Dr. Dre

Andre Romell Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American record producer and rapper. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and co-founded and was the president of Death Row Records. Young began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru in 1985, and later found fame with the gangsta rap group N.W.A. The group popularized explicit lyrics in hip hop to detail the violence of street life. During the early 1990s, Young was credited as a key figure in the crafting and popularization of West Coast G-funk, a subgenre of hip hop characterized by a synthesizer foundation and slow, heavy production.

Young’s solo debut studio album The Chronic (1992), released under Death Row Records, made him one of the best-selling American music artists of 1993. It earned him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for the single “Let Me Ride”, as well as several accolades for the single “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang”. That year, he produced Death Row labelmate Snoop Doggy Dogg’s debut album Doggystyle and mentored producers such as his stepbrother Warren G (leading to the multi-platinum debut Regulate…G Funk Era in 1994) and Snoop Dogg’s cousin Daz Dillinger (leading to the double-platinum debut Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound in 1995), and would later mentor other producers including Mel-Man and Scott Storch. In 1996, Young left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. He produced a compilation album, Dr. Dre Presents: The Aftermath, in 1996, and released his second solo album, 2001, in 1999.

During the 2000s, Young focused on producing other artists, occasionally contributing vocals. He signed Eminem in 1998 and 50 Cent in 2002, and heavily produced their output while they were signed with Aftermath. Through the label, Dre signed other artists including the Game, Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic, Busta Rhymes, Eve, and Rakim, among others. He has won seven Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Rolling Stone ranked him number 56 on the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Outside of music, Young has acted in films such as Set It Off, The Wash, and Training Day.

Accusations of Young’s violence against women have been widely publicized. Following his assault of television host Dee Barnes, he was fined US$2,500, given two years’ probation, and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service, part of which he fulfilled by making an anti-violence public service announcement. A civil suit was settled out of court. In 2015, Michel’le, the mother of one of his children, accused him of domestic violence during their time together as a couple. The abusive relationship is portrayed in her 2016 biopic Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le. Lisa Johnson, the mother of three of Young’s children, stated that he beat her many times, including while she was pregnant. She was granted a restraining order against him. Former labelmate Tairrie B claimed to that Young assaulted her at a party in 1990, in response to her track “Ruthless Bitch”. Two weeks following the release of his third album, Compton in August 2015, he issued an apology to the women “I’ve hurt”.

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