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

[.:Hercy Buggz:.]

Also if you listen to Loose Cannons and dont see the Jazz elements you guys dont know shit about music

[WalterOhDim]

This album is a grower, the content is good, its adressing current issues in our society (police brutallity, #blacklivesmatter) I believe that if you cannot relate to some of the subject it may.be a problem to feel the album as a whole

Definitely a grower- with each spin a keep hearing something new come out in the mix.  Crazy stuff.  Love all the horns.

[Mr. Theo]

the album contains 5-6 very good tracks.

well mixed and mastered.

but, isn't a classic and not changed the game

it's simple.

move to the next one: dc2

[Matty]

This album is a grower, the content is good, its adressing current issues in our society (police brutallity, #blacklivesmatter) I believe that if you cannot relate to some of the subject it may.be a problem to feel the album as a whole

fair comment, the angry tone is definitely a reflection of this stuff. at the same time, Dre says on a personal level he can't stand people who use their circumstance as an excuse. i think there's a fine line between being authentic about this stuff and people who use social issues (mainly self-righteous white people) as a projection for their own failures. personal responsibility is underated in liberal culture.

[DJSpin]

Where can I buy a hard copy, is it even out yet?

[UCC]

I think the album works best when you treat it all as one really long piece of music, rather than a collection of individual songs...

It moves through different moods and it's like a suite of musical movements, where no particular one is meant to be the
"hit single" with the big chorus, etc.

I don't love any particular track that much, but when listened to as a whole there is something really interesting and intriguing about it
and there is a lot of detail to keep coming back to and discovering with each listen...

[doggfather]

Where can I buy a hard copy, is it even out yet?

Will there be hard copys?

[WestSideDon]

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....

[dameons]

3 good tracks..fuhq this album. Way too much yelling going on..keep it simple. ..this is jus Dre's effort at new school stuff...just rap Dre !!! Waay too many heads on this album.

[Detox Is A Myth!!!]

I took a couple days to let the album sink in some more so as to come to terms with what my issues are with this album.  First, I think the best stuff is in the second half of the album.  I agree with the New York Times review regarding Deep Water.  Animals is a nice change of pace, and it's cool to hear the two greatest producers in hip hop history collaborating.  I like Talkin to My Diary because it's Dre using his normal voice without the gimmicks he uses elsewhere to sound contemporary.

Having said that, though, all in all, Compton sounds like a Kendrick Lamar album with the fast, aggressive flows, beat changes, modern instrumentation, political subject matter, etc.

It's a real shame that The D.O.C. didn't write Dre's lyrics as on previous albums, because I think Dre sounds so natural and awesome when DOC is writing for him.  Here, Dre sounds interchangeable.  He sounds like he could be any rapper.  There's no individuality to his presence here, and the burden is placed completely on the listener to be familiar with Dre's past accomplishments to understand who he is as an individual.  As it is, on the album Dre is pretty anonymous and doesn't stand out from his guest artists.  He doesn't teach us anything new here about who he is.

Musically, there's very little funk groove to enjoy, which is what Dre has always been at his best creating, plus he doesn't let many of the tracks breathe.  It's so stuffed with a constant bombardment of things going on that it takes away from me being able to lavish in the musicality that would otherwise be on display.  Don't get me wrong -- elif4zaggin was equally stuffed with musical bombardment thanks to the "wall of sound" approach Dre adopted from the Bomb Squad, but back in those days the music was rooted in funk grooves and melody.  I just miss Dre doing what he does best, which he eschews here in favor of trying to sound contemporary, which I guess was inevitable.

I also think the album is sooo self-serious that it comes off as overwrought.  Dre used to always fill his projects with comedy (e.g. Deeez Nuts, Automobile on elif4zaggin, etc.).  The comic relief is needed to provide some relief from the sociopolitical seriousness.  Instead, Dre comes across as seriously harried and put-upon with expectations.  Lighten up dude; you're a billionaire.  It's just music, which YOU used to say to your critics.  (Again, this seems to be Kendrick's influence at work).

Finally, the multi-generational guests don't seem to organically fit together like puzzle pieces.  He goes from Ice Cube to Snoop to Eminem to Game, and I don't think he incorporates them all smoothly.  It's jarring.  He gets them all to use the aggressive flow, but, again, that's not what they're all best at (especially Snoop).

I just feel this is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole...or it could be that this just isn't my style of album.  We need the funk, gotta have that funk.

[Detox Is A Myth!!!]

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....

Completely agree.  I basically just wrote the same thing trying to make some of the same points.  +1

[WestWestYA]

the album contains 5-6 very good tracks.

well mixed and mastered.

but, isn't a classic and not changed the game

it's simple.

move to the next one: dc2

When's the last time quik moved the game? Quik is the name 1991. after ain't moved shit.

[LAC/EASTSIDE]

It's a good album but I agree with those that are a disappointed. Compton isn't classic, it isn't game changing or "Next Level" like some are throwing around, it's good but Dre could have released a good album each year ever since he announced Detox, it needed to be better than good.

I honestly believe that if Straight Outta Compton wasn't coming out Dre's album wouldn't have came out either. The way I feel about it isn't that much different from the way I was feeling about his Detox leaks from before, cool, some better than others but not that instant classic, game changing shit that you'd expect from Dre, especially with the huge hype surrounding it. What they did was smart as fuck though, they marketed the shit out of it, like no other! GetFrom Dre saying that everything he was working on before was not good enough and now he's motivated, re-energized and confidant, blah, blah, blah... all that is just game and building up hype and a smart move. Do you really believe that in the last decade Dre never had 15 dope tracks to put out a proper album with??? the fuck outta here with that noise. What was missing was hype, buzz, a big machine driving the album to the status that a Dre album is expected to have, that's what Dre didn't have these past shitload of years when he was trying to put out an album. Finally working on something that he was feeling and that he believed was good enough, nah hell no, don't believe that shit for a minute, finally a perfect moment to release an album and make the most money out of it ABSOLUTELY! that was the motivation, finally a timely album to release.

The album may not have been the best decision musically, that's obvious from the mixed reviews and obvious let down from what the hype was leading us to believe, BUT IT WAS THE BEST FINANCIAL DECISION. No matter what type of music Dre put out and no matter if it would have been released 10 years ago, 5 years ago or if it would have been released next year, it wouldn't have mattered, there was no more perfect of a moment to release the album then right now in conjunction with the movie. You got the director, actors, featuring artist, Dre, Apple/i-Tunes, etc. all pushing the fuck outta the album, when else would this have happened? They kept it under wraps so there wouldn't be any mixed reviews before it actually dropped, they got the who's who of assholes talking about, "game over", "about to press the reset button on all the bullshit that you thought was dope", I know I aint quoting it right but you know what I'm sayin, all that hype everyone was throwing around. Most people believed that shit though, there's people all over this board talking about, "but he's finally motivated", "he wasn't feeling none of the music he had done before", "the movie inspired him", "the music is on another level", that's what the fuck they told you and wanted you to believe.

That's why i think the music isn't up to where it should be, if it wasn't for this perfect moment, Compton wouldn't have came out either. It is what it is and it aint what it aint. Brilliant marketing on their part, the best I've seen for any album and the music is good but not what it coulda/shoulda been.

I agree with all that 100%. Only a blind fool can't see this. I mentioned this before the album came out actually. It was common sense to me and obvious that Dre pushed this project because of the movie. This was not intended to be "detox" type album.

[heisenberg]

Where can I buy a hard copy, is it even out yet?

Will there be hard copys?

august 21st and you can pre-order it now.

[LAC/EASTSIDE]

gonna wait for the dust to settle before i start dissecting this thing, but i feel myself disliking it more with each play. a few tracks are straight skippers, really missing the soul influence in favour of these loud, dark, aggressive soundscapes. it's just not a sound i can take enjoyement listening to. to give you an idea, best tracks would include 'It's All On Me', 'Animals' and absolute worst would be 'For The Love of Money' - can't believe a beat like that ended up on a Dre album, however good the rapping and mixing is.

You're dead on. People here are over hyping it. Like I stated earlier "It's a GOOD album with a bunch of GOOD tracks that's probably better than 90% of what's out? But don't try and convince yourself that this is a classic. It's not man. Anybody that knows and follows Dre can tell that this shit was not to his standards. Even the beats weren't up to par. This doesn't mean that we're hating on it or anything like that. It's just obvious.