Perhaps no name looms larger in the history of rap music than Dr. Dre. The legendary rapper, who came up in Compton, California with the rebel rap group, N.W.A., and then later made a name for himself as a solo performer while simultaneously introducing the world to Snoop Dogg, is unparalleled.
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If the 58-year-old’s career stopped there, that would be enough. But Dre has produced music for the likes of Jay-Z, discovered Eminem, helped discover 50 Cent and The Game, and more. He’s a legend. On top of that, he later invented Beats by Dre, the most commercially successful headphones in the world.
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So, with all of this to his name, one might wonder what Dre has to say about the world at large outside of his songs. What are his thoughts on his craft, love, his relationships, and more?
Without further ado, here are the 30 best Dr. Dre quotes.
1. “Engineering and mixing are absolutely key. Once a song is done, for me personally, it’s usually two or three days to get the mix down.”
2. “Straight Outta Compton is the album I’m least happy with. I threw it together in six weeks so we could have something to sell out of the trunk.”
3. “Everything that I do is for sound goals. It comes from my gut. When I’m sitting in the studio, a mix isn’t done till I feel it in my gut.”
4. “My mother got pregnant with me at the age of fifteen. This was ’64, and unheard of at that time.”
5. “It’s always weird when people approach me to make an investment. I tell them, ‘I don’t need any more money. I’m good.’ Then I wait for their expression. That part is entertaining, because people look at you like you’re crazy when you say you don’t need any more money. Who says that?”
6. “I was the biggest Public Enemy fan—I think it’s what inspired the aggression of N.W.A. We just took a different route lyrically.”
7. “Anyone that’s trying to do something to improve sound… that’s all good.
8. “It’s entertaining to watch somebody break my music down or explain what he thinks I was thinking during the process of making these records. Because… he has no idea.”
9. “There’s never been any bad vibes between me and Snoop.
10. “It’s always been difficult to make a good record. To be perfectly honest with you, it’s really about the person that’s pushing the buttons. No matter what type of equipment you have, you still have to have a certain talent to be able to make a good record.”
11. “I have tons of music stashed.”
12. “There’s actually a lot of producers that I like to listen to.”
13. “I don’t take any shorts. I don’t say, ‘Okay, it’s good enough.’ I try to get exactly what I’m hearing in my head to the tape, and I won’t let it move until then.”
14. “Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs is a hustler. In fact, he’s what I call an extreme hustler.”
15. “I’ve looked at pictures that my mom has of me, from when I was four years old at the turntable. I’m there, reaching up to play the records. I feel like I was bred to do what I do. I’ve been into music, and listening to music and critiquing it, my whole life.
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16. “People are always coming up to me, thinking I’ve got some magic wand that can make them a star and I want to tell them that no one can do that. Making hit records is not that easy. But it took me time to realize that myself.”
17. “The reason Detox didn’t come out was because I didn’t like it.”
18. “I’ve never considered myself a rapper. I know how to do it. I know how to make my voice project, and I know how to stay on beat and what have you, but I’ve never considered myself a rapper.”
19. “One of the first people that believed in me, the first person to invest in my talent, me and this guy used to argue all the time in the studio, but at the end of the day, we both realized that we were after the same goal, and that was to make great music. And I’m talking about Eazy-E.”
20. “Somebody approached me about working with Michael Jackson, and I did say no because I like working with new artists or people that I’ve worked with in the past. I can develop them from the ground up. There’s no set standard that I have to live up to or anything like that.”
21. “I can remember when I was just, like, about four years old in Compton, and my mother would have me stack 45s, stack about ten of them, and when one would finish, the next record would drop. It was like I was DJ’ing for the house, picking out certain songs and so this song would go after that song.”
22. “You just have to find that thing that’s special about you that distinguishes you from all the others, and through true talent, hard work, and passion, anything can happen.
23. “When the ideas are coming, I don’t stop until the ideas stop because that train doesn’t come along all the time.”
24. “I’m always going to talent scout and try to find new artists to work with.”
25. “When we started Aftermath, we had something like 20 artists, and it was driving me crazy. I couldn’t sit down and focus on any of it. Plus, it was doubly hard because you ended up crushing these people’s dreams when you had to let them go.”
26. “I’ve been living the American Dream for over 25 years—just being able to do what I do, be creative, and make money out of it. It’s incredible.”
27. “I’ve gone seventy-nine hours without sleep, creating. When that flow is going, it’s almost like a high. You don’t want it to stop. You don’t want to go to sleep for fear of missing something.”
28. “If you’re not sincere with it, you shouldn’t say anything at all.”
29. “The only two things that scare me are God and the IRS.”
30. “I’ve always hated authority from an early age. And authority has always hated me.”
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
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