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Dr. Dre Releases First Album In 16 Years

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 06:15 PST, Aug 8, 2015

Dr. Dre fans will be overjoyed to hear that the hip-hop star has finally released his much-anticipated third album, according to The Guardian.

However, contrary to expectations, the 16-track album is not the much-touted Detox, but is titled Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre and will be available from August 7 on Apple Music.

Dr. Dre reached the height of his fame in the late 1980s and early 1990s with albums such as Straight Outta Compton and his solo debut The Chronic, but later turned his attention towards music production, signing label deals with fellow rappers such as Snoop Dog, Eminem, and 50 Cent, among several others.

Apart from being one of the most influential hip-hop stars of his generation, Dr. Dre is now also a hugely successful businessman. His Beats By Dr. Dre line of headphones was sold to Apple for a reported sum of $3 billion last year, making him the richest man in hip-hop, according to Forbes.

Speaking on his Beats 1 radio show, “The Pharmacy,” Dr. Dre admitted that he got so inspired by the upcoming film Straight Outta Compton, which is based on the rise and fall of his hip-hop group N.W.A., that he decided it was time for him to release his final album.

“I felt myself being so inspired by the movie that I started to record an album. It’s going to be my grand finale. The record is bananas.”

On why he chose to ditch Detox and instead come up with a completely new album, Dr. Dre confessed he simply did not like the outcome of all the work he put into Detox.

“I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good. I worked my a** off on it, and I don’t think I did a good enough job.”

Fair enough, Dr. Dre. According to The New York Times, former N.W.A. member Ice Cube makes an appearance on the album, as do his other frequent collaborators Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dog, and Eminem. This will be Dr. Dre’s first album after 1999’s The Chronic 2001, which went sextuple platinum and is now regarded as one of the best hip-hop works in the pre-millennium era.

As if that kind of a reputation wasn’t enough to sell albums – Dr. Dre has also announced that he will be donating the profits from his new album to the Compton Arts Center.

[Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images]

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