This Dr Dre biography is fucking HORRIBLE

[Lord Funk]

My God, the reviews were right - this is absolutely terrible. Allow me to vent about this shit.

First off, Ronin Ro is a HORRIBLE writer - I'm less than 50 pages in and this book is barely readable. The guy has done awful research, ripping off other writers' work and showing a complete lack of understanding of who and what he's writing about.

Here's just a few examples, looking at chapter 3 alone.

1. p32 - "Rapper Cli-N-Tel, however, shocked them all by leaving the [Wrecking Cru] for a solo career. Why he left is unknown."
- Are you telling me that NO ONE knows why the guy left? How about Lonzo or Cli-N-Tel themselves? Hey. here's an idea Ronin - why not fucking ASK THEM? What Ronin Ro shows here is that, after being paid an almost certainly handsome advance to write this book, he couldn't be bothered to interview anyone to write it - after all, it's much easier to use other people's interviews, as this next example shows.

2. p35 - "Whodini were performing a peaceful set when one gang member threw someone over a balcony onto the stage. Within minutes, Greg Mack told author Brian Cross, 'a whole section was running, gangs were hittin' people, grabbing gold chains, beating people.'"
- Terrible, terrible journalism. Instead of researching events and talking to sources himself, Ronin simply takes sections of another book on West Coast rap ('It's Not About A Salary' by Brian Cross) to make his point. I'm a journalist by trade and this shit is so fucking unprofessional it's amazing.

3. p30 - "Since reconnecting with Eric, also known as Eazy-E"... p37 - "Eric said he didn't even have a rap name. Cube quickly suggested Eazy-E."
- Which is it Ronin, was Eric known as Eazy-E when Dre met him or after he met Ice Cube? Can't be both, you dumb fuck.

I don't think I'll finish this book. If anyone here is thinking of buying it, DON'T. If I ws Dre I'd be fucking furious that someone was making money of my career with such a laze, unprofessional product.

[QuietTruth]

3. p30 - "Since reconnecting with Eric, also known as Eazy-E"... p37 - "Eric said he didn't even have a rap name. Cube quickly suggested Eazy-E."
- Which is it Ronin, was Eric known as Eazy-E when Dre met him or after he met Ice Cube? Can't be both, you dumb fuck.

No interest in the book but are you sure when he said 'Since reconnecting with Eric, also known as Eazy-E' he was talking to the reader. Letting the reader know when he said Eric, he was meaning Eazy E?

[T-Dogg]

My God, the reviews were right - this is absolutely terrible. Allow me to vent about this shit.

First off, Ronin Ro is a HORRIBLE writer - I'm less than 50 pages in and this book is barely readable. The guy has done awful research, ripping off other writers' work and showing a complete lack of understanding of who and what he's writing about.

Here's just a few examples, looking at chapter 3 alone.

1. p32 - "Rapper Cli-N-Tel, however, shocked them all by leaving the [Wrecking Cru] for a solo career. Why he left is unknown."
- Are you telling me that NO ONE knows why the guy left? How about Lonzo or Cli-N-Tel themselves? Hey. here's an idea Ronin - why not fucking ASK THEM? What Ronin Ro shows here is that, after being paid an almost certainly handsome advance to write this book, he couldn't be bothered to interview anyone to write it - after all, it's much easier to use other people's interviews, as this next example shows.

2. p35 - "Whodini were performing a peaceful set when one gang member threw someone over a balcony onto the stage. Within minutes, Greg Mack told author Brian Cross, 'a whole section was running, gangs were hittin' people, grabbing gold chains, beating people.'"
- Terrible, terrible journalism. Instead of researching events and talking to sources himself, Ronin simply takes sections of another book on West Coast rap ('It's Not About A Salary' by Brian Cross) to make his point. I'm a journalist by trade and this shit is so fucking unprofessional it's amazing.

3. p30 - "Since reconnecting with Eric, also known as Eazy-E"... p37 - "Eric said he didn't even have a rap name. Cube quickly suggested Eazy-E."
- Which is it Ronin, was Eric known as Eazy-E when Dre met him or after he met Ice Cube? Can't be both, you dumb fuck.

I don't think I'll finish this book. If anyone here is thinking of buying it, DON'T. If I ws Dre I'd be fucking furious that someone was making money of my career with such a laze, unprofessional product.

Those are some affirming arguments.

Obviously, just quoting/summarizing/referring to/paraphrasing other people's texts isn't how you write a fucking book.

[The_Urban_Legend]

is their anything about the game situation in the book?

[Oklin]

3. example sucks.. I'm with QT on that one

I can feel the 2 others

[CRAFTY]

That's some lousy writing indeed. Like you said, when you want to write a credible biography you simply have to do some research on the person you're writing about. And that research includes checking past interviews, other books and doing interviews. Hell, even I interviewed some people (including R-Tistic) for my thesis on the evolution of hip-hop culture.

[KURUPTION-81]

Damn everyone has been saying how great this book was, so i place my order it arrives today and then i come on here and see this......typical   

[Digital Pimpin']

I started reading it this morning and thought it was OK so far (about 40 pages in).

However it does seem like a collection of quotes from magazine articles woven together with some gossip and hearsay. It's readable, but that's probably because I'm a Dre fan.

[Eddie G.]

damn, thanks for the heads up, I was gonna buy this shit

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

Aynone who has read Have Gun or Bad Boy should have known Ro is no good at writing a decent book.

[Darksider]

damn, thanks for the heads up, I was gonna buy this shit

[Tanjential]

If you go in there trying to journalistically discredit someone I'm sure you'll have no problems doing it, but I guarantee ANYONE that is a fan of west coast rap would be VERY entertained and satisfied by this book. I was.

-T

[Low Key]

I don't buy hip hop biographies/autobiographies for the simple fact that most of the authors have no clue on how to write readable text. VH1 could give you more insight about hip hop even though they hate it. At least they do their homework. Being in the media trade myself, I know where Ron is coming from.

[Tha Psycho Hustla]

never heard about the other book you mentioned.is it any good?

[Digital Pimpin']

I'm 13 chapters deep and although there's some nice anecdotes in there, they're held together by some very bad writing.

Some of the info is a bit shaky (2001's The Watcher is a Jay-Z collabo?) and he's not too complimentary towards Daz and Quik.