FINALLY! Dr. Dre & DJ Premier collaborate on a beat. Please share your thoughts!

[Rebel]

Wassup, everyone?

I know there's already a few threads on "Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre," but I honestly believe this song (particularly the beat) deserves its own thread. This is historical, as you have arguably the two greatest producers in Hip Hop's history finally working together and releasing a song together (a dream come true for any fan of production).

Personally, I thought this was a perfectly produced beat/song. You can clearly hear both Dre and Primo's styles, but neither one tries to overwhelm the other. They both flow together seamlessly, and the outcome was pure Hip Hop magic; smooth, creative, soulful...perfection.

What are your thoughts on this great track (mainly the beat)?

[Rebel]

I'm sure y'all Hip Hop heads appreciate this track...

[TidyKris]

It is the best track on the album...i would call it the "Housewife" and "Let Me Ride" of the Compton album.
The smoothest beat on there...would have liked more smooth beats like this on the album buy hey...it is what it is

[BlueSwan]

You can clearly hear both Dre and Primo's styles, but neither one tries to overwhelm the other.

Love the track, but I have to disagree with that statement. This is a Premo beat with Dre mixing it and maybe fiddling a bit with it. At least that's what it sounds like to me. But who cares, the shit is bangin' and Anderson brings the heat as well.

[Matty]

You can clearly hear both Dre and Primo's styles, but neither one tries to overwhelm the other.

Love the track, but I have to disagree with that statement. This is a Premo beat with Dre mixing it and maybe fiddling a bit with it. At least that's what it sounds like to me. But who cares, the shit is bangin' and Anderson brings the heat as well.

yup it sounds like a Premo beat, with Dre's mixing and finishing touches. as much of a collab as you could expect and it works perfectly

the track is great, one of the best on the LP. it's a shame there wasn't more like this and no second verse.

[jones5099]

its my favorite track on the album.... and i think the whole album is dope

[Jimmy H.]

It is the best track on the album...i would call it the "Housewife" and "Let Me Ride" of the Compton album. 

  I would say it's a little more meaningful than either of those.  It reminds me of a more mature and updated version of "Fuck The Police".

[Rebel]

It definitely makes me wish for more collabs between the two... like why haven't they collabed before? Ego? ha

[PLANT]

The song is fucking amazing, no question.

[Rebel]

The song is fucking amazing, no question.

No doubt, holmes... plus it makes you wonder/imagine what they could've cooked on Rakim's "Oh My God" LP...

[Game-Won]

Its a great song - in my top 5 on the album.

I noticed Dre worked with Rza on Badboys 2, would love to see them do a record in 2015.

[Rebel]

Its a great song - in my top 5 on the album.

I noticed Dre worked with Rza on Badboys 2, would love to see them do a record in 2015.

Wait, was it on the same beat?

[TidyKris]

It is the best track on the album...i would call it the "Housewife" and "Let Me Ride" of the Compton album.  

 I would say it's a little more meaningful than either of those.  It reminds me of a more mature and updated version of "Fuck The Police".

No man you missed my point...im talking about the beat not the lyrical content. The laid back smoothness of it

[TRG]

Bit of background on the track 

Do you recall the first time you ever met Dr. Dre?
Yeah, the first time we met was [in] 1989 at a Gang Starr release party for No More Mr. Nice Guy in Manhattan. It was him, Eazy-E, and MC Ren. That was a big deal because they were new to coming to New York, and then to come to our party when we were just starting to bubble with “Words I Manifest.” We weren’t at the level of what they were doing already. So, that was a big deal.

How were you approached to be a part of Compton?
I had already sent Dre tracks for something else last year that’s totally irrelevant to the Compton soundtrack. At that time, he didn’t have a plan to do anything. He was just focused on filming the movie, wasn’t working on the soundtrack or nothing. When we were on the phone, he was like, “Can you send me some tracks? I want to start working on some new stuff. I don’t have any plans yet, but I definitely want some Premier tracks.” So, I sent him like five demos, just a few to eventually work on. I wasn’t in a rush to stress him.

All of a sudden, I’m working on a project in Russia with Boiler Room TV, with a producer named BMB Spacekid from Moscow, who’s like the top hip-hop producer in Russia. Boiler Room wanted to see if I could collab with another producer, which I don’t do, but I thought it would be unique for a Russian producer and I to get together, so I said I was interested in doing it. After saying, “Let’s do it,” [they] said [they] were going to get MF Doom to be the voice for the project once we could put our beats together, using Russian samples and stuff like that.

The first beat that we worked on was the one that Dre took. It wasn’t intended for Dre at the time. When I was about to head out there, MF Doom was sick and couldn’t make it. He couldn’t fly due to a minor surgery he had. So when I asked, “Who are you going to get?” [Boiler Room TV] got a guy named Anderson Paak. I’d never heard of him. They sent me a video called “Suede” and I saw they had Stones Throw artist Knxwledge doing the beat. I’m a Stones Throw fan, a Peanut Butter Wolf fan, so the connection let me know he was official. I loved the video, loved the vibe in the basement, and he looked so confident in the video. I hit them back and said, even though I’d never heard of him, I’m totally down to put my name with his. He just so happened to be doing a meeting with Dre for some of his music, which was totally irrelevant to mine, so he already had his connection with Dre.

We worked on two beats in Moscow. We did one song called “Til It’s Done,” which is more of a bounce/trap sort of the beat. The other one was a more boom-bap style that I do. BMB said I could do whatever I want when something comes around to it. When the Freddie Gray murder and the riots happened in Baltimore, Anderson called me and said, “Yo man, that other beat that we didn’t use, I just wrote some sh*t down about the bullsh*t that’s going on in Baltimore. It’s called ‘F.S.U.,’ which stands for ‘fu*k sh*t Up.’” He sent it, I thought, “Wow, this is ill.”

Right around that time, he had a session with Dre and when Dre heard it, he said, “This is totally up my alley for the Compton soundtrack.” The ’92 riots happened with Rodney King and stuff, it coincided with what we wanted to do with the Compton album. He reached out and said, “I want to put a rap on it, a Dre verse,” and I said, “Hell yeah!” How am I gonna say no to that? “You should come out, and let’s work on it together because it’s your beat, and we can add on to it and mix it down together, sprinkle it with some stuff to make it a full song. Do you mind if I change the title to ‘Animals’ instead of ‘fu*k sh*t Up’?” and I said, “Yeah, that’s cool.’”

Being you got to work so closely with Dre, do you find your approaches to producing have more similarities or differences?
Honestly, the similarities were almost identical on every level. I’ve been in sessions with him back when they were working on Doggystyle. They had a concert they were going to do at Prince’s club Glam Slam and they had a new version of “bi*ches Ain’t sh*t.” They were going have Lady of Rage do a rebuttal called “Niggaz Ain’t sh*t” on stage. I was there when they were working on that, watching the D.O.C. freestyle with his vocal chords gone but still saying dope punchlines. Daz was in there, Kurupt’s in there.

When I walked in the room, Dre was working on a song called “All in a Day's Work.” It was dope to see that process. There’s a lot to do and for him to be comfortable with me being in the room to watch him do it was super dope.

At any point between 2002 and 2012, when Detox was still actively promoted as Dr. Dre’s next project, were you asked to contribute to it?
No. Everything that you’re hearing for this project now is all brand new music. I asked how many songs he was putting on [Compton] and he said 16. I said “16! People don’t even do that any more!” They’re all really strong songs. When he had me record vocals for the end of the song that I did, he don’t have a vocal booth. He has you do the song in front of him. And even when I went to do my shout-out, he said, “Do it more like this. Give me a little more energy.” There was a certain energy he was looking for and I’m no rapper so I didn't mind taking the direction. For the cuts and scratching, I did my thing, and he was super cool about any adjustments I wanted to make. He wasn’t overbearing about my opinions. It was a really comfortable environment.

http://ca.complex.com/music/2015/08/dj-premier-dr-dre-compton-interview

[Fonkarround]

thanks for the interview!