Ice Cube Regrets Not Working More With Dr. Dre

[Sccit]

dre sounds like me

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

Remember they were in the studio together? Cube said they talked about Dre working on I Am the West and Dre sounded on board but then he disappeared. Then Cube said he asked Snoop if he heard from Dre and Snoop told him Dre pulled the same disappearing act on him so Cube didn't take it personal.

Dre bailed on I Am the West, The RED Albun, and Tha Doggumentary. Produced a song for Slim Thug then wouldn't sign the release for. Left Bishop and Stat in the studio completely in the dark as to what his plans were for them. Didn't allow The Recipe video to be released. And no beats on GKMC or MMLP2.

There's a lot of new headphones tho.

This has been happening for a long time.  I remember Kurupt bragging on MTV after Dre did "Questions" that on the next album he was "just gonna have Dre produce the whole album".   LOL... as if he had just figured out Dre was the greatest producer and he was calling the shots. 

Fuck that, bottom line is Dre doesn't owe anybody anything.  Maybe he sat with Cube and he thought his shit wasn't coming tight enough.  Of maybe Dre just felt like chilling at the gym or with the fam or whatever it is Dre does... he's kind of a recluse.  But so what.  Like he said in the greatest mag issue ever, the summer 96 Dre Source cover, "I FEEL I'VE BEEN HELPING PEOPLE FOR A LONG TIME, IT"S TIME FOR DRE TO LOOK OUT FOR DRE!"

[Blood$]

Cube has been reaching out to Dre for over a decade but to no avail.

said who? sounds to me like Cube is saying he regrets not reaching out more

Remember they were in the studio together? Cube said they talked about Dre working on I Am the West and Dre sounded on board but then he disappeared. Then Cube said he asked Snoop if he heard from Dre and Snoop told him Dre pulled the same disappearing act on him so Cube didn't take it personal.

Dre bailed on I Am the West, The RED Albun, and Tha Doggumentary. Produced a song for Slim Thug then wouldn't sign the release for. Left Bishop and Stat in the studio completely in the dark as to what his plans were for them. Didn't allow The Recipe video to be released. And no beats on GKMC or MMLP2.

There's a lot of new headphones tho.

guess it's safe to say Dre doesn't give a fuck about the music anymore then lol

[OldSkool]

Shame really.

Dre is bored with music...

Cube should do more and get a collab with Dre, crawl over broken glass even,maybe get Dre interested again. After Cube's recent BS, he sure could do with help...

WTF is sasquatch... it's just terrible... Last memorable record Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It.

There's been hints of a decent comeback but overall been lacklustre!

[Sccit]

I thought ea ski was guna do cubes shit

If that's the case, it's as close as u can get

[OldSkool]

I thought ea ski was guna do cubes shit

If that's the case, it's as close as u can get

True.

An EA SKi produced album with more old school Ice Cube, would be worth checking out.

[Fonkarround]

Shame really.

Dre is bored with music...

Cube should do more and get a collab with Dre, crawl over broken glass even,maybe get Dre interested again. After Cube's recent BS, he sure could do with help...

WTF is sasquatch... it's just terrible... Last memorable record Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It.

There's been hints of a decent comeback but overall been lacklustre!

yeah sasquatch is pretty weak, everythings corrupt is dope tho

but Cube and Dre are veterans in the game, and they should feel like it and make some grown man music, not like sasquatch but exactly like gangsta rap made me do it or snoop's imagine

[adi760]

Gangsta rap aint sellin no more - look at Laugh Now Cry Later. Fuckin dope Why We Thugs + great for MTV Go To Church with Lil Jon and CD reached only gold. Same with Blue Carpet Treatment - great album, but record labels dont want gangsta thng no more and reached only gold.

[GangstaBoogy]

^ LNCL was independent...gold was awesome.

[Fonkarround]

Gangsta rap aint sellin no more - look at Laugh Now Cry Later. Fuckin dope Why We Thugs + great for MTV Go To Church with Lil Jon and CD reached only gold. Same with Blue Carpet Treatment - great album, but record labels dont want gangsta thng no more and reached only gold.

yeah, Cube's doin independent - but i dont follow the numbers, both Raw Footage And LNCL were dope

[adi760]

They were independent, cuz nobody wanted to release gangsta album  That's why Tha Row couldnt make it.

[Jimmy H.]

Tha Row couldn't make it because most of their original roster left and their CEO went to prison.

[adi760]

Hello, but they have new squad: Crooked i, Eastwood, Gangxsta Ridd, Spider Loc, Danny Boy, Kurupt, N.I.N.A, Michael'Le, Gail Gotti, Phobia, Virginya Slim + producers Darren Vegas + Jim Gittum. And many others stars did fuck with em - Jay-Z, all Murder Ink, Cash Money, Young Buck.
Suge was release in 2001 and couldn't get better distributor then Koch... come on, this is the worst, cheapest shit. That's because people were scared of Suge and all his crew - thx to this soundtrack to Dysfunktional Family sold shit, even if is dope :/

[Jimmy H.]

Hello, but they have new squad: Crooked i, Eastwood, Gangxsta Ridd, Spider Loc, Danny Boy, Kurupt, N.I.N.A, Michael'Le, Gail Gotti, Phobia, Virginya Slim + producers Darren Vegas + Jim Gittum. And many others stars did fuck with em - Jay-Z, all Murder Ink, Cash Money, Young Buck.
Suge was release in 2001 and couldn't get better distributor then Koch... come on, this is the worst, cheapest shit. That's because people were scared of Suge and all his crew - thx to this soundtrack to Dysfunktional Family sold shit, even if is dope :/

Yes, they had a new squad but what does that mean? Those are all new people that the public has to get exposed to and it didn't happen like that. If Suge were interviewed today, who would people ask him about? Crooked I, Spider Loc, and Darren Vegas? Probably not. I would vote for 2Pac, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. That's the Death Row legacy. You can talk about how people were afraid of this and afraid of that but I can look at how the company was promoted and see the problem.

You can have the dopest new artists on the planet but it takes time to get people used to new faces. Outside of the hardcore fan-base, people are looking for names. It's true of any product.  You have a big TV show that loses all the star characters from the past seasons and viewers are going to tune out.  In wrestling in the 90's when all the top WWF guys went to WCW, the ratings shifted to them.

In 1996-97, Death Row put out a "Greatest Hits" album, it was about 85-95% material by Dre, Snoop, Pac, Tha Dogg Pound. Around 1999, they put out "Death Row: Uncut", they had entire blocks of videos and footage by Dre, Snoop, Tupac, and Dogg Pound. Even DJ Quik got a couple of videos featured and some mention by the hosts of the video. Both of these products pushed platinum or better in sales. The majority of their content was dedicated to artists who they no longer associated with or one that was already dead and unable to record new material. "Death Row Uncut" is a bigger commercial for "2001" than it is for "Chronic 2000". When Suge did interviews in print, radio, and late night TV, it was the same thing.  A brief mention of his current artists and the rest of the time dedicated to talking about himself, Tupac, Dre, or Snoop. It would be the same with any album. I think the 4th volume of the Ruff Ryders compilation was probably better than "Chronic 2000" but I bet next to nobody here knows shit about it because it was put out through a small distributor and had next to no songs by DMX, The Lox, or Eve. That's how that goes.

When Death Row put their names on Tupac albums, they sold. I would venture to argue that "2002" sold way more copies than Dillinger & Young Gotti at the time and it was a weaker album. Why? They had the name, "Tha Dogg Pound" on it. They advertised the first single as being "produced by Dr. Dre", even though it wasn't. They advertised 2Pac, Snoop, on there. Never mind that neither Daz or Kurupt was promoting the project. It also had a laundry list of recognizable features.

The Death Row talent pool just wasn't established at the time.  Let's run down the list you gave me.

Crooked I - Talented artist and easily the most promoted of the label at the time but being on a couple albums that also feature Jay-Z songs on them isn't enough buzz to kick off a solo album.

Eastwood - Again... very talented but even less promotion than Crooked.

Gangxsta Ridd - I really feel a need to beat this point over people's heads because a lot of times they don't get it. Having an artist from a group that sells isn't the same as having the group. If you sign Swifty McVay from D-12 to your label, it's not the same as having the whole group. Ridd did some damage with Boo-Ya T.R.I.B.E. but putting him solo means you need to establish him again.

Spider Loc - Was not actually signed to Death Row. He did some interviews here and there but his big break came with G-Unit. Before that, he was known for beating up Bad Azz in Vegas.

Danny Boy - Decent R&B singer but even at the height of Death Row's popularity, when they still had established acts that could co-sign him, they didn't see fit to put out his album. People who were familiar with Death Row knew he was but whatever buzz he would have gotten off "Slip N Slide" or working with Pac in 1996 would have long cooled down by the time, he went back to the label in 2002. Having a nice buzz isn't going to hold over into giant record sales. Cite Lady of Rage's "Afro Puffs", which was a monster single, versus the sales of her solo album, which came out years later, when the label had a far less established roster to back them.

Kurupt - He would be the top established guy on their roster during that time. He had three solo albums before that.  All with features by big names like Dr. Dre, Snoop, Limp Bizkit, Everlast, Xzibit, and so forth. Videos were getting played on MTV a little bit. Little bit of radio play. He was doing about gold. This was when he was touring with Dre and Snoop, appearing in their videos, and making music with lots of platinum artists. At Death Row, the collaboration opportunities were much thinner and the promotion wasn't there.

N.I.N.A. - She was doing quite well as part of TLC, one of the biggest selling groups of the 90's, but she was creatively distancing herself from that. She wasn't promoting herself as "Left Eye" from TLC, she was going by an alias. That means they would need to dedicate the same attention to breaking her as they would a new artist. She was also not participating in the full promotion. She did a XXL cover shoot with the roster but didn't partake in the interview portion.

Mich'elle - Had a huge hit album... when she was still on Ruthless... in 1988. Wasn't on The Chronic. Wasn't on Doggystyle. Outside of one single on Dogg Food and a track on "All Eyez", she didn't do much. She put out a solo album on Death Row in 1998 that flopped.

Gail Gotti - Being a hardcore West Coast fan, I know who she is but the only song I can tell you I know she was on was the one she made with Daz before she went to Tha Row. I'm more familiar with her interviews than her music.

Phobia - I don't know who this is. 

Virgina Slim - Was this Gail Gotti's sister?  Or was that someone else?  I am someone who used to visit Death Row's official website and I doubt I could tell you much about her beyond a song or two and that.

The bottom line with Death Row was the stars they had were not as big a name as the ones that left. They lost their biggest producer and their biggest solo artist in a period of less than nine months.  Before they had time to recover, their CEO went to prison and was unable to oversee the day-to-day operation of the label for over three years. Their one remaining superstar artist also left. If Suge had been on the streets in 1997, he probably would have been able to turn it around and develop new stars but by the time, he was free, all of the names most associated with his label, were on bad terms with him. He was basically starting from scratch with a tainted reputation. I'm sure the media portraying him in a negative light didn't help things but Death Row always had a nefarious reputation and it didn't hurt sales when they had established artists and classic music.

[adi760]

Yeah i agree with alll what U wrote: Death Row sold CD's when it was Dre, Pac, Snoop project. That's why Suge tried to put out 4-disc set with Pac material and single with Crooked I. This would help him so much and maybe the situation could change a lot. Death Row lost good distributor - Interscope, they moved to A&D (or somethin like this) and then to Koch...
Man look at Dysfunktional Family Soundtrack - you have big names like Ja Rule, Young Buck, Jay-Z, Juvenile, Ashanti and sold shit. Because of distributor - the same situation was with Kurupt's Streetz Iz a Mutha. CD was so hyped but wasn't in music stores, that's why reached only gold, not platinum.
Next thing; first new comer supposed to be N.I.N.A.. Yeah i agree that changing name is stupid move, she was well known as Lisa and less promotion would be nedded. She could drop album in 2002, but died. And Suge had problem with her old record company.
If i was Suge I definetly would chill out and stop this gangsta thing for a while. First put out some music then act like star. But nope, he was arrested so many times and this showed that is a guy we don't want to fuck with. When Murder Ink was on a top why didn't make collabo huge single? Tha Row & Murder Ink - Crooked I, Eastwood, Ja Rule + Ashanti. Crooked didn't have own video till 2003. In 2000's videos were the way u selling records. But they put out soundtrack with no signles before WTF? Every album from Row in 90's had minimum three (+some wasn't release). Beef didn't work like alwayz - Aftermatch just ignored him.
West was in bad condition so they (Snoop, Suge, Dre)should sit together and think about bring W back.