23 years) was almost exactly the same as the gap between the release of The Chronic and man first landing on the moon (appx. The gap between the release of Compton and the release of The Chronic (appx. Dre’s not-so-aptly titled 2001 came out in 1999, before Y2K, just around the time of Britney Spears, Monica Lewinsky and LaVar Arrington dominating college football.ġ1. Today, he’s a 43-year-old grandfather who’s best known as an ever-changing musician, football benefactor and - some things never change - marijuana aficionado.ġ0. Snoop Dogg was 20 when he recorded most of his tracks for The Chronic and was still four years away from his infamous acquittal on murder charges. Even though y’all were the reason Dre hadn’t been getting no sleep, he’s been resting well in the decade-and-a-half since Forgot About Dre was released (all the way back in the first month of the new century), selling his line of cheaply made and tinny sounding headphones (and a streaming music service) to Apple for $3 billion and having a top track record in creating new rap superstars.ĩ.
For all the brilliance of The Chronic, it’s hard to argue that Dre has ever released anything as head-bumping as his first single from 2001, Still Dre, which came out a month after Sega released its Dreamcast.Ĩ. In it, Dre raps the line “Dollar signs are folded, I can’t control it/Tryin to leave her, beeper just exploded.” BEEPERS! At least he wasn’t dropping references to his Sky Grand pager.ħ. The last time Dre released an album, it contained a song called Housewife. Rolling Stone gave it a five-star review, a rarity for a debut act.Ħ. Though the album grew in importance as its place in gangster rap history was cemented, it was highly regarded at the time as well. Kendrick Lamar, who appears on multiple tracks on Compton, was five years old when Dre dropped his debut.ĥ.Ronald Reagan was president when N.W.A. They’d have been born in 1989, three years old when The Chronic came out, and just 10 when 2001 came out, a little before most are paying attention to album releases.Ĥ. Even a 26-year-old right now would likely have no memory of the release of any of Dre’s two CDs. There are college graduates who weren’t alive when The Chronic came out.ģ. As it turns out, that wait was a mere prelude to the decade-and-a-half delay for Compton. As a comparison, The Beatles entire existence lasted just over seven years.Ģ. If you can remember, back in the late ’90s the entire hip-hop community was wondering when Dre would finally release his second album. The gap between The Chronic: 2001 and Compton (15 years, 8 months) is more than twice as long as the then-interminable gap between The Chronic and The Chronic: 2001 (6 years, 11 months). Here are 19 facts about Compton that will make you feel spectacularly, shockingly and depressingly old.ġ. Given that it’s been the 23 years since the release of his debut and 16 years since he dropped his follow-up, Dre’s final album could leave some feeling nostalgic. On Saturday, Dre revealed Detox had been scrapped (“it just wasn’t good,” he said on Apple’s Beats 1) and Compton would be its replacement. Eminem once rapped on his own track that he was going to make Dre release the album. Artists who had worked on tracks with Dre ginned up expectations by calling it a classic.
Its release was always rumored to be around the corner, no matter the year. The record, to be called Detox, was hip-hop’s great white whale. that hits theaters one week later.įor more than 15 years, fans have waited for Dre’s eventual follow-up to his two classics - The Chronic and 2001 - and that imagined album became the stuff of rap legend.
Dre will come out Friday as a companion to the Straight Outta Compton film about Dre’s days with the seminal rap group N.W.A.
Dre revealed he’d be releasing his third and final album of his nearly 25-year career this week. In a surprise weekend announcement that stunned fans and rocked the music industry, legendary rap artist Dr.