Dr. Dre

Beginning his career with one of the most controversial albums in rap history, Dr. Dre (Andre Young) became one of music's most successful entrepreneurs. To quote the title of that early album, Dre did indeed come "straight outta Compton"; he was born in that part of Los Angeles and did encounter gang violence as a youth, though he avoided much of it by transferring to a more upscale high school. He caught the first wave of hip-hop and was inspired by Grandmaster Flash's work at the turntables, and took the name Dr. J (after his basketball hero Julius Erving) to work as a club DJ. However it was lyrics that would make Dr. Dre and his first group notorious. With cohorts DJ Yella, Ice Cube and Eazy-E, the group N.W.A. unleashed the 1988 track "F--k tha Police" and the album Straight Outta Compton, both of which upped rap's ante for gritty realism and shock value, largely birthing the gangsta genre. Though Dre rapped on the album, his main contribution was the multi-layered production, which threw a film-noir slant on the sample-driven sound that the Beastie Boys and others had popularized-though instead of just sampling existing records, Dre also used real musicians to recreate famous snippets. Dre continued with N.W.A. on their second (and last) album Efil4zaggin, while polishing his production skills with a number of associates, including Eazy-E's solo debut Eazy-Duz-It. His eventual fallout with Eazy and N.W.A. proved a blessing as his bodyguard Suge Knight signed Dre to his new Death Row label. His first solo album, late 1992's The Chronic proved another career landmark, creating his trademark subgenre of G-funk-a deep-groove, stoner-friendly rap variation of George Clinton's P-Funk sound. The album went multi-platinum, produced the smash single "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," and launched the careers of collaborators Warren G and Snoop Dogg. As the creative mastermind of Death Row, Dre was now among the most powerful figures in rap, overseeing the careers of Snoop, Backstreet, and new signee Tupac Shakur (though the last relationship quickly soured). The label fell apart in the wake of a compilation album Dr. Dre Presents The Aftermath (which included his personal kiss-off to gangsta rap, "Been There Done That"), but two years later Dre returned with another significant protégé, namely Eminem. Dre also got himself arrested twice, for battery of a police officer in 1992 and for DUI in 1994. Two girlfriends later accused him of assault but didn't press charges. However he was successfully sued for assault by TV host Dee Barnes after he took issue with her story on N.W.A.'s breakup. Producing Eminem was his main gig as the 2000s dawned, but he began branching out and working with mainstream artists (Mary J. Blige, Gwen Stefani and later, Justin Timberlake). He also produced (separately) another pair of young gangstas, the Game and 50 Cent, and worked extensively on a couple of projects-a Chronic sequel and an instrumental album, The Planets-- that never saw light of day. He did however begin marketing the quickly-ubiquitous Beats headphones in 2008; when Apple bought Beats Electronics LLC for $3 billion, Dre made good on his longtime boast of being the richest man in hip-hop. Dre suffered a brain aneurysm and was hospitalized January 4, 2021.