plus the hitt interview was wack, a nice read but we read this loadsa time

So what is Dre's role in Aftermath Records? Aftermath has always been partly owned by Interscope.  Jimmy gave Dre total creative freedom and control, as well as upfront money and contracts.  There was a point where Dre's original contract came up and he had a chance to be a free agent.  however, his loyalty to Jimmy for giving the original Chronic and Death Row a chance when no one else would kept him with Intercope.  So a new deal was arraigned.  LAst year Dre sold all but 20% of Aftermath to Interscope for a large 8 figure deal.  Dre still controls the music and the artists, but Interscope still has the final word on everything.  Thats the way most independent labels work.  Now Em's Shady Records has merged with Dre's Aftermath under the Interscope label.  Interscope has the final say, pays for most of the promotion and marketing, the manufacturing and distribution etc.  In Hitt's situation Dre fought for a long time to keep Hitt on Aftermath.  Jimmy got discouraged when Hitt's part on the  Forgot about Dre video got cut out.  he also saw that the media, music executives and a lot of fans (except us on the label and you die hard fans) didn't really feel Hitt.  The reality was that Hittman would be a hard sell and most likely would fail.   Thats the sad truth.  that being said i felt and Dre felt for a long time that it was still worth taking a chance. But as time went along certain things occured, Hitt made some mistakes, dre didn't schedule Hitt as much as he maybe should have and Hitt was ultimately dropped.  Ultimately Dre decided that other projects like Rakim should take precedence over Hitt.  Dre decided it would only be fair to let Hitt go so he could try to find his own deal.  If he did Dre would help him out with a few tracks.  So in the end Dre and Jimmy agreed to drop Hitt from Aftermath.  It's unfortunate and sad, but thats just the way the music business goes.  
Dre does have to answer to Jimmy.  But Jimmy is a very successful former record producer and he made Interscope one the of the top labels in the world.  So dre respects Jimmy and listens to what he has to say.  Jimmy was the one who rejected Dre and Em's finished version of the MMLP.  he made them go back and do more songs.  so dre and em hit the studio and came up with two tracks which jimmy okayed and released.  Those 2 tracks were The Way I am and The Real Slim Shady.  AT the same time Jimmy comes to Dre for advice and input on almost everything that goes on at Interscope.  Jimmy calls Dre THE best producer in the history of all of music, so you know jimmy respects dre.  Jimmy came to Dre at every stage of putting Em's 8 Mile Movie together.  Dre was basically a non credited producer of that movie.  he rejected a lot of the ideas that got cut out of the moive and okayed a lot of the ideas that made the movie.  Jimmy lets Dre decide what artists dre signs to Aftermath.  Jimmy lets Dre have total 100% control of the music Aftermath releases.  Jimmy has to give the final OK before an album goes to get manufactured and released, but Dre usually gets his way.
So dre and jimmy work together in a positive way.  no,  dre is not Jimmys puppet. Jimmy takes dre's advice almost as much as dre takes Jimmy's advice.
Dre and Em have joined forces and will make SHady/Aftermath one of the most powerful labels in the world  - look at the roster - Dre, Em, Rakim, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, etc.  No two artists have sold more records together than Dre and em the last few years. Shady/Afternath have sold more the 50 million albums world wide since the release of the Slim Shady Lp.  and by the way Murder inc and bad boy would have to more than triple their sales in the same time period to beat that.  
Due to time spent on this thread I can't post what I was going to tonight.  I will sometime in the next few days. peace.