fact or fiction?

[mellowman]

hello, fellow funk brothers and west coast hip hop diehards -  as well as the many musically challenged friends on this board. how is everyone doing?  just wanted to drop by to give you some info and challenge some rumours out there in regards to a few things.  once again , i don't care what you think about me or the insights I give to you. do what you will with them. well, lets get to it.

Fact or fiction? - I posted info on another board that said Oh My God would not come out for another 2 years.
FICTION -  I gave you my word a long time ago that this board would be the only board I ever post on. I never go back on my word.  besides, that information is false.

Fact or Fiction  - Dre is fucking over Rakim.  The worst thing Rakim ever did was sign to Aftermath. Oh My God has been worked on for 4 years. Its Dre's fault that Oh My God is not out yet.  
All 4 of these statements are FICTION.  Dre is taking care of Rakim better than anyone else could. Dre gave Ra a great contract, many large advances, and has been helping him out personally and financially way beyond what he is required to do.  Also, Dre is giving Rakim room to breathe and is working hard to not only make sure Rakim's album is as good as possible, but more importantly giving it the best chance to be successful sales wise.  Dre and Rakim are both perfectionists, both are very patient, and both want to make sure that Oh My God is a classic.  Oh My God has probably been worked on for a actual total of 8 to 10 months, and that has been since early 2002.  Except for a few sessions, it took Ra almost 2 years to get prepared mentally and physically for this album.  Ra gave serious thought to retiring for good a few years back.  Universal Records fucked him over so bad that ra was ready to give it all up.  The Master was a good album but a total bomb sales wise. ra takes some of the blame but the label pressured him to rush the album, promoted it terribly and didn't give him the budget or freedom to put together the album Ra wanted.  Aftermath signed Ra to a bigger contract, by far, than anyone else was offering.  Aftermath and Interscope give Rakim unlimited budget, freedom, will not apply any pressure, and will spend a lot of money promoting the album -  and most importantly Aftermath gives him Dre.  But since interscope is putting so many resources and dollars into the project they get final word on everything.  the original target date was nov, 12 2002.  I thought we had an album good enough to get released, but dre knew jimmy would reject it so we kept working.  A few months ago Dre submitted a final album to Jimmy.  it was rejected back for us to fine tune some things.  and yes hooks are part of the reason.  as well as not having a good enough first single.    as far as hooks go - i don't think rakim needs hooks - his early classic albums had no hooks only eric b breakbeats and scratches.  rakims songs are not about hooks. he's deeper than that. but alas jimmy and interscope get to make the final decision. some have suggested ghost writers to write the hooks. believe me NO ONE will EVER ghost write for Rakim.  Rakim will write every single lyric he ever raps to.
even though dre and ra disagreed with the decision to reject the album(so did i, but my influence is very limited.) we trust Jimmys instincts. after all, he rejected em and dre's original final album for the Marshall Mathers LP, and the two songs that em and dre came up with after that were The Real Slim Shady and The Way I am. so we believe jimmy knows what he's doing.  
Oh My God will be released this year, or else.  if not there would only be a slim chance that it would come out after Detox, but most likely the album would be dropped. but have no fear we all believe in our hearts Oh My God will drop soon.  and when it does it will be the classic album we have worked very hard to give you.  if the album does not come out I will most likely leave interscope (not Dre). i will stay til detox drops because of my loyalty and love for dre. i believe in Oh My God that much that I will gve up everything if jimmy drops the ball.  it is not dre's fault. he is doing his job  - creating a classic and giving Rakim the career defining album he deserves. its all on jimmy right now.
i have 3 more fact or fictions left - i will put them on the reply to this post.

[The Big Bad Ass]

Been a while. Good to hear from you Mellow.

[E. J. Rizo]

damn thanks for the news man i cant wait for that shit

[The Watcher]

preach on

nice to see you servin' us with the info we all love

[Suga Foot]

Yes yes yes yes yes!

[mellowman]

Fact or fiction - Xzibit has squashed his beef with snoop, dpg and the liks.
mostly FACT.  I posted a thread months ago on this topic - family first i think i called it.  at that point I was in total support of Xzibit and said the only way to squash the beef was to sit down and talk out their differences.
a few factors went into the two sides meeting.  Dre was a huge factor in getting the sides together.  dre hated the fact that "family" members were fighting and beefing - mostly because of rumours and lies being told to both sides by various people.  dre gave snoop an ultimatium to talk to Xzibit or risk causing further divisions involving more members of the family.  but the biggest reason that both sides met was simple.  they quit acting like fucking kids and started acting like men.  real men talk out their differences - not backstabbing each other or believing rumours.  who was to blame for the beef? everyone involved.  xzibit got a lot of hate from a lot of people who had no clue about anything that was actually going on.  xzibit admitted that he made some mistakes, but also stressed that the other side was very much to blame as well. there are 2 sides to every story. a lot of you owe xzibit some apologies. he didn't turn his back on you - you turned your back on him. xzibit didn't ever respond to the avalanche of public disses from the other side. he bit his tongue like a real man and waited til he could talk to them face to face.  so yes xzibit was the only one who acted like a man during the saga.  but i think there will always be some lingering bad feelings from everyone involved.  but at least hands have been shook and the work has begun toward reconciliation. and most importantly everyone is making music together again.
Fact or fiction - Dre turned his back on the west coast.
FICTION - a lot of you forget that without the sacrifice and hard work from dre there would be NO west coast.  a lot of people helped build west coast hip hop, but dre was the foundation from which the house was built. dre put the west on the map using his production genious and his ability to transform west coast artists into world wide stars.  
dre don't give a fuck where you are from. he don't give a fuck if you a man or woman, black or white, from compton or new york.  he only cares about talent and creative people. dre wants artists from all over the country and someday the world.  he wants to expand.  dre has brought numerous artists from the west coast to the forefront and made them stars. those artists need to be held accountable for their inabilty to keep the west on top by succeeding on their own and molding their own artists into stars.  sure I think Dre should have fought harder to release king t and other west coasts artists who were here when aftermath first started. but he felt he needed to start over, and he restarted with eminem and has built aftermath into a powerful force in the industry in just 7 years.  
those mad at dre for not bringing forth a new west coast artist will be happy with his newest artist, straight outta compton - The Game.  I'm sure that most of you have heard some of his skills by now.  even though i am tired of gangsta rap, the game has serious skills and I have NO DOUBT he will be a force to be contended with. dre is in the process of molding and shaping this unpolished diamond into a big star. With THE GAME, Dre will make some of you shut the fuck up. speaking of the game i have one more reply them i'm off to another room the redo some of an instrumental me and dre are working on specifically for the game.

[Jome]

Dre was a huge factor in getting the sides together.  dre hated the fact that "family" members were fighting and beefing - mostly because of rumours and lies being told to both sides by various people.  dre gave snoop an ultimatium to talk to Xzibit or risk causing further divisions involving more members of the family.  but the biggest reason that both sides met was simple.  they quit acting like fucking kids and started acting like men.  real men talk out their differences - not backstabbing each other or believing rumours.  who was to blame for the beef? everyone involved.  xzibit got a lot of hate from a lot of people who had no clue about anything that was actually going on.  xzibit admitted that he made some mistakes, but also stressed that the other side was very much to blame as well. there are 2 sides to every story. a lot of you owe xzibit some apologies. he didn't turn his back on you - you turned your back on him. xzibit didn't ever respond to the avalanche of public disses from the other side. he bit his tongue like a real man and waited til he could talk to them face to face. so yes xzibit was the only one who acted like a man during the saga. but i think there will always be some lingering bad feelings from everyone involved.  but at least hands have been shook and the work has begun toward reconciliation. and most importantly everyone is making music together again.

Hmmmm... interesting.  

[mellowman]

fact or fiction? Detox will only be a dozen tracks long and will only be steps without song titles
the answer is up in the air. before i get into it  - don't believe what you hear even from people who have worked with dre - like Knocturnal.  i like knoc but he has no clue whats really going on. he just better hope he appears on detox.  you don't break your agreement to be silent and not have dre lose some faith in you.  that being said the "steps" concept is definitely one of the final 2 options being looked at for the concept of the album. i won't go into much detail about the other option, but it is similiar to the steps - close enough to be working on the same sounds. the other option will be based on all the sounds and artists that dre has worked on during his career. it would be a tour through his career, leading up to dropping his new sounds -the sounds where he goes to detox to leave behind everything he has ever done and talked about, and moves on to music that will change the future of his career and music in general.
  so far only a small amount of recording vocals has been done for Detox.  however, we have been working extremely hard on preparing many instrumentals for the album.  The last time i posted on detox i went into as much detail as i'm allowed about the new sound so i won't repeat myself. i will only say that people who say that dre's sound has become basic and repetitive will be shocked at Detox.  dre's new sound will be really innovative, melodic and musical using a huge array of live instruments and orchestral sounds.  there is a reason dre has used a lot of the same style the last few years. it has been done on purpose. one, people used to his current sound, Detox will amaze them cause it is so different.  and two, dre refused to copy anyone else - he will stick with one sound til he creates another innovative sound to change the game. and believe me dre will change the game on detox. each song will contionously change in pace, agressiveness, pitch and instruments. it will be nothing as you have ever quite heard before.  yes dre has been getting instrumentals from top producers all over the  hip hop nation. mostly for backup in case dre just can't come up with enough on his own, but some will probably appear as part of a track.  right now dre is a mad scientist and orchestra conducter at the same time.  he's preparing a atomic bomb that  will destroy the sound barrier. Detox may fail, but its defintely going to be interesting and will cause a lot of differing opinions and discussion.  the mc's on the album may be the finest group of mc's to ever appear on one album, and dre will match their lyrical genius with his musical genius.  oh yeah, detox and cube's album will have to be waited on til 2004, barring some miracle.
fact or fiction - dj quik is a better producer than dre.
With all due respect to the legendary musical genius DJ quik (the most underrated producer in hip hop history) this statement is fiction. dre is the greatest producer in the history of rap music. period. end of story.  
i will post a thread on this topic that will explain why, tommorrow. i will back everything up with fact, i will treat both dre and quik with respect and i will drop knowledge to those who think they know the truth but actually have no fuckin idea. but that thread will have to wait til tommorrow. one more thing - thanks again to dubcnn. you guys are so damn good i don't need to post here very often.  keep up the hard work and you will eventually get some bigger doggs. peace.

[Hittman2001]

thanks for the info mellowman

[CharlieBrown]

Great posts, thanks for the info and tell Dre he can't fail with Detox, he's got Burt Bacharach on his side! Oh and Mellow, could you give us any info on the beat used in the Coors advert with Dre, Quincy and Pharrel? Like if we can expect to hear that beat on an album?

[Skindiana bon3z]

thanks for the info mellowman

[Dedicato]

Hey Mellow,

Thanks for your answers! I'd be glad, if you could support www.aftermathmusic.com ...

[Nima - Dubcnn.com]

one more thing - thanks again to dubcnn. you guys are so damn good i don't need to post here very often.  keep up the hard work and you will eventually get some bigger doggs. peace.

  thanks mellow, keep posting!

[Lord Funk]

Logging onto the board at work, couldn't have wished for a nicer surprise than a mellowman post. Thanks man!

[T-Dogg]

Thanks again for posting, mellow. Good to hear about Rakim's album - I never realised that thing that he didn't use to have hooks before, but now that I think about it and gave a listen to some of Ra's classics, that's just the way it is.

Also props for the info on the XZibit beef.

As for Detox - the curtain of mystery still surrounds this album. You talked quite a bit about it in your post, but said very little anything new - on purpose I presume. That's right, keep the element of surprise on your side.

Holdin' my breath 'til 2004 - hopefully Warren & 213 keep my mind on its tracks until then.