hey whatsup everybody. before i forget, since i won't post again til sometime next year, I want to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season - wherever you may be.  I also want to mention Jam Master Jay real quick. a lot of you are younger cats so you probably don't understand the magnitude of his loss.  it was devastating. dre and ra and a lot of us older cats are still deeply sad and shocked at his violent death. Ra took it harder than anyone. him and jay weren't real close but they toured together and came up at the same time.  I'll talk more about the musical effect on Ra later. dre made a contribution to jays trust fund and everyone else pitched in some too. jays death is just another step back in rap. soon we'll be past the point of no return.  it makes you wonder if all this shit is worth it. run dmc retiring for good makes this all the more disheartening. oh well what can u do? the only thing we can do is to do something to change where hip hop is. that gets us back in the studio everday. we have something worthwhile to fight for. this music we love is in trouble and unless a lot of things change , the things Run DMC and JMJ, rakim, dre and other pioneers have fought and even died for will be lost.
The last couple of weeks rap has had some great albums come out.   no I ain't talking about snoop, jay z or ja fool. I'm talking about Talib Kweli's QUALITY and The Roots PHRENOLOGY. those are two incredible records and they actually have something positive and meaningful to contribute to hip hop. no beefs, no bling bling, no bitches and litlle violence, just dope and powerful music. go support these artists. help change the tide of the types of records people are buying.  you guys have the power, go do something about it.
People have been asking me about Ice Cube.  When I tell them I have no comment I mean it.  No actually deal has been agreed upon, so until cube and dre agree on a contract, and cube gives his John Hancock, nothing is official.  but have no fear, a big squabble would have to occur for the deal not to get done. a authentic deal is thisclose.
the next topic I want to discuss is the steady and rising criticism of Dre's production, as well as the accusation Dre is turning his back on the westcoast. As far as accusing Dre of turning his back on the westcoast, that is the ultimate disrespect. without Dre there is NO westcoast, this forum would not be in existance and a lot of doors would remain closed.  the fact is dre doesn't look at location he looks at talent, work ethic, originality, etc. dre doesn't owe the westcoast anything. dre laid down the blueprint, blazed the trail and gave opportunities to a large amount of talented artists here on the westcoast.  Dre won't be around forever, its not his responsibilty or in the best interests of the westcoast to run a monopoly over artists.  its time for others like snoop, the original inmates and many other westcoast artists to pick up the slack and create opportunites.  a lot of these artists learned so much knowledge and musical techniques from dre, its time for them to grow up, be their own man and get shit done. if dre finds an artist who happens to live on the westcoast whom he wants to guide and help become successful he will. dre don't care about location, creed, color or religion - he cares about music and any type of person who has something positive to contribute.
   This month is the 3rd anniversary of "2001".  Dre's production on "2001" has had a monsterous impact on rap and music.  every other song on the radio has a "2001" influence.   dre brought 2 things to the forefront on "2001". One, was the futuristic sound Dre established.  the  outer space sound affects that zip back on forth started on "2001". now that sound effect is on a thousand tracks. Two, Dre brought the minimalistic live instrument sound to music.  the beats weren't incredibly complex, but they were start from scrath, made outta thin air tracks (2001 used only 2 samples).  Dre emphasized booming drum tracks and kicks (with Mel man's input), strings, bass, a lot of keyboards and piano, a little guitar, and a few other brass and other instruments.  Dre set another trend and almost everyone followed (except for groups like outkast and the neptunes, a producers like alchemist, kanye west etc).  Dre's productions since 2001 have stayed on the same type of vibe for the most part. he did change things up with tracks like Break Ya Neck, X, Fight music,etc.  I strongly disagree with anyone who says Dre hasn't made a lot of dope dope tracks since 2001. I can go on for 20 songs that are as good as anyone's. y'all just spolied.  sure some tracks didn't turn out great and yeah the sound has gone stale a bit. but most of the reasons Dre's "2001" sound has gone stale isn't dres fault.  a ton of producers and artists copied the sound and eventually caught up and surpassed Dre.  However, these lazy copycats weren't going to dictate what Dre was doing.                                   CONTINUED

True... the better you are, the harder it is.. people cant listen to MUSIC without thinkin bout the past so we always gon hear shit like "oh he fell off" "im ancitipating another Chronic" blabla... anywayz, good post so far

Let the man continue his post.

Did we tell him to stoP?

^Now that's a dedicated fan^

just to quickly address my man suga foots comments I have to disagree with you on some of your remake comments.  Forgot about Dre DID NOT lift anything from the No Doubt song. yeah it does sound the same somewhat, however camara was very insistent and careful of not sampling anything. Dre and Camara came up with that track from scratch and the bassline was added. any similarity is coincidental. XXplosive was a track that was done way back when Colin Wolfe was still working with Dre. that was a sample, and we just made some additions to the original track dre and colin came up with. camara added keyboards so that is why he got credit.he wasn't one of the original songwriters though. anything dre and camara worked on when creating an original compisition was 100% original (i.e. Whats the diff, forgot about, some la, etc.) We used a sample on next episode, a sample on lets get high, a third sample was using the THX sample at the beginning.  but suga foot thanks for bringing those things up to people.  you sound like an intelligent and knowledgable person. I think everything else on 2001 was totally original. its been 3 and a half to four years since most of those tracks were done so I may have forgotten.  just to let ya know I'll post something on Oh MY GOD and DETOX on a new thread. peace.

damn, suga - you are on top of shit. i'm beginning to wonder if you were in the studio with us. all kidding aside - i ran through all the tracks in my head and the final sample count was 3 songs and the thx sample.  it seems like we worked on those tracks 2 decades ago.  those tracks seem light years away from what we're doing now. anyway, my point was that MOST of 2001 was original compisitions using live instruments to create a minimalistic sound that has been copied over and over and over again.

Thanks Once Again For The Post - Just The Info In Those Puts Peoples Minds At Rest

I Hope, Like You Say, Dre Takes This Anger & Frustration Of Being Pushed Back On This "Ledge" And Uses It To Make Amazing Music!

Mellow I Dont Think You'll Be Reading This But On The Off Chance You Are : What Is Happening With Dre & Quik? They Working Together At All, I Ask Mainly Because Some Of Quiks Lyrics On His Latest Track "Streetz Iz Callin" Got Me Wondering If The Recent "Addictive" Court Case Had Caused Friction Between The Two?

Once Again Thanks For The Post & Have A Good Christmas & New Year!

though i have been getting tired of dre's recent beats this post has restored by faith that dre is cooking up some classics, my faith had fallen of a little with production on man vs. machine. but now im anticipating the fuck out of his new shit, i hope this pushing towards the ledge let's dre pull out his best production to date to fight back.


good read mellowman and peace.