The Awl

Snoop Is 40!

Dave Bry — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:40:23 +0000

Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. turns forty years old today—incredible, if you remember what it was like to first hear his dulcet, melodic voice bouncing over the spine-tingling beat Dr. Dre made for the titular song of the 1992 Laurence Fishburne/Jeff Goldblum vehicle Deep Cover. Snoop Doggy Dogg, as he was known back then, already seemed like an ageless entity. And he's stayed seeming that way. (Even after he dropped the "Doggy" in his name in the mid-90s.) If he is not the greatest or most important figure in the history of rap, he is probably the most famous and beloved worldwide. The way he reaches his arm around Barbara Walters in the above clip from a 2008 appearance on "The View" pretty much tells you everything you need to know about why this is.

What the hell, here are ten more videos that explain it well, too—a chronological display of the range and staying power that have made for such a long and successful career. Happy birthday, Snoop!

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South Sudan Needs A Better National Anthem

Dave Bry — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:10:23 +0000

Of course we wish the people of Sudan good luck in this week's referendum to decide whether or not the southern part of the country secedes to become its own nation. A vote for independence seems likely. While there's much discussion about what the new country's name should be, a national anthem has already been written and recorded. It's called "Land of Cush," a reference to a Biblical kingdom in the area. Unfortunately, it sucks. Before anything becomes official, they should talk to Dr. Dre about the possibility of using his song.

Or Iron & Wine.

Or Radiohead.

Or Leonard Cohen, or Rush, or Pitbull, or Deep Purple or Good Charlotte... I'm not going to get into all that. Jesus, who hasn't written a song called "Anthem?"

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Why Is The Cousin Of Rob From "Rob & Big" Making Better Dr. Dre Beats Than Dr. Dre?

Dave Bry — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:40:11 +0000

This is big big news in rap. It's a new song from Dr. Dre, who is pretty much inarguably the greatest producer in the music's history. It's also, reportedly, an advance single from Dre's third solo album, Detox, a project rap fans have been waiting for, have know the title of, for nearly ten years now.

Delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed, Detox has taken on the almost mythical quality of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy before that $13 million fiasco finally arrived to free cans of Dr. Pepper for all but otherwise general disappointment. Detox is supposed to be really truly honestly coming out early next year. Dre is on the cover of next month's XXL magazine announcing it and everything. Many people will believe it when they see it.

I don't think it's terrible at all. I don't think Akon should be allowed into a studio with Dre (or, you know, Michael Jackson) but Snoop sounds good ("tighter than the pants on Will.I.Am," in fact), and I like the sneaky strings that come creeping after the central beat. You can definitely imagine club-walls and chest-cavities quivering to this this winter. But after ten years? It seems slight, doesn't it? And unfocused. If I'm trying to get high, I don't want Akon's reedy autotuned voice all talking in my ear. But hey, maybe its not even mastered to Dre's final approval yet. Or maybe its been officially mastered, but it's specially formulated so that you have to hear it through a pair of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones to fully appreciate it. I don't know. I don't have Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. But still and all, I hope and trust Dre has more in store for us.

Something more exciting. Something that sounds more like this, actually.

That track, made for Alabama rapper Yelawolf—who already has one of the most exciting rap songs of the year under his belt, "Pop the Trunk"—is much more like what I would have expected from Dre. It sounds like you're listening to something from the future, which is always how Dre has sounded. Like he hears two years ahead of the rest of us, warp speed, and then brings it back and translates it through our speakers. The way those synths bend and ascend, all sci-fi and space-age—which is where we know Dre's mind has been lately. (Does that sound more like Mars, you think? Or Saturn?) And the bells, anchoring the beat with some horror-movie, Black-Sabbathy ominousness. Signature Dre.

But that is not Dre who made that track. Rather, it's a young producer from Akron, Ohio, Chris "Drama Beats" Pfaff. There's lots that odd about Drama Beats, besides the unoriginality of his professional name (there is already a very well-known hip-hop producer with the too similar name of DJ Drama) and the fact that his photographer parents shot Lebron James' senior high school portrait. Most interestingly, he was on the MTV reality show "Rob & Big." Because he is the younger cousin of one of the show's stars, professional skateboarder Rob Drydek. He came out to L.A. to break into the music biz. And he has!

And I am impressed. But man, it's funny: more than anything else, this track is testimony to how important Dr. Dre is. You can hear a lot of 1995's "Keep Their Heads Ringin'."

But also a key bit of "Boyz N Tha Hood."

And "Natural Born Killaz."

A little of Tupac's "Hail Mary," too. And some of Bone Crusher's "Never Scared." All sliced up and stretched out and updated to sound like something beaming back from 2014. Which is what we would have expected from Dre. Drama Beats is out-Dre-ing Dre!

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Big Krit, "I Ain't [Doody]"

Dave Bry — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:30:15 +0000

Fans of Dr. Dre or Erykah Badu will recognize the slinky guitar riff from the young Mississippian rapper Big Krit's latest (it's a sample from Soul Mann and the Brothers' cover of "Bumpy's Lament" from Isaac Hayes' soundtrack to Shaft.) But to me the coolest thing about this song is the perspective: Krit rhymes in the persona of a pot-smoking, X-box-playing, Cribs-watching loser. One who has dreams of glory and riches like we're used to, but one who, at the end of the song, is clearly not going anywhere good. And pretty harshly called out for it. There's a lot of Notorious B.I.G. here. In an impressive way.

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What Song Should NASA Astronauts Wake Up To In Space?

Dave Bry — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:30:34 +0000

Oh my God, psyched! As if they read the Awl and know what a crappy August we've all been having, the folks at NASA are holding a contest where the public can choose "wake-up music" for the astronauts who man the penultimate space shuttle voyage, mission STS-133, scheduled to launch November 1st. Go to the NASA website, where you can listen to 40 songs that have been piped in to start astronauts' days on past missions (and you get to hear the radio communication back and forth with ground control, too) and vote for your favorites. I voted for Elton John's "Rocket Man," because... What do you mean because? I would have maybe chosen Bowie's "Space Oddity," but that one isn't available (understandable, when you think about how it ends). You can follow the tally, too. Here are the current vote leaders.

"Star Trek" theme, Alexander Courage: 309,597
"Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf: 251,110
"Countdown," Rush: 201,871

That's so awesome that the "Star Trek" theme and Rush are up there! The astronauts' fate is in the hands Trekkers or pimply-faced thirteen-year-old-boys (and, ahem, the responsible adults they grow into). The astronauts must be like, "Oh, man, please don't let those Rush geeks win!" Actually, most astronauts are probably Rush geeks themselves, so... And, man, if Steppenwolf gets piped up there, that's gonna be one groovy, smoked-out cabin. They should send up a bong shaped like a booster rocket! Other good choices are Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" and Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" (God bless them!), but I'm pulling for "Rocket Man." Strangely, Gil Scott-Heron's "Whitey On the Moon," is not among the selections.

There's also another contest, to choose music for the final space shuttle mission, STS-134, scheduled to launch on February 26, 2011. In this one, you can submit your own original music, and NASA will select top entries that the public can vote for. So, Dre, get those demos in by January 10.

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Biting Dr. Dre's Idea For His Next Album After 'Detox'

Dave Bry — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:00:50 +0000

"An instrumental album is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I have the ideas for it. I want to call it The Planets. I don't even know if I should be saying this, but fuck it. [Laughs.] It's just my interpretation of what each planet sounds like. I'm gonna go off on that. Just all instrumental. I've been studying the planets and learning the personalities of each planet. I've been doing this for about two years now just in my spare time so to speak. I wanna do it in surround sound. It'll have to be in surround sound for Saturn to work."
-Dr. Dre was right. He shouldn't have said anything about that. Because I am now going to steal his idea, and make my own album based on my interpretation of what each planet sounds like. Since I am not the greatest producer in the history of rap music, or even, any sort of musician at all, my version will have to be a mixtape made up of previously released material available on YouTube. But still, here it is.

Dre was born in 1965, so I know he still thinks there's nine planets.

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I Don't Think The Word "Humble" Means What Diddy Thinks It Means

Dave Bry — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:30:09 +0000

Vibe: Dr. Dre said that the last beat that floored him was 'All About the Benjamins.' How does that make you feel?
P. Diddy: "It's humbling. I was in the studio with Dre the other day. He started working on a record for me. Watching him as a producer is watching greatness. We had a lot of similar traits. It was like looking in the mirror. He would ask questions like, 'How you feel about this?' People don't really understand true producers want to know how you feel about things. We are some of the most observant people on the planet."
-Sometimes humility doesn't last very long.

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Warren G Takes Credit For Something Not Worth Taking Credit For

Dave Bry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:10:11 +0000

This seems to not quite qualify as a great stroke of genius. Producer and former rapper Warren G tells XXL that he came up with the name for his step-brother Dr. Dre's classic 1999 album Chronic 2001-which was a follow-up to Dre's 1992 debut, The Chronic. "We actually met at the Beverly Hills Hotel one night, and-I swear to God-he was trying to figure out what to call the album, and I actually said, 'How about Chronic 2001?' Right there at the Beverly Hills Hotel-we sat there, in the bungalows, and named it The Chronic 2001... Dre probably don't remember that shit, but I said, 'Chronic 2001... We are The Chronic. Why change it and name it something else when you can name it Chronic 2001? Because it's the second one, and it's in the new millennium. Let's start it up and hit them again with it!'" Okay. In the '90s, there were so many rap albums coming out with future-year-based titles that hip-hop magazines were doing stories about the phenomenon. How about a quick list?

1) Rahzel, Make The Music 2000 (1999)
2) Method Man, Tical 2000: Judgment Day (1998)
3) Redman, Doc's Da Name 2000 (1998)
4) Grand Puba, 2000 (1995)
5) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, E. 1999 Eternal (1995)
6) Souls of Mischief, 93 Til Infinity (1993)

Even Melissa Etheridge, an artist some might describe as slightly less musically forward-thinking than Dr. Dre, beat Warren to his eureka moment. Her own 2001 album came out in 1992.

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