"How nigga? My last album was The Chronic." Sure, it took Dre almost seven years to follow up his classic debut with another album, but along the way, he became one of the industry's biggest moguls. He discovered Slim Shady and built an empire around him with Aftermath (and Shady) Records.
Now, we find ourselves in a similar situation. At this point, no one's anxiously awaiting the Detox release. Never say never, but it looks like that ship has sailed. Still, don't say you forgot about Dre. The Compton rapper/producer/actor/billionaire has been making some quiet moves the past five years. And a lot of money. And don't forget he made the same moves with K-Dot he did with Em almost 20 years ago.
We break down what the D.R.E. has been up to over the past five years, and, believe it or not, there's been some music along the way.
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2010
April: On 4/20, during an interview at Fenway Park, Dre, and Interscope founder (and Beats co-founder) Jimmy Iovine, announced that the lead single off Detox would be "Under Pressure", a collaboration with Jay Z.
A rip of "Under Pressure" leaked and received underwhelming reception among fans. Later in the year, Dre said "Under Pressure" wouldn't appear on the final album. Five years later, what do you think of the once potential single?
June: After producing 19 of 20 tracks on Eminem's double platinum Relapse (2009), Dre produced only two songs on Recovery--"So Bad" and "Ridaz", a bonus track.
Later that summer, Dre also announced an all-instrumental record, a full album of Beats By Dre. The project, he said, will be called The Planets, with one track to represent each planet in our Solar System.
November: A version of a song titled "Kush", featuring Akon and Snoop Dogg, leaked, and soon after, Dre put out the mastered version, confirming it would be Detox's (new) lead single. The single was produced by DJ Khalil, mixed by Dre, and, supposedly, the only marijuana-themed song on the album.
Dre soon put out a video, in which he starts and stops parties with the flick of a Zippo lighter.
2011
January: Dre lessened his production output in 2011, but, at the very start of the year, he landed two beats on Game's mixtape Purp & Patron, including the Ashanti-featuring "Soft Rhodes".
February: Dre releases "I Need a Doctor", the (seemingly) next single off Detox, featuring Eminem and singer Skylar Grey and produced by Britain's Alex da Kid. The song significantly outperformed "Kush", hitting #4 on the charts, becoming Dre's second highest charting single to date. The song was nominated for a Grammy, but ended up losing to Kanye's "All of the Lights".
In the video, Dre gets into a near-fatal car crash, appears in an isolation tank 10 years later next to a hysterical Eminem, gets rehabilitated, and visits the grave of Eazy-E.
August: The mobile company HTC buys a 50.1 percent share of Beats for $309 million dollars.
With almost half a billion off headphone sales, Dre's good for 2011.
2012
January: Dre produced and featured on "Popped Off", a track off T.I.'s mixtape Fuck da City Up that was, at one time, supposed to appear on Detox.
March: TDE, home of new kid on the CPT block Kendrick Lamar, signed a joint deal with Dre's Aftermath Records and (Jimmy Iovine's) Interscope Records.
April: Dr. Dre was selected to headline at Coachella, where he was joined on stage by Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and, last but not least, a Tupac hologram.
July: HTC sells back half of its stake in Beats for $150 million.
Later that month, Dr. Dre produced a song for 50 Cent's upcoming album Street King Immortal, which still hasn't been released yet. The song, titled "New Day", featured Alicia Keys as well as a wee verse from Dre himself. 50 later stated the song wouldn't appear on one of his albums.
October: Dre is the executive producer on Kendrick Lamar's seminal major label debut Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. He also raps on the album's lead single "The Recipe".
November: Though 50 scrapped the song on his album, "New Day", with added production from Swizz Beats, would appear on Alicia Key's album Girl On Fire.
The Doc also put a beat on The Game's Jesus Piece, though "Dead People" only appeared on the iTunes deluxe edition.
2013
A quiet, but lucrative year.
May: Dre and business partner Jimmy Iovine donate $70 million to the University of Southern California to create the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.
September: HTC sells its remaining shares for $265 million.
Beats Electronics is now valued at more than $1 billion, holding a monopoly over the market for high-end headphones. In 2012, Beats had sold almost $1 billion worth of product, up almost $800k since 2010.
2014
January: Beats Electronics launched the Beats Music streaming service.
June: In a business-focused year, one of Dre's few production creds came on 50 Cent's "Smoke", off his fifth studio album Animal Ambition.
August: Apple acquires Beats for $3 billion, the biggest acquisition in Apple's history. Dr. Dre and Tyrese Gibson preemptively announced the deal in a leaked YouTube clip that shows Dre declaring himself "the first billionaire in hip-hop." Watch below.
Not quite a billionaire, Forbes estimated Dre's net worth at $500 million.
2015
February: Earlier this year, the red band trailer dropped for Straight Outta Compton, the Dr. Dre-produced N.W.A. biopic named after the group's classic album. The film is scheduled to hit theaters in mid-August.
March: Dre had the biggest cameo (Tupac aside) on Kendrick Lamar's latest album To Pimp a Butterfly. On the opening track, "Wesley's Theory", we hear Dre leave a voicemail on K-Dot's phone: "Remeber the first time you came out to the house? You said you wanted a spot like mine. But remember, anybody can get it. The hard part is keeping it, motherfucker."
Indeed.
