West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: Cavvy on February 16, 2012, 11:07:11 PM
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New to the group, longtime reader. This has probably been done to death but Id like your guys opinion on the Death Row era and what could have/should have been acheived given the roster they had over the years.
Put aside the Chronic,Doggystyle and All eyez on me these are classics, you can argue about Dogg Food being a classic but I remember when it dropped a lot of people were disappointed with it. Now personally I feel apart from those records the company completly dropped the ball. Dr Dre leaving was a massive blow of course, imagine if him and Cube had put out Helter skelter on Death Row or if he had a hand in snoops second album. Another mistake? not signing Warren and Nate up to a full album on the back of the Aint no fun record
Other letdowns? waiting too long to drop Rages solo.
They had a second shot at redemption with the second wave of artists but again pushing Crooked I back for a poorly executed Kurupt album probably sunk them we can put that down to Suges fixation on humiliating Snoop, by the way has anyone really forgiven Kurupt for that move? that whole situation and the subsequent beef really shifted my perception on the pound.
But yeah i kinda get upset thinking of how many great projects should have come out in that era but for one reason or another didnt.
Its not easy i guess running a label hell look at what Snoop went through with his own label
peace
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makaveli was also classic
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I guess personally I never saw that album as a classic, the mixing levels are all over the show and a couple of the tracks are just filler imo, it does include some of his best material however.
Maybe the course of time and the fate of its author has helped ease it into classic territory?
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I guess personally I never saw that album as a classic, the mixing levels are all over the show and a couple of the tracks are just filler imo, it does include some of his best material however.
Maybe the course of time and the fate of its author has helped ease it into classic territory?
naw
perfect from 1-12
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:grumpy:
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They didn't push Crooked back for a Kurupt album. Death Row wasn't putting out new artists. Crook saw the writing on the wall and left. Kurupt's album only came out because he left too.
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I guess personally I never saw that album as a classic, the mixing levels are all over the show and a couple of the tracks are just filler imo, it does include some of his best material however.
Maybe the course of time and the fate of its author has helped ease it into classic territory?
naw
perfect from 1-12
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maybe could have put out a few more albums from 92-96, but they had a great run
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maybe could have put out a few more albums from 92-96, but they had a great run
Damn it was a trip, but I just think considering the emerging talent on the coast at the time it could have been so much greater.
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Meh what would happen to Young Money if Drake and Nicki Minaj jumped ship and Lil Wayne was murdered? Same thing. It's very hard for a label to recover from losing its only 3 big artists. Crooked I, Rage and Kurupt were never going to be Snoop status. I don't look at it as a case of dropping the ball with Crooked I but more of cutting their losses.
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thats part of my point though look at a label like cash money and how successful theyve been even in the mid to late 90s with their original roster they were pumping out multiple albums from multiple high profile artists. They endured artists/producers leaving and rebuilt into an even stronger label. Of course they obviously had smarter brains running things
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In my opinion, this is what should have come out on DR:
The Chronic
Doggystyle
Dogg Food, but with more Dre production, trim away some of the weaker tracks, more of Snoop at his peak
Lady of Rage solo, all Dre produced, Snoop, Pound, RBX, etc. guesting pretty heavily, like on Doggystyle
RBX solo album, again, all Dre produced, DR inmates featured heavily
Helter Skelter with Ice Cube, and all Dre production, DR inmates featured heavily
Chronic 2... maybe would have ended up being like 2001, but with inmates all involved
Tha Doggfather, Dre produced, like Doggystyle, but perhaps less funk and more Godfather strings and violin sounds, etc.
I don't think they should have had the soundtracks Murder Was the Case or Above the Rim...
Afro Puffs should have been first single from Rage's album, and Natural Born Killaz should have been on Helter Skelter.
I felt like the soundtracks slowed them down during their peak... at the time people were happy to have a couple more classic tracks, but they didn't seem like "real" albums.
I think Pac could have made just as good an album as All Eyez on me somewhere else... it'd be different, but still great,
and then California Love and Can't C Me could have been on Chronic 2, or Heltah Skeltah or Dogg Food or wherever.
I don't think Pac needed the Death Row guys to make a proper 2Pac album, and I think it just kind of interrupted what Death Row was doing
even more so than the soundtracks. If you really have to have Pac on DR, then I'd say it would have fit more if it was just one disc,
Dre produced, with more features from inmates, or maybe like a Pac/Snoop collab album, all Dre beats
Basically, I think they were a lot stronger with sticking with their core rappers and having Dre produce with Daz, Warren, Sam, etc. co-producing...
I think it fell apart starting with the soundtracks as it took away the focus and then it just unraveled.
The way I see it, they should have had like 6 or so albums all with a classic Dre sound and with just the main crew...
You know how with the Wu, RZA produced 36 Chambers, then ODB's album, Method Man's, GZA's, Rae's, and Ghostface's and
those are all classics and sound kinda related to each other and have the rest of the Wu as the main features?
I'd have liked to see DR like that..
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In my opinion, this is what should have come out on DR:
The Chronic
Doggystyle
Dogg Food, but with more Dre production, trim away some of the weaker tracks, more of Snoop at his peak
Lady of Rage solo, all Dre produced, Snoop, Pound, RBX, etc. guesting pretty heavily, like on Doggystyle
RBX solo album, again, all Dre produced, DR inmates featured heavily
Helter Skelter with Ice Cube, and all Dre production, DR inmates featured heavily
Chronic 2... maybe would have ended up being like 2001, but with inmates all involved
Tha Doggfather, Dre produced, like Doggystyle, but perhaps less funk and more Godfather strings and violin sounds, etc.
I don't think they should have had the soundtracks Murder Was the Case or Above the Rim...
Afro Puffs should have been first single from Rage's album, and Natural Born Killaz should have been on Helter Skelter.
I felt like the soundtracks slowed them down during their peak... at the time people were happy to have a couple more classic tracks, but they didn't seem like "real" albums.
I think Pac could have made just as good an album as All Eyez on me somewhere else... it'd be different, but still great,
and then California Love and Can't C Me could have been on Chronic 2, or Heltah Skeltah or Dogg Food or wherever.
I don't think Pac needed the Death Row guys to make a proper 2Pac album, and I think it just kind of interrupted what Death Row was doing
even more so than the soundtracks. If you really have to have Pac on DR, then I'd say it would have fit more if it was just one disc,
Dre produced, with more features from inmates, or maybe like a Pac/Snoop collab album, all Dre beats
Basically, I think they were a lot stronger with sticking with their core rappers and having Dre produce with Daz, Warren, Sam, etc. co-producing...
I think it fell apart starting with the soundtracks as it took away the focus and then it just unraveled.
The way I see it, they should have had like 6 or so albums all with a classic Dre sound and with just the main crew...
You know how with the Wu, RZA produced 36 Chambers, then ODB's album, Method Man's, GZA's, Rae's, and Ghostface's and
those are all classics and sound kinda related to each other and have the rest of the Wu as the main features?
I'd have liked to see DR like that..
I agree 100%. I've always felt the same thing about those soundtracks slowing them down a bit. I mean yeah those soundtracks were succesfull and classic but i think Suge had alot to do with those decisions, especially after him allegedly not being satisfied with some of the tracks Lady Of Rage had recoreded. I think that Suge pretty much wanted to launch and/or present those artists on the soundtrack to the world before his main artists, which was a mistake. I also agree about those songs being singles.
IMO it should've went something like this..and im not counting RBX since he left.
1994 - Lady Of Rage & Dogg Pound - Considering the fact that they had already semi-established themselves and really stood out on both The Chronic and Doggystyle (aside from Dre/Snoop themselves).
1995 - Helter Skelter joint, Sam Sneed album and then next Snoop album.
1996 - The Chronic 2 and those 2pac albums that eventually came out.
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I've always felt the same thing about those soundtracks slowing them down a bit. I mean yeah those soundtracks were succesfull and classic but i think Suge had alot to do with those decisions, especially after him allegedly not being satisfied with some of the tracks Lady Of Rage had recoreded. I think that Suge pretty much wanted to launch and/or present those artists on the soundtrack to the world before his main artists, which was a mistake.
Word, to me a lot of the problems were because of Suge, because --
a) he didn't make music and didn't really know what he was doing as an exec... the only thing he could occupy himself with was finding and signing more artists and doing more deals which is what he did to fill his time... so you got soundtrack deals and signing Pac, Hammer, trying to sign Wu-Tang, etc. when ironically it would have better if they had fewer deals and also fewer artists on the roster
b) he wanted input on the music side of things, but didn't have a great taste or ear for music, so it watered down the quality control, and again ironically, that was the time when Dre had really good quality control and didn't allow any wackness on The Chronic or Doggystyle, so if Suge had just let Dre get on with it, it would have most likely turned out great...
c) Suge was one of those guys like Master P who just wanted to push loads of product onto the market to make as much money as possible as soon as possible, and thought that the hits would never ever dry up or stop coming and didn't realize that they had to trim all the wackness to get the albums to sound really good
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Signing Pac was essentially the end of Death Row, Suge seemed hell bent on blowing up the West/East friction and through Pac they went to war. Dre obviously saw the writing on the wall and left, like someone said earlier the role Dre could have played was as a RZA like control production freak ensuring quality releases were dropping on the regular. Cant C me and even California Love with Kurupt and Daz on a verse each would have really built DoggFood into a classic, also like UCC was saying Dre building up a team of second tier producers like Warren G would have been great
If it had gone down like that I could have seen the Row signing Bone Thugs after Eazys death, maybe even Ren (potentially leading to some kind of fully fledged NWA release) possibly even Hutch could have bee bought in to bolster production. Not sure how far Danny Boy and Jewell should have been pushed, I couldnt really see either blowing up enough to warrant a full scale release, but I thought B Rezell had promise
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Signing Pac was essentially the end of Death Row
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people forget that Dre released that wack Aftermath compilation in '96
say what you want about Suge, he would have never put out something like that
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people forget that Dre released that wack Aftermath compilation in '96
say what you want about Suge, he would have never put out something like that
Yeah....because The Chronic 2000/Too Gangsta For Radio were just bomb shit that blew away the charts and the industry. Nvm the two 2pac Remix albums that Suge Knight authorized or Death Rows version of Kurupts Album (Taking off a variety of cuts that would of made the album better). Sucking his dick any harder and they'll have to call you "DUst Buster".
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Aftermath compilation was dope from a production standpoint. It just featured artists I didn't care about.
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blunt time was amazing in a production sense, pity RBX was featured on it, Im a fan of the Narrator but those verses were straight up garbage
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people forget that Dre released that wack Aftermath compilation in '96
say what you want about Suge, he would have never put out something like that
Yeah....because The Chronic 2000/Too Gangsta For Radio were just bomb shit that blew away the charts and the industry. Nvm the two 2pac Remix albums that Suge Knight authorized or Death Rows version of Kurupts Album (Taking off a variety of cuts that would of made the album better). Sucking his dick any harder and they'll have to call you "DUst Buster".
chronic 2k and TG4R had some BANGERS on them
but they also had wackass The Realest on them :-/
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Aftermath compilation was dope from a production standpoint. It just featured artists I didn't care about.
Too much rnb filler as well
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Lol @ suge being like master p. Death row were releasing like 1-2 albums a year. Suge was the complete opposite. In fact it's often been said a lot of albums didn't come out because they didn't meet suges standards for quality.
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I know shit would never had been the same without Dre, Pac, Snoop.
But as previously said, I know Tha Row could had made a way much bigger impact. Suge was too busy retaliating here & there, notably with Snoop. That's what fucked up with crooked I, Kurupt, VK, Eastwood & others.. If they would had take the right descision, there could have been some others classics.
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Aftermath compilation was dope from a production standpoint. It just featured artists I didn't care about.
Yeah, true that. There's only a few songs on it that i still listen to. Would've been dope to hear Busta Rhymes on "Fame", he was supposed to be on it.
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I think Pac could have made just as good an album as All Eyez on me somewhere else... it'd be different, but still great,
and then California Love and Can't C Me could have been on Chronic 2, or Heltah Skeltah or Dogg Food or wherever.
I don't think Pac needed the Death Row guys to make a proper 2Pac album, and I think it just kind of interrupted what Death Row was doing
even more so than the soundtracks. If you really have to have Pac on DR, then I'd say it would have fit more if it was just one disc,
Dre produced, with more features from inmates, or maybe like a Pac/Snoop collab album, all Dre beats
While I agree that Pac from an artist point did not need Death Row to make great music. It was actually a solid pairing for commercial purposes. The public is fickle. You need to switch things up from time to time. Pac going there made the entire thing exciting again. Dre and Snoop were there for four years at this point. The idea of Pac working with Snoop or Pac working with Dre breathed new life into the formula. Putting Pac there also put him in a position where he could handpick all these great beats and make that double album quickly. One important thing to remember about "All Eyez" was that some of the best songs were waiting there for him when he got there. The down side was the entire direction of the company was completely adjusted to center around him, which I think hurt them in the long run.
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In my opinion, this is what should have come out on DR:
The Chronic
Doggystyle
Dogg Food, but with more Dre production, trim away some of the weaker tracks, more of Snoop at his peak
Lady of Rage solo, all Dre produced, Snoop, Pound, RBX, etc. guesting pretty heavily, like on Doggystyle
RBX solo album, again, all Dre produced, DR inmates featured heavily
Helter Skelter with Ice Cube, and all Dre production, DR inmates featured heavily
Chronic 2... maybe would have ended up being like 2001, but with inmates all involved
Tha Doggfather, Dre produced, like Doggystyle, but perhaps less funk and more Godfather strings and violin sounds, etc.
I don't think they should have had the soundtracks Murder Was the Case or Above the Rim...
Afro Puffs should have been first single from Rage's album, and Natural Born Killaz should have been on Helter Skelter.
I felt like the soundtracks slowed them down during their peak... at the time people were happy to have a couple more classic tracks, but they didn't seem like "real" albums.
I think Pac could have made just as good an album as All Eyez on me somewhere else... it'd be different, but still great,
and then California Love and Can't C Me could have been on Chronic 2, or Heltah Skeltah or Dogg Food or wherever.
I don't think Pac needed the Death Row guys to make a proper 2Pac album, and I think it just kind of interrupted what Death Row was doing
even more so than the soundtracks. If you really have to have Pac on DR, then I'd say it would have fit more if it was just one disc,
Dre produced, with more features from inmates, or maybe like a Pac/Snoop collab album, all Dre beats
Basically, I think they were a lot stronger with sticking with their core rappers and having Dre produce with Daz, Warren, Sam, etc. co-producing...
I think it fell apart starting with the soundtracks as it took away the focus and then it just unraveled.
The way I see it, they should have had like 6 or so albums all with a classic Dre sound and with just the main crew...
You know how with the Wu, RZA produced 36 Chambers, then ODB's album, Method Man's, GZA's, Rae's, and Ghostface's and
those are all classics and sound kinda related to each other and have the rest of the Wu as the main features?
I'd have liked to see DR like that..
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dogg pound were inferior on Cant C Me compared to Pac's 3 verses
and u know Dre wasnt finishing Chronic 2 anytime soon
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While I agree that Pac from an artist point did not need Death Row to make great music. It was actually a solid pairing for commercial purposes. The public is fickle. You need to switch things up from time to time. Pac going there made the entire thing exciting again. Dre and Snoop were there for four years at this point. The idea of Pac working with Snoop or Pac working with Dre breathed new life into the formula. Putting Pac there also put him in a position where he could handpick all these great beats and make that double album quickly. One important thing to remember about "All Eyez" was that some of the best songs were waiting there for him when he got there. The down side was the entire direction of the company was completely adjusted to center around him, which I think hurt them in the long run.
Very good points. I think Pac earned his spot on Death Row with the huge success of his album along with already having been an established star, but Suge gave him too much control within the company too quickly, having essentially pushed aside every artist except for Snoop. I remember reading some article (though I can't remember who from Death Row was being interviewed) regarding when they had signed Hammer, and supposedly Suge made the decision with input from Snoop and Pac specifically, which tripped me out because by that time, Pac couldn't have been on Death Row for more than two or three months, yet his input carried more weight than anyone else's on the label who had been a part of the group for longer, such as Dre (who was already on his way out by that time), Sam Sneed, Rage, etc. (I left out the Dogg Pound artists since Snoop was more or less speaking on their behalf.)
I understand Suge pushing Pac's album to capitalize on the buzz around it along with both Pac and Death Row being in headlines, which obviously paid off, but I think Rage should've been able to put an album out since she had buzz and was good on the mic too. I'd say summer 1996 would've been the best time to do it, since it would've been her turn, though despite her lack of involvement in Death Row's beefs, I'm sure she would've caught some flak for it just because of her affiliation with the label.
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dogg pound were inferior on Cant C Me compared to Pac's 3 verses
and u know Dre wasnt finishing Chronic 2 anytime soon
Dogg Pound dumbed down their lyrics cause they made it a party track
would have liked to hear what Ice Cube would have sounded on it
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I wonder if those Heltwr Skelter tracks will ever see the light of day. Its rumored Dre copied every one of his masters before jumping ship
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dogg pound were inferior on Cant C Me compared to Pac's 3 verses
and u know Dre wasnt finishing Chronic 2 anytime soon
Dogg Pound dumbed down their lyrics cause they made it a party track
would have liked to hear what Ice Cube would have sounded on it
regardless of what they did, Pac didn't have to dumb down his lyrics and still made it hype as fuck
too bad that DPG one isnt out in CDQ though
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dogg pound were inferior on Cant C Me compared to Pac's 3 verses
and u know Dre wasnt finishing Chronic 2 anytime soon
Dogg Pound dumbed down their lyrics cause they made it a party track
would have liked to hear what Ice Cube would have sounded on it
regardless of what they did, Pac didn't have to dumb down his lyrics and still made it hype as fuck
too bad that DPG one isnt out in CDQ though
Pac killed the track with emotion, as far as lyrics he was not saying much
Cube would have really spit some knowledge on it though
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when 2pac came to death row he made that muthaphukka GREATER ya'll TRIPPIN'
you guys say that now cuz yall fucking was like 2 years old when he was on death row. when he went changed label Death Row was seen as unstoppable. and was viewed like that even before he joined. Death row made enough great music to be considered one of the best labels. but just didn't keep it going cuz of NIGGA shit!
random thought tho
Loud Records>All record labels
8)
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when 2pac came to death row he made that muthaphukka GREATER ya'll TRIPPIN'
you guys say that now cuz yall fucking was like 2 years old when he was on death row. when he went changed label Death Row was seen as unstoppable. and was viewed like that even before he joined. Death row made enough great music to be considered one of the best labels. but just didn't keep it going cuz of NIGGA shit!
random thought tho
Loud Records>All record labels
8)
I have to disagree, Pac certainly heightened the notoriety and raised the profile of Death Row but ultimately his signing and the subsequent fuckery him and Suge over indulged in resulted in the whole place breaking apart. I may catch flames for this but if Pac was never signed the legacy of the Row would be much greater than it is today.
All Eyez on me may be regarde as a classic by many but personally I think its Pacs 3rd best record and contains a bunch of filler
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when 2pac came to death row he made that muthaphukka GREATER ya'll TRIPPIN'
you guys say that now cuz yall fucking was like 2 years old when he was on death row. when he went changed label Death Row was seen as unstoppable. and was viewed like that even before he joined. Death row made enough great music to be considered one of the best labels. but just didn't keep it going cuz of NIGGA shit!
random thought tho
Loud Records>All record labels
8)
I have to disagree, Pac certainly heightened the notoriety and raised the profile of Death Row but ultimately his signing and the subsequent fuckery him and Suge over indulged in resulted in the whole place breaking apart. I may catch flames for this but if Pac was never signed the legacy of the Row would be much greater than it is today.
All Eyez on me may be regarde as a classic by many but personally I think its Pacs 3rd best record and contains a bunch of filler
but thats not my argument here. im saying he made death row much better. and it's not like it was fucking 2pacs fucking fault for death row falling. It was dre. he was the brains of the whole operation!
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but thats not my argument here. im saying he made death row much better. and it's not like it was fucking 2pacs fucking fault for death row falling. It was dre. he was the brains of the whole operation!
Even though Suge essentially took over Death Row and pushed Dre out of being a 50-50 partner, it doesn't seem like Dre tried all that hard to fix what he thought was wrong with Death Row. Just listen to his interviews where he talked about Death Row... he mentioned how "nothing was being done" about the behind-the-scenes bullshit, like he was expecting someone else (probably Suge) to put a stop to it rather than standing up and doing something about it. Regardless of how deep Suge rolled, Dre could've at least influenced a few people, especially within Snoop's camp, who were still a big portion of Death Row's roster even after Dre left. Suge surely contributed to the shit going on behind the scenes, but I'm pretty sure that if Dre had a man-to-man conversation with him, maybe Suge would've taken it to heart and realized that despite the huge cash flow, they were losing direction as a company regardless of how feared they were.
While it ended up being a good career move for him to have left (considering how Pac died, Suge went to prison and the label basically collapsed), it's sad how he just walked away without wanting to fix it. Sure, maybe it was mostly Suge's mess, but it was still his company that he helped create, and he just left it because he didn't want to clean it up before it was even really all that bad. Who knows, maybe Dre's maturity that came about after he had his legal troubles would have made even better music while keeping Death Row out of trouble. He was closer to Suge's age, so even if he didn't have much pull, you'd think that people would at least consider his opinions.
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but thats not my argument here. im saying he made death row much better. and it's not like it was fucking 2pacs fucking fault for death row falling. It was dre. he was the brains of the whole operation!
Even though Suge essentially took over Death Row and pushed Dre out of being a 50-50 partner, it doesn't seem like Dre tried all that hard to fix what he thought was wrong with Death Row. Just listen to his interviews where he talked about Death Row... he mentioned how "nothing was being done" about the behind-the-scenes bullshit, like he was expecting someone else (probably Suge) to put a stop to it rather than standing up and doing something about it. Regardless of how deep Suge rolled, Dre could've at least influenced a few people, especially within Snoop's camp, who were still a big portion of Death Row's roster even after Dre left. Suge surely contributed to the shit going on behind the scenes, but I'm pretty sure that if Dre had a man-to-man conversation with him, maybe Suge would've taken it to heart and realized that despite the huge cash flow, they were losing direction as a company regardless of how feared they were.
While it ended up being a good career move for him to have left (considering how Pac died, Suge went to prison and the label basically collapsed), it's sad how he just walked away without wanting to fix it. Sure, maybe it was mostly Suge's mess, but it was still his company that he helped create, and he just left it because he didn't want to clean it up before it was even really all that bad. Who knows, maybe Dre's maturity that came about after he had his legal troubles would have made even better music while keeping Death Row out of trouble. He was closer to Suge's age, so even if he didn't have much pull, you'd think that people would at least consider his opinions.
this.
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^ Haha thanks. But the more I think about it, the more I remember what I don't like about Dre. He's a control freak who wants stuff done his way, and unless he has control or gets his way, he walks away... sometimes he's right, sometimes he's wrong. It's like that even when it comes to artistic creativity. Dre's a musical genius, which is why he works so well with new artists who have talent but need focus since they will do what he wants. Snoop was just happy to be in the same room as Dre and would gladly have rapped in Chinese if Dre told him to. And later on, Eminem was in a similar situation, just glad to get out of Detroit and finally put his talent to work while being able to take care of himself and his daughter. But despite both of them having been rapping for a bit before meeting Dre, it was Dre who introduced them to real studio recording to tell them how to do it. Whereas other artists who were already established always had problems with him... Pac moved so much faster than Dre and was more dedicated to the label, Rakim didn't want to go in the direction that Dre wanted him to go into, etc. And those relationships were all brief. But it just shows how Dre changes his mind and moves onto the next project if his current one seems like there will be even the slightest hurdle.
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but thats not my argument here. im saying he made death row much better. and it's not like it was fucking 2pacs fucking fault for death row falling. It was dre. he was the brains of the whole operation!
Even though Suge essentially took over Death Row and pushed Dre out of being a 50-50 partner, it doesn't seem like Dre tried all that hard to fix what he thought was wrong with Death Row. Just listen to his interviews where he talked about Death Row... he mentioned how "nothing was being done" about the behind-the-scenes bullshit, like he was expecting someone else (probably Suge) to put a stop to it rather than standing up and doing something about it. Regardless of how deep Suge rolled, Dre could've at least influenced a few people, especially within Snoop's camp, who were still a big portion of Death Row's roster even after Dre left. Suge surely contributed to the shit going on behind the scenes, but I'm pretty sure that if Dre had a man-to-man conversation with him, maybe Suge would've taken it to heart and realized that despite the huge cash flow, they were losing direction as a company regardless of how feared they were.
While it ended up being a good career move for him to have left (considering how Pac died, Suge went to prison and the label basically collapsed), it's sad how he just walked away without wanting to fix it. Sure, maybe it was mostly Suge's mess, but it was still his company that he helped create, and he just left it because he didn't want to clean it up before it was even really all that bad. Who knows, maybe Dre's maturity that came about after he had his legal troubles would have made even better music while keeping Death Row out of trouble. He was closer to Suge's age, so even if he didn't have much pull, you'd think that people would at least consider his opinions.
The long and short of it is that Dre didn't feel comfortable working in that environment anymore he was scared. He had to leave for his own wellbeing there was no turning that ship around at that point it was too deeply routed in the gang mentality.
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The long and short of it is that Dre didn't feel comfortable working in that environment anymore he was scared. He had to leave for his own wellbeing there was no turning that ship around at that point it was too deeply routed in the gang mentality.
I disagree though. First of all, Death Row has always had gang ties, as damn near all of the artists claimed something, though of course Suge brought more and more of his own people in as Death Row "employees" who weren't artists or contributing musically in some way, shape or form. But I'd say the gang shit didn't start getting out of control until after Dre left, which coincided with when Pac started getting all into the M.O.B. shit.
But despite Dre feeling more and more isolated from his own company, especially with all of the "cream of the crop from the streets" (as Bustop from O.F.T.B. once put it) having been signed to Death Row by Suge (but not by Dre), he was still being recognized as Death Row's main hitmaker at that time. There were Dre interviews where he said random guys at Can-Am would be approaching him, stating that they had been signed and would be working with Dre, so obviously he was still a valued asset to the team if people wanted to work with him. And even in his last days there, it was essentially his single that was expected to kick off Pac's album, and it definitely played a big role in All Eyez on Me's success, especially upon its initial release. Luckily, other Death Row producers had caught their stride, so Daz and Johnny J were able to carry the album beat-wise with the following singles that they did, despite it having only two Dre-produced songs. And Snoop even wanted Dre to work on Tha Doggfather, but of course Dre didn't want to have any affiliation with Death Row at that point.
Basically I think Dre still had enough importance to the company to be heard, but he never bothered to say anything. When the studio engineer got beat up for rewinding the tape too far back (which he had mentioned was the last straw to him and lead to him leaving), I doubt that he did anything to even get the goons to leave the guy alone. Dre wasn't a shot caller behind the scenes, but I highly doubt that at that time before leaving, Dre would've been beat up in the studio by them, given the fact that he was Dre and built the label. Even some random thug of Suge's would know that.