixing board or a person. That's a very 00:23:23.769 --> 00:23:26.049 sharp insight. The need for dominance is the 00:23:26.049 --> 00:23:28.549 through line, for good and for ill. And recently, 00:23:28.630 --> 00:23:31.250 that dominance has been seriously tested. His 00:23:31.250 --> 00:23:33.210 personal life in just the last few years has 00:23:33.210 --> 00:23:37.019 been a complete disaster. It really has. We mentioned 00:23:37.019 --> 00:23:39.839 the great man theory earlier, but Dre is human. 00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:43.680 In 2008, his son, Andre Young Jr., died of an 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:46.839 overdose, heroin and morphine. God, that's awful. 00:23:47.140 --> 00:23:49.180 To lose a child. I mean, that breaks anyone. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:53.220 And then in 2021, Dre himself almost died. He 00:23:53.220 --> 00:23:55.079 had a brain aneurysm. I remember the headlines. 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:57.480 He was in the ICU. It sounded really serious. 00:23:57.759 --> 00:23:59.759 It was worse than we knew at the time. He just 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:01.819 revealed last year that he actually had three 00:24:01.819 --> 00:24:03.960 strokes while he was in the hospital. Doctors 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:06.220 were literally inviting his family in to say 00:24:06.220 --> 00:24:08.539 their final goodbyes. And while he is lying in 00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:11.240 a hospital bed fighting for his life, his marriage 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:13.839 is publicly exploding in the tabloids. The divorce 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.839 from Nicole Young. After 24 years of marriage, 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:20.279 and at the ugly fast, she accused him of abuse, 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:22.960 she challenged their prenup, claiming he tore 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:25.160 it up in front of her as a romantic gesture years 00:24:25.160 --> 00:24:27.579 ago. Which, knowing Dre and his business sense, 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:29.980 he probably regretted deeply. The legal battle 00:24:29.980 --> 00:24:33.299 was vicious. In the end, he had to pay $100 million 00:24:33.299 --> 00:24:36.420 settlement just to finalize it. And we saw that 00:24:36.420 --> 00:24:39.119 pettiness resurface one more time. The balloon 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:41.819 photo. He posted a photo on Instagram of himself 00:24:41.819 --> 00:24:44.359 sitting in a chair smiling in front of these 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:46.440 huge silver balloons that spelled out divorced 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:51.940 AF. It's so childish. But also, knowing what 00:24:51.940 --> 00:24:54.420 we know about him, it's him reclaiming the narrative. 00:24:54.559 --> 00:24:57.650 It's him saying, I won. I'm free. I'm in control 00:24:57.650 --> 00:25:00.549 again. Exactly. And then he takes the ultimate 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:04.609 victory lap. The Super Bowl. 2022. The halftime 00:25:04.609 --> 00:25:07.390 show. Dre, Snoop, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary 00:25:07.390 --> 00:25:09.410 J. Blige, 50 Cent. That wasn't just a concert. 00:25:09.470 --> 00:25:11.650 That was a coronation. That was Dr. Dre standing 00:25:11.650 --> 00:25:13.430 on the biggest stage in America and saying, I 00:25:13.430 --> 00:25:15.309 built this. And he did. He built the sound of 00:25:15.309 --> 00:25:17.230 the West Coast. He built the careers of almost 00:25:17.230 --> 00:25:19.750 every superstar on that stage. And he built the 00:25:19.750 --> 00:25:21.690 headphones that half of America was probably 00:25:21.690 --> 00:25:24.230 listening on. So as we wrap this up, I want to 00:25:24.230 --> 00:25:26.440 go back to the methodology. We've talked about 00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:28.940 the sequins, the G -funk, the abuse, the billions. 00:25:29.259 --> 00:25:32.180 If you had to boil Dr. Dre's success down to 00:25:32.180 --> 00:25:36.039 one single trait, what is it? Because it's clearly 00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:38.440 not rapping. And technically, he hires other 00:25:38.440 --> 00:25:40.319 people to play the keys. So what is it? It's 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:42.940 the ear. It's as simple and as complicated as 00:25:42.940 --> 00:25:45.680 that. It's his ability to hear potential where 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:48.720 no one else does. He heard a superstar and a 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:51.779 lanky, laid -back kid from Long Beach named Snoop. 00:25:52.089 --> 00:25:54.589 He heard a generational talent in a volatile 00:25:54.589 --> 00:25:56.769 white kid from a trailer park in Detroit named 00:25:56.769 --> 00:25:59.450 Marshall. He heard a billion dollar business 00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:02.450 in a pair of overpriced plastic headphones. And 00:26:02.450 --> 00:26:04.609 he heard a symphony in the rattling trunk of 00:26:04.609 --> 00:26:06.910 a lowrider. He just listens better than anyone 00:26:06.910 --> 00:26:08.670 else in the history of the business. But I keep 00:26:08.670 --> 00:26:10.630 thinking about the empty space. Yeah. You know, 00:26:10.650 --> 00:26:14.339 the scrapped albums. The myth of detox, the long, 00:26:14.339 --> 00:26:16.779 long silences between the hits. And that leads 00:26:16.779 --> 00:26:18.960 to my final thought for you to consider. We glorify 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:21.880 Dre's perfectionism. We call it genius. But I 00:26:21.880 --> 00:26:24.059 wonder if the studio is the only place where 00:26:24.059 --> 00:26:26.869 Dre actually feels safe. What do you mean? In 00:26:26.869 --> 00:26:29.569 the studio, he can tell Bishop Lamont to do a 00:26:29.569 --> 00:26:33.009 take 107 times until it is perfect. He can mute 00:26:33.009 --> 00:26:35.289 the track. He can cut out the bad parts. He's 00:26:35.289 --> 00:26:38.309 in total control. You can't edit real life. Exactly. 00:26:38.509 --> 00:26:40.930 You can't edit a messy divorce. You can't edit 00:26:40.930 --> 00:26:43.970 a brain aneurysm. You can't hit undo on the death 00:26:43.970 --> 00:26:46.849 of a son. So maybe the perfectionism isn't just 00:26:46.849 --> 00:26:48.829 about making great art. Maybe it's a shield. 00:26:49.170 --> 00:26:51.410 Maybe he stays locked in the studio for years 00:26:51.410 --> 00:26:54.230 at a time because it's the one room in the entire 00:26:54.230 --> 00:26:56.950 world where he is God. That is a heavy thought 00:26:56.950 --> 00:27:00.230 to leave on. The music is the order. The life 00:27:00.230 --> 00:27:02.589 is the chaos. Precisely. Well, whether you see 00:27:02.589 --> 00:27:05.269 him as the villain, the hero, or just the architect, 00:27:05.569 --> 00:27:09.130 you absolutely cannot deny the impact. Dr. Dre, 00:27:09.289 --> 00:27:11.569 thanks for taking this deep dive with us. Take 00:27:11.569 --> 00:27:11.730 care.