Dr. Dre - Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre (Official Discussion Thread)

[BlueSwan]

10 years from now yall will be begging for the next "Compton" type album to come out.

Stack this album up against any modern classic and what do you think then?

+1.

A few of my own personal observations. Quick thoughts...

• I've bumped this on great headphones after drinking about 15 drinks the night it came out, low volume driving around my kids on Friday, and then again today using shitty earbuds, good headphones, in the car, and again in the house on a good system. Between each listen I find myself thinking about a new song. That tells me a lot about what I will think of this album one week from now, one year from now, one decade from now.
  
• Shit is vintage Dre all day and night. If people were expecting a Chronic sound, or a 2001 sound, he gave you a combo of both on the last track. That beat is at least 5 years old, by the way. Dre can make that beat in his sleep.
  
• The comparisons to Kendrick's album confuse me. I feel a lot more energy in Compton than in that album. For me, Compton has far more replay value, and is a more cohesive, flowing body of work. IMO, of course.
  
• I don't hear any trap on this album.
  
• DJ Quik's music has been a great blessing to many, me included. Legit. Love his work. But he himself said respect the god, more or less. Called this "the future of music." So his fans that really ride for him need to chill on the comparisons to Quik's past work, his skill set as an engineer, etc. Using the Dre album to enlighten Quik non-believers isn't the way to go about making those people fans of Quik. It's totally ineffective. Especially when Quik himself sees himself as a Dre understudy, for lack of a better word.
  
• The features and collaborations feel far less forced to me than all the Detox leaks, needless to say. There is genuine chemistry on all these tracks. Organic chemistry. Something all the Detox stuff was lacking. And something that 2001 was lacking from front to back, IMO. Chronic, of course, was as cohesive as anything can be.
  
• The features ALL. KILL IT. Every single one. And not in a drum solo type way. In a way that is a completely organic piece of that song's puzzle. I personally like that I don't know who is doing what on some of these joints. It makes the song the star. And each song ties to the one before and after it in a way classic albums tend to do. As varied as the production is on here, it all feels like one body of work. That's Dr. Dre. He's never been able to do that to this degree, in my opinion (tie varied production styles together over the course of an album). That's the true value of his engineering and production excellence.
  
• Every person you hear talk about this album seems to gravitate to a unique song. For example, Whoo Kid played Satisfiction today. The Em joint. Premier loves It's All On Me, All In A Day's Work. Etc. When you consider what mere mortals like me, my buddy, whoever think about this, each seems to be gravitating to a new song with every listen. That is the mark of great art, imo.
  
• A great friend of mine said Dre may not be so much a genius as an incredibly hard worker (contrary to many opinions in this neck of the woods). He tirelessly looks to achieve magical chemistry in the studio. He may have not found it for a long time with respect to his solo work (hence, Detox never dropping). But when he says the work started flowing and magic began pouring out the speakers over the course of the movie's filming, I believe it. This album is proof. It's the product of organic chemistry and it's roots and ambitions are as pure as any in music. Dre is a fucking billionaire. Further, he had nothing to prove. He only stood to lose by releasing any body of work. The fact that he put in that work for so long to cement his legacy and give his fans new product is a beautiful thing. That's sadly lost on a lot of people. People bitching that there isn't a joint with MC Ren and King T rapping about their glaucoma is fucking ridiculous to me.
  
• The content shits all over his past work, and will impact the longevity of this album very favorably. It's no longer fictional. "YEEEAH JUST TOOK SOME ECSTASY." Uh, no you didn't, Dre. You're not cheating on Nicole. Dre found out how to talk about important grown up content in a fresh way. That may have been his biggest obstacle over the years in crafting a 2001 follow up. He succeeded with Compton. You could see him trying to go down this route with Bishop (no name, no gimmicks, like Obie). Maybe the best example of what might have been from that era was Grown Up. But he still fell into the trap of making bullshit like Drug Test with the usual suspects. The new dudes (Justus, Paak, etc) made this work in a way the old dudes like Kurupt couldn't have. Same for the god D.O.C. He made a grown folks album. Abandoned all the old gangster shit, threw in some political content, gave the album an inspirational vibe, and wrapped it all up with incredibly tight and clean production that we are only now beginning to fully appreciate.
  
• I'm happy as fuck with this album and I'm happy it's getting some serious props out there. A couple of very loud voices in these forums won't be much of a roadblock to the momentum this work will carry forward.
  
• The best art isn't appreciated fully out of the gate. Paul's Boutique was met with some critical praise but fans wanted Licensed to Ill Part 2. Something to keep in mind. Dre always says his best work is ahead of him. Positivity is a good thing, but maybe in this instance it's misplaced or delusional of Dre to think that way? Regardless, if he felt like this is worth putting out there, a listener is doing themselves a disservice by passing negative judgement on this album too soon. (For those few contrarians that think this album isn't excellent)
  

Great post. Agree with pretty much everything.

[KushEazy]

Damn 'It's All On Me' is epic.. Dope album, i luv it

[crapboy]

Bout to voice my opinion on the album:

First of all, this is definetely NOT a classic album and not on par with chronic & 2001. With these albums dre influenced the whole hip hop scene two times and popularized a new sound & style everybody was trying to copy. This time he let himself be influenced by the current soundscapes & trends a bit too much. There are certainly good and very good songs on here, but theres also too much on here that sounds to modern & influenced by currently popular styles & sounds. The worst thing for me is kendrick lamars influence all over the record. I'll just be honest & say I don't fuck with kendricks style, I know many people love it and call him hip hops next big thing, the new king of the west and more but his style is absolutely not my cup of tea. And theres too much of his influence all over the album, especially dres verses & rapping style is clearly kendricks which I dislike. Also its suspicious for me how so many people celebrate snoops verse on "One Shot One Kill", thats not snoop thats kendrick spittin there, he obviously wrote snoops verse and snoop himself flows and uses his voice just like kendrick. Come on, then you could have just placed kendrick there instead of snoop. Snoop got one of the most unique voices and one of the greatest flows in the game and that is sacrificed here to do a kendrick impression smh....
Another thing that annoys me is the fuckin mess thats going on in some tracks, sometimes I just want some old school 16 bars verse, hook, 16 bars verse, hook style song, and not these thousands of voice & flow changes within one part + some spoken inserts in the middle of it. Thats also one of the things thats clearly influenced by kendrick and its all over the album (hope y'all understand whats my point here). Its completely ok if this happens during the songs with kendrick but it seems like dre let his protege influence this album too much, I always liked how on chronic & 2001 all the guests brought their own styles & strenghts in and everything came together for a great listening experience.. Another aspect bout the album, are the influences from current trap styles and shit like this which also have no bussiness beeing on a dre album, thats not the game changing sound that dre always brought with his projects. He always set trends instead of following them...
Thats not to say that there aren't good songs on here, tracks like its all on me or talking to my diary are great but theres just not enough real "Dre sound" on this for me....

[ICHI THE KILLER]

DubCC - "Dre is not rapping like he used to 20 years ago..."  "This album doesn't sound like The Chronic or 2001..."   " DJ Quik is better, makes better albums..."

The rest of the general public and industry - "Compton is incredible, probably going to be a classic"

Basically.

Not sure how anyone could "not be feeling this album".... If you don't like this album, then I'd like to hear some of the shit people are listening to and feeling.  

Kendrick has 2 of the best rap albums in the last few years and I think I would put this right up there, maybe even better.  And Damani "thoughtful King" was one of the better albums to drop as well.  

normally, it just pretty standard sounding album with those types of beats being done for few years now and like someone said if this was someone less known most of the people will be shitting on it or just ignore it

New Kendricks album sounds like a rip-off from Damani's last and it is pretty boring and that dude PAAk is fuckin wack as hell

i will give it one more spin and if i dont hear anytning ecxiting it will go the same way as last Kedricks effort  - trash bin

[TRAX (SFV)]

The best art isn't appreciated fully out of the gate. Paul's Boutique was met with some critical praise but fans wanted Licensed to Ill Part 2.

Paul's Boutique is a great comparison... most fans of the Beastie Boys didn't really like it at first because there was no obvious big hit singles,
it sounded totally different to their debut, and it was very dense and layered and it took a while to "figure out" what was going on in the music...
it also had lots of different sections and songs that changed beat lots of times and that put people off...

And now it's considered their masterpiece and one of the best hip-hop albums ever made.

Not saying that the same will happen with Compton, but all the elements are there...

I was into Beasties back then, and while the music changed, it still had elements of the first album to me and I liked most of it.  I wasn't as put off by it as the pop fans.  

A lot of you are saying this sounds like a Kendrick album.  That speaks volumes right there as this is a DR. DRE album!!!   He shouldn't be sounding like Kendrick, he should make beats and vocals that sound like HIM!

After Kush and I Need A Doc, it's no surprise to me that the album sounds like this.  Dre knows what audience he's going for.

And he gets Cube, Snoop and X back on to rap over these beats??  Might as well gotten Drake to rap over this shit.

[HighEyeCue]

album sounds nothing like Kush and I Need A Doctor

[teecee]

The best art isn't appreciated fully out of the gate. Paul's Boutique was met with some critical praise but fans wanted Licensed to Ill Part 2.

Paul's Boutique is a great comparison... most fans of the Beastie Boys didn't really like it at first because there was no obvious big hit singles,
it sounded totally different to their debut, and it was very dense and layered and it took a while to "figure out" what was going on in the music...
it also had lots of different sections and songs that changed beat lots of times and that put people off...

And now it's considered their masterpiece and one of the best hip-hop albums ever made.

Not saying that the same will happen with Compton, but all the elements are there...

I was into Beasties back then, and while the music changed, it still had elements of the first album to me and I liked most of it.  I wasn't as put off by it as the pop fans.  

A lot of you are saying this sounds like a Kendrick album.  That speaks volumes right there as this is a DR. DRE album!!!   He shouldn't be sounding like Kendrick, he should make beats and vocals that sound like HIM!

After Kush and I Need A Doc, it's no surprise to me that the album sounds like this.  Dre knows what audience he's going for.

And he gets Cube, Snoop and X back on to rap over these beats??  Might as well gotten Drake to rap over this shit.

Are you implying this album sounds like INAD and Kush?!

[Blood$]

Some are saying that Dr.Dre needs to go back to his own flow.. but he's been using others flow his whole career for example when I listen Still DRE i can hear Jay Z all over it

money

[TRAX (SFV)]

LL Cool J has been doing a great job of balancing the old and the new lately.

lol u cant be serious......this is lightyears ahead of anything LL has done lately.

Maybe in the trap music world.  LL's still making real hip hop and hasn't abandoned his past.  Neither has Public Enemy.

forget the content, the production value is nowhere close to the same.

See, that's the problem with hip hop today.  It's all about production, it doesn't matter what the vocals sound like. The most classic hip hop records in history have a beat loop and very little production.  Hip hop is so overcomplicated now, but it's been infected with technology to the point where it's expected.

The Compton album has autotune and singing all through it, so yea it doesn't sound much different than his recent singles to me.  As soon as I hear autotune I skip the track. 

[Sccit]

DubCC - "Dre is not rapping like he used to 20 years ago..."  "This album doesn't sound like The Chronic or 2001..."   " DJ Quik is better, makes better albums..."

The rest of the general public and industry - "Compton is incredible, probably going to be a classic"

Basically.

The same general public and industry who think Drake and Young Thug are the shit ...

Most of the listeners are just adapting their standards to the current state of hip hop ...

I couldn't care less that Compton is a great album when you compare to the usual garbage which comes out in 2015 ...

so u really cant appreciate the production on this?

[Sccit]

LL Cool J has been doing a great job of balancing the old and the new lately.

lol u cant be serious......this is lightyears ahead of anything LL has done lately.

Maybe in the trap music world.  LL's still making real hip hop and hasn't abandoned his past.  Neither has Public Enemy.

forget the content, the production value is nowhere close to the same.

See, that's the problem with hip hop today.  It's all about production, it doesn't matter what the vocals sound like. The most classic hip hop records in history have a beat loop and very little production.  Hip hop is so overcomplicated now, but it's been infected with technology to the point where it's expected.

The Compton album has autotune and singing all through it, so yea it doesn't sound much different than his recent singles to me.  As soon as I hear autotune I skip the track. 

im sayin, dre is a producer, so his albums have always been about production first and foremost....if ur goin into a dre record focusing on the content, then u lost already. and either way, the content is still dope. it's simply more mature than his previous work, which is what you'd expect from a 50 year old artist. it's like, when you go into a michael bay film, you're not going for the dialogue. you wanna see amazing car chases, explosions, muthafuckaz jumpin off buildings n shit...production value, period. if you want great dialogue, go watch a kevin smith film. it's the same story wit music.....dre is the GOAT producer in hip-hop, and sonically, this is incredible...next level shit. people who heard this in the beats headphones say that dre truly unlocked the potential of them muthafuckaz......at the end of the day, the album is great. people who are hating simply havent let it sink in yet, bottom line.

[Sccit]

only issue is why we gota wait so long for hard copies? i dont fux wit digital, so i gota wait 2 weeks now to cop....shits fucked.

[.:Hercy Buggz:.]

only issue is why we gota wait so long for hard copies? i dont fux wit digital, so i gota wait 2 weeks now to cop....shits fucked.

I Agree

[Sccit]

only issue is why we gota wait so long for hard copies? i dont fux wit digital, so i gota wait 2 weeks now to cop....shits fucked.

I Agree

hopefully they come wit like a bonus disc of unreleased detox material or some extra shit for cats who waited

[TRAX (SFV)]

Didn't chronic and 2001 mostly sound different at the time? This sounds very similar to what is out there today. I didn't expect him to try to blend in.

Hip hop back in the day was about the vibe of the song.  Now it's all about studio tricks.