my final update on Dr. Dre and Aftermath

[mellowman]

When I left last year, the Wash soundtrack had just been released. as it stands now, the wash movie made a small profit, but the soundtrack did not do well at all. a big dre motto is “no excuses, no blame”. Therefore, we could make a lot of excuses for its failure but we won’t. we could blame others but we wont. we accept full responsibilty. we got knocked down hard but we have bounced right back up.  the poor performance of the wash didn’t faze dre. dre bounced back up with a renewed focus, passion, and commitment, so the rest of us have too. and every single day he amazes everybody with his unrelenting work ethic. people think the stories about dre staying awake for days straight are false. believe me they are true. and right now dre is working as hard as he ever has before. dre has finished mixing and mastering the Truth Hurts brilliant and groundbreaking debut album.  Dre wanted it out before spring but we are still awaiting a final release date from universal/interscope. but with all the big label politics and bullshit going on lately, and eminems album coming out the last week of april, lord knows when truth’s album will come out. (sigh). even dre seems to be growing tired of interscope’s bullshit. but there is nothing we can do. i won’t comment on The Eminem Show much cause you will hear it soon enough. for the most part, the direction and content of the album is the way i hoped it would be. em’s not quite there in making a masterpiece but hes getting very close. while em’s album doesn’t surprise me em’s acting in 8 mile is way beyond what i thought he was capable of.  we saw a rough copy of 8 mile a while back and depending on how the editing is done and how the music is mixed in, it looks like a very gritty and very good movie. dre is done with his work on knoc’s album. knocs album is prodution wise top notch but topic wise and lyrical wise kind of disappoiting. for those of you waiting on X-Man’s Man vs Machine the wait will be worth it. from the limited amount of tracks i have heard it should be a monster album. XZibit has really really stepped up his lyrics on this one.its got some fresh topics and lyrical directions, and the production is very cool, very new age and fresh. and dre hasn’t even done much work on it yet. a non aftermath  lp dre had a big influence on is dj quiks aptly titled upcoming album. quik has spent quality time with dre lately. not so much on collabs together, but dre has dropped some knowledge only he can and quik has definetly listened. all you have to do is think about the album title to see how much quik is being inspired by dre. dre has listened to a lot of quik’s tracks and has given him construction criticism and ideas on how to make them better. dre’s biggest influence has been on quiks style. quik was getting tired of the one trick pony production style (albeit a truly breathtaking sound), but was going to do it again anyhow for the then titled safe and sound 2. however dre told quik that he was way too talented of a producer to do the same thing his whole career. so this gave quik the inspiration to finally do something different. quik has even adopted some of dre’s recording and mixing techniques. quik is using a lot of the old analog equipment. but unlike dre, quiks sound is much more dirty. and make no mistake while dre has had an impact, quiks new sound is 100% quik. i love it, but i know a lot of quiks die-hard fans may be pissed. oh well, you can either be a true fan or go listen to someone else. THIS POST IS CONTINUED SO PLEASE REFRAIN FROM COMMENTS TIL ITS DONE. THANKS.

[mellowman]

now its time to talk about god, as in rakim. it now looks like the question about OH MY GOD is no longer “if” but “when”. dre and ra have gotten together a few times since i last posted, and rakim should be in again in the next few weeks. dre and ra have recorded a decent amount of material, with about a dozen tracks good enough to be canidates to make the album. and each time dre and ra work togther they are getting more comfortable with each other and the music is getting more and more remarkable. right now the plans are for rakim to make his aftermath debut on DETOX, with OH MY GOD to follow shortly after. only if the recording of detox goes into next year might you see rakim drop before. Dre and Rakim could end up being the most lethal duo in the history of hip hop. and make no mistake OH MY GOD will be the atomic bomb dre promised and it will leave everyone who dares listen to it FUBARED . and finally we get to DETOX. i know dre has said publically that  recording of DETOX has just begun, but believe me DETOX has been worked on for almost a year already. when dre says things in public please take them with a grain of salt. in this case he’s saying what he is saying  to buy time and keep the pressure off. when dre said that the anti bin laden track never began recording he was doing it for protection of the song. if dre says it doesnt exist then the risk of the track being stolen is extremely low. but believe me vocals were recorded to a highly energized dre production, resulting in an intense unfinished track. dre has it locked away in a safe location for the possiblity of further use. the same people who believe there is no Kill Bin Laden track are probably the same people who believed the sex tape dre talked about while promoting 2001 actually existed. Back to DETOX, dre has been setting aside instrumentals for about a year now. for the past year dre has been shaping his vision and direction for DETOX, his “blueprint”. and the blueprint is to make something truly unique and unlike anything you’ve ever heard. dre wants his final solo album to be his best and most inventive work yet. now that we are in full recording mode for DETOX our vision of dre’s vision is clearing up. its going to be a long year (at least) but it will be worth it. and it will be a really long year for dre as he works for days straight while we at least get to get out most everyday and live a pretty normal life. dre is constantly in the studio while the staff, engineers, musicians and artists take turns in the rotation and take breaks.  before primary recording began last month i listened to a lot of music getting inspiration. but since it began dre wanted us to basically eliminate any and all outside influences. so now i am listening to no outside music. the only music i hear is the music we are doing for DETOX, OH MY GOD and other albums. everything we are recording for DETOX is from scratch with dre in the studio. we are basically living in the studio and trying to seperate our music from anyone and anything out right now. also, dre is not allowing us to bring in any music we did outside of his presence. we had problems with a fellow musician bringing in outside sounds he recorded, which dre put to use, which we are now being sued for. while we stand by the musician’s word that these are false accusations, it has caused dre to make a big change. if the accusations are true a trust dre had has been broken. when someone else brings in a idea they worked on outside dre’s presence dre trusts that it is something we did on our own and did not get from someone else. but now that the trust has possibly been broken, dre will not use anything that we did not come up with from thin air while he was in the studio. and while dre has always dictated, created and composed 80% of his sounds before it is almost 100% now. but if we are in a jam session and we come up with an idea, or a  chord or bassline that dre likes, he will use it.  dre wants Detox to be released in November of this year, but dre really has no timetable. dre will take his time until he is able to narrow things down to 16-22 tracks of “fresh air” that will “blow people away”. The "fresh air" will contain some stinky funk however. Unlike the first Chronic and 2001 there is not an unrelenting pressure on dre this time around.  it is a more relaxed studio and a more relaxed dre, and that is resulting in some incredibly creative music being created. everyone involved is dedicating one year of their life to dre so on his final solo album dre can create the best music of his career and some of the most innovative music in the history of music. DETOX is not going to be like Chronic and 2001, hence the title. lyric wise and topic wise expect dre to stay way away from the bling bling bullshit, and have less cussing, less violence, and less sex. right now rap is in deep trouble unless things start changing. and hopefully DETOX will be the catalyst to bring it back from the dead. as far as what the album will sound like, i can’t really describe it. plus i dont know what tracks will be on the album. so far dre only has 2 or 3 that he wants to make sure make the album. other than that the field is wide open. and dre is really going for it this time. no instrument, sound or genre is out of bounds. we’ve done tracks with all acoustic instruments. we’ve done some electronica/techno funk tracks. we’ve done some rock tracks. we’ve done some reggae tinged funk tracks. we’ve used a horn section. and we’ve used the live band and orchestra sound I told you about before i left last year. unless we find a sample that will make a song more incredible dre will have 100% original and 100% live instrumentation (excluding some of the drums). i promise that detox will be unlike anything anyone has ever heard. so if you can afford it start saving up for a SACD player and compatible receiver so you can buy the 5.1 digital surround sound version of DETOX. If you do Dre will truly blow you out of the back wall of your house or apartment with detox. and if you turn it up too loud your head may actually explode spraying your brains all over the place. regardless of which version you get DETOX WILL BE A CLASSIC WHICH INSURES THAT DR. DRE's NAME ECHOES IN ETERNITY. AND WITH DETOX DR. DRE WILL DROP THE ULTIMATE BOMB THAT WILL RESONATE FOREVER.

[Dogg_Pound_Gangsta]

good shit homie!!!!!  cant believe that ur leavein.  ur two post r the only real shit ive read in a long ass time!!!!  stay up dogg!!!

[Nima - Dubcnn.com]

thanx for blessing the board with this extrordinary informative post once again, even if its for the last time.
peace

[Suga Foot]

Holy shit, this is what I've been missing since you were gone.  Everytime you post here, it's like a breath of fresh air.  No bullshit, just straight facts.  I'm gonna miss you Mel.  Y'all keep bangin out the hits.

As far as the whole wash thing goes: sometimes you gotta get knocked down to get up.

[#1_wit_a_bullet]

Thanx homie...
Thanx homie...
Thanx homie...
Thanx homie...
Thanx homie...

[Murrow]

Hhmm, thanks.  You didn't seem too excited bout Em's album, or too optimistic on whether Truth would drop anytime soon.  Thanks for the info Mellow.

[=[Euthanasia]=]

Wow, reading that just makes me think you could possibly have the best job in the world! lol. I did think that I could only feel so excited about this album but reading that last bit has made me extremely over excited (if thats possible!). I'm definatly anxious on the lyrical content & the subject matter.
Thanx for the update man, much appreciated, i've learned not to take your posts for granted, you always bring the goods, ALWAYS.

[40oz GRApHire]

yo mellowman tell me this, how did dr dre reacted when dpg killa (from bgko and dresta) dropped?

[Fashizzle]

I just gotta tell u, you are the muthaphukkin man mellowman!
i have never before gotten your kind of nice nice nice information on artists on the net before in my life... big the hella fuck up! ONE!

[Miuzi]

Thanks for the post mellowman, informative as always.

I hope this isn't your last post.

[Nino_Brown]

quik has spent quality time with dre lately

THAT MEANS SPENDING TIME SEXUALLY WITH UR GF

[LyRiCaL_G]

hey mellow thanx for the info man, much needed n appreciated, but yo what about hittman? u didnt even mention him?

[CWalker187]

Detox sounds like it is going to be wack. And now it sounds like Dr. Dre is trying to make DJ Quik wack as well. Fucc that.

[The Big Bad Ass]

Thanks mellow.