The Musical Origins of Dr. Dre

In the year 2023, decades removed from his hip-hop start with N.W.A. in the mid-1980s, Dr. Dre is still leaving his mark. Along with earning ASCAP’s first-ever Hip-Hop Icon Award, created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the genre, Dre is also hard at work producing Snoop Dogg’s 20th studio album, Missionary, set to release sometime in 2023.

But, before the platinum plaques, the Beats by Dre headphones, the Super Bowl performances, the collaborations with Snoop, Kendrick Lamar, and more, Dre was just a humble hip-hop head, looking to carve out a career in a burgeoning new music style. Here are the origins of the Compton, California legend.

Dr. Dre, whose legal name is Andre Romell Young, was born in February 1965. From the start, he was destined to lead a life in the music industry, considering his father made his last name the moniker of his R&B band at the time, the Romells.

During his youth, though, Dre’s parents split up and remarried, which caused Dre to move to and from several different Los Angeles neighborhoods, such as Compton, Watts, South Central, and more. Additionally, he attended multiple schools, and even spent time living in the projects with his grandmother before his mom was wed to fellow iconic California rapper Warren G. After bouncing between several schools, including one that specialized in radio broadcasting, Dre would finally find his niche in music.

Under the name Dr. J, Dre began DJing at a club called Eve’s After Dark in the early 1980s. Here, he would meet DJ Yella, who was an eventual core member of N.W.A. With Dre on production and Yella on vocals, the duo would use a studio in the back of Eve’s After Dark to record rap records together. This led to them joining World Class Wreckin’ Cru, an electronic-rap-R&B group consisting of up to eight members. Throughout their run, they would put out regional hits like “Surgery,” off their 1985 debut album, World Class, where Dre’s turntable skills helped the posse become a prominent act in Los Angeles.

The following year, Dre and Yella would connect with fellow LA native Ice Cube. Dre and Cube would begin to make music together under Eazy-E’s label, Ruthless Records. With Dre on production and Cube handling songwriting, the two would help craft Eazy-E’s debut single, “Boyz-n-the-Hood” in 1987, which would peak at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. That same year, Dre, Cube, Eazy-E, and Yella would come together, also adding MC Ren to the mix, to make N.W.A. The group would put out their first mixtape, N.W.A. and the Posse, featuring “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” in November 1987

Dr. Dre and his N.W.A. partners’ big year would come in 1988, when their debut album Straight Outta Compton and its hits, “Fuck tha Police,” “Express Yourself,” and the title track would put them on the map in the mainstream. And the rest is history.

Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame