Snoop and other westcoast cats Detox studio session (video)

Click here for the part 2 of this studio video.

EA Sports Teams With Beats By Dre, Gifts FIFA 12 Kits To Artists & Athletes

In celebration of the FIFA 12 release, EA Sports includes Dr. Dre brand headphones in its VIP package, and sends them out to Lil Wayne, Drake, and others.

Less than a month after EA Sports released the 2012 edition of its super successful Madden NFL series, the gaming giant has launched a new version of FIFA 12. The game incorporates features geared towards delivering "real-world physicality," precision dribbling, and heightened intelligence for CPU players.

In celebration of the release, EA Sports has created a VIP kit which includes Beats By Dr. Dre Headphones, an engraved iPad, a PSP, a golden soccer ball, and the game itself. The kit was sent to several Hip Hop artists including Lil Wayne, Drake, Wiz Khalifa and those in the sporting world like Kobe Bryant, Ocho Cinco, and Chris Paul. Fans will be able to win one of the VIP kits at the EA Insider Facebook Page.

FIFA 12 was released this past Tuesday and will acquire additional features in the upcoming months.

Check out the Kit



Source - http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.17033/title.ea-sports-teams-with-beats-by-dr-dre-gifts-fifa-12-kits-to-artists-and-athletes/

Dre's coloring Detox with shades Of R.E.D., says Game

Game started his first session for The R.E.D. Album in late 2008, with plans for Pharrell Williams to executive produce and, of course, be one of the few track masters to provide beats. After several months and close to a dozen tracks in with Skateboard P, the Cali rhyme slinger got the call from Dr. Dre to come in and resume work on Detox, a project Game says he has worked on with his mentor on and off for the entirety of his eight-year professional career.

That’s when the Doc inspired a different feel to The R.E.D. Album. “Dr. Dre. came in and said, ‘This is The R.E.D. Album? Cool. But you need this, this, and this and that,’ ” Game says of the shift in his focus. “I was like, ‘Well, where am I gonna get this, this, this and that?’ He was like, ‘We here, ain’t we?’

“We started working on The R.E.D. Album, and some of the songs we did for The R.E.D. Album he snatched for Detox. Then we worked on some more, and he gave me more for R.E.D. At that time, I was probably the happiest I was in my career. Back working with Dre. Working really closely. Our relationship has always been real easygoing, man. Especially when it comes to the music.”

Despite providing heavy input on R.E.D., Dr. Dre and Pharrell have just one song each on the LP that they produced. Most of the tracks were helmed by La Mar “Mars” Edwards, from the collective of musicians and producers 1500OrNothin. “We’ve been working on The R.E.D. Album for two, three years,” says Mars, who also wound up being a co–executive producer on the album. “He still has half of the album he has from two years ago. That goes to show you how artistic he is and how he knows what he wants. It was just fun. It was just fun records.

Us doing those fun songs was cool because he didn’t have them. Then we had to get back to the core of who Game is and why people bought [his] albums, Doctor’s Advocate and The Documentary. The whole project was between gettin’ it done and taking it back to whoever.”

In total, Game recorded more than 100 songs for his new album. He worked with everyone from the YMCMB family to T.I. to Yelawolf to a woman he used to lyrically terrorize during his stint as a member of G-Unit, Ashanti. Most of the records, obviously, didn’t make the cut. Songs like the Pharrell Williams–produced “Ain’t No Doubt About It,” featuring Justin Timberlake, hit the Internet unsanctioned, while Game himself leaked a myriad of others, like the Dre-produced and Ashanti-featured “Soft Rhodes,” on various mixtapes, such as Hoodmorning (No Typo): Candy Coronas. Ironically, neither Dre nor Pharrell has heard the album in its completed state.

“I didn’t play the whole album for either one of them,” Game says. “They both were instrumental to the conception of it. But I don’t have to do that. They both know I can do it. I stopped sending people music when it got to the last two months. Nobody knows what the entire album sounds like except my engineer. [The album] was a little dark. But at the end, I did songs with Wale and [Rick] Ross and Mario. We got to the end of the album, and I was like, ‘We ain’t
got no songs for the bitches. None.’

“I had to reach out for Drake and Lloyd,” he continues.

“I already had Chris Brown, but the song he’s on is more inspirational. So it wasn’t catered toward the ladies. I had to go back in and lighten it up a little bit.”

Now, with the right hue to his project, Game feels that R.E.D. has topped all his previous efforts. “I know there’s some people that say, ‘Game fell off.’ For all of those people, I can’t wait for you to hear this new album,” he says enthusiastically. “Dre is narrating the entire album. It’s five or six skits going through my life. It’s connected to the songs, on a time line throughout my life, all the way into current-day Game. I asked Dre would he do that. I wrote out the script, and he did it. I cannot wait until people get a hold of this album and put it in. For me, I feel like I put everything I had into this album. It took me three years. And like I said, everything I had, I put in the album.”

Source - http://www.xxlmag.com/features/2011/09/game-grown-man-excerpt-from-the-october-2011-issue/2/

Kendrick Lamar - "Detox" Is Getting Mixed

K. Dot swears the album is in the mixing phase and recalls his first session with the West Coast veteran.

Kendrick Lamar has previously spoken on working with Dr. Dre for his elusive Detox, but promises that the near mythical album is on the way. During an interview with Shade 45’s Sway Calloway, K. Dot said that the LP is getting mixed and that he’s unsure of how many songs he wrote will make the final cut.

“Detox is getting mixed. That’s all I can say. It’s getting mixed. I could say anything about Detox, nobody would ever believe me,” he said. “I got a few. I don’t know what’ll stick, as of yet. The creative process is so crazy as far as going in there and narrowing down all these songs. Thousands of songs.”

He also spoke on Dre’s work ethic, explaining that he expects nothing but the best from himself and his collaborators. “Perfection. Dre is the ultimate perfectionist. He’s not scared. He hears sounds that the average human being can’t even equate with the human ear. I’ve been in sessions with him. It’s perfection,” he stated, recalling his first session with Dre. “You know what’s crazy, on some real shit? I thought I’d be nervous as hell. But I walked in that studio and I was ready, 100 percent ready. He greeted me like a regular cat and made me feel comfortable.”

Watch the interview below, as well as a freestyle he performed on the show.




Source - http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.16978/title.kendrick-lamar-says-dr-dres-detox-is-getting-mixed-spits-a-freestyle

50 Cent new album features Dr Dre

50 Cent says his next album is nearly complete, and fans can count on a few appearances from the Good Doctor

Although 50 Cent's souring relationship with his record label Interscope may have seemingly railroaded the release of his latest album, 50 says that hasn't kept him from recording. Now, Fiddy says that his next as-of-yet untitled project is nearly completed and features production from his mentor Dr. Dre.

BET.com caught up with the G-Unit general at the 10th anniversary issue release party of Smooth Magazine to discuss the status of his long-awaited release. The Queens rapper says that he's nearly finished recording the project and that fans can expect to see his latest effort on shelves this Novemeber, complete with two beats from Dr. Dre.

“It’s good man, I’m done, actually - I just got to go through the mixing process,” he said. “It’s just the system and everybody being on deck at the same time to move at the same pace. When I have a conversation about something I expect it to happen like right after we talk about it.”

As previously reported, 50 Cent was involved in a heated dispute with his long-time label Interscope Records over the handling of the album's promotion.

Source - http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.16941/title.50-cent-promises-new-album-by-november-features-dr-dre

Game: Kendrick is all "all over Detox"

Game was disucssing how got back with Dre.

He also spoke on his relationship with Kendrick Lamar, who appears on his chart-topping The R.E.D. Album. Game explained that their friendship goes way back, and that K. Dot is heavily featured on Detox.

“Before Kendrick Lamar was Kendrick Lamar, he was K. Dot and he ran with me. I took him and Jay Rock on a tour with me and Snoop, way long time ago, and so I always told K. Dot to stay focused and he would get his day, and he did. It’s almost his time. He all over Detox.”

Watch the full interview below.

Source - http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.16826/title.game-speaks-on-reconciling-with-dr-dre-working-with-kendrick-lamar

Detox promotion to maybe start in November?

A tweeter had asked the D.O.C. if Detox "be released this year or in the first quarter of 2012?" and "when the real promotion for Detox will start?"

His response was "hard to say but one or the other and hold on it's gonna be a cool ride." and that he's guessing the promotion "would be November."

Like i said before, dont get too excited but dont lose hope either : )

http://twitter.com/#!/WESTCOASTDOC/status/112271015425482753

http://twitter.com/#!/WESTCOASTDOC/status/112541077143162880

Slim the Mobster Drops First Single; Enlists Dre, Snoop, Sha Money For 'War Music'

Dr. Dre's latest artist Slim The Mobster announced the official release of the first single from his upcoming street album today (September 7th).

Slim released the video for his new song “Gun Play,” which is taken from his upcoming Aftermath street album War Music.

The album was produced by Sha Money XL and Vikaden, while DJ Skee and DJ WhooKid will host War Music, which is due in stores this fall.

Slim the Mobster signed with Dr. Dre, shortly after he dropped a demo off at the legendary producer's Los Angeles area studio, with his number scrawled on the back of a lottery ticket.

Dr. Dre was impressed and called him back to the studio to begin working on material.

To date, Slim the Mobster has worked on over 200 songs for Dr. Dre's highly anticipated release Detox.

“I talked for a few minutes with Dre and he said if I was patient and had some time, he wanted to work with me. It’s been on since then," Slim the Mobster explained.

As for his own street album, War Music will feature verses from his mentor, Dr. Dre, as well as Snoop Dogg and Sly.

“I been hustlin’ since I was 13-years-old, knee-deep in the streets and whatever came with it, came with it," Slim explained, to let fans know what to expect on War Music.

"I never want to portray somethin' that I'm not," Slim continued. "That's why, when you listen to my music, you'll hear me talkin' about Crippin' and gangbangin' 'cause that's part of my past.”

Nottz, Bink, Seige, Monstracity, N.U.M, Jake One, Sid Roams, Sha Money Xl, and Keykat Productions also contributed production to War Music.



http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2011/09/07/22876831.aspx

The Detox Cycle: Longtime Dre affiliate Soopafly returns

In this week in "Detox," we bring you the latest developments from the opaque and dank world of Dr. Dre, the West Coast's most indelible sonic icon, weightlifting enthusiast and O.C.D. perfectionist. According to Hip Hop DX, Priest "Soopafly" Brooks, the renowned ex-Death Row keyboardist, has returned to work on the mythologically delayed album from Andre Young.

The news suggests a back-to-basics approach to the construction of the album. After all, reading the rumor-laden Wikipedia page for the album is about as entertainingly byzantine as a Pynchon novel. Here's an abbreviated list of the artists on the record, at one time or another: Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Warren G, Mary J Blige, The Game, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Raekwon, Ice Cube, Lady Gaga, Just Blaze, R. Kelly Common, Wayne Newton, Lil B, and Big L's ghost.

The last three are not actually true, but they well may be for all we know about "Detox." The first rule of "Detox" isn't don't talk about "Detox," it's tell the world that it's a masterpiece and it's almost finished. That way, journalists write blog posts speculating about the content of the record and thus continue to foster its mythological status and public interest in whatever Dre's doing. (Wait a minute...)

July brought forth the news that Snoop Dogg and the D.O.C. were back in the mix, and now the return of Soopafly (the man who played keyboards on "Natural Born Killaz," Tha Dogg Pound's "Doggfood" and several hundred other records of the post-Death Row years) would seemingly imply that they're throwing their hands in the air and waving them as if they care -- and are very confused about the record's direction. Not so, according to Soopafly, who told DX that "Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, and [me] are making sure it got that finishing touch on it."

Later, Soopafly added that "[Detox] sounds good. I haven't even personally worked on anything yet. Dre's a perfectionist, so he takes his time. But, I listened to a lot of stuff [and] it sounds good. That’s all I’ma say.

Source - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/09/the-detox-cycle-soopafly-returns-home-to-roost.html

Dre & Game behind the scenes book - ‘The Making of Game’s The R.E.D. Album’

Game is dropping the mic and picking the proverbial pen to document the making of his ‘R.E.D. Album.’

“With my book, ‘The Making of Game’s The R.E.D. Album,’ I wanted to give my fans a behind-the-scenes look of how my new album came to be,” Game says. Music journalist Soren Baker — who has previously worked as an editor at The Source magazine — worked alongside the ‘Good Girls Go Bad’ rapper to craft the project.

“These are my stories in my own words,” Game says. “This book is the only place where you’ll learn all the stories behind the music – how I got the beats, what inspired my lyrics and how the album was put together.”

The book will feature memories and anecdotes from Game as well as his collaboration with the likes of Rick Ross and Pharrell Williams. The book will also touch on Game’s work with Dr. Dre, why Dre let Game use their track, ‘Drug Test,’ instead of putting it on ‘Detox’ and the true story behind their controversial, violence-tinged track, ‘Red Nation.’

The book is currently available as a digital copy on Amazon.com, but will be out in print and on audio soon.

What's Taking Dre So Long With Detox?

In April 2010, Dr. Dre traded in his White Sox cap for a Red Sox jersey during a public appearance at Fenway Park before the MLB season. The reclusive hip-hop icon's normally stoic grimace turned to a childlike grin as he took batting practice, participating in the spectacle in the name of promoting the "Red Sox Edition" of his Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, and not—as many fans had hoped—his decade-or-so-in-the-making third record, Detox.

At a press conference during the event, Dre finally did mete out a couple of details about the project—that its lead single, "Under Pressure" featuring Jay-Z, could be released in two weeks, and that the entire album would "definitely" drop in 2010. Both assertions turned out to be false. After weeks turned to months, the Internet decided to put out "Under Pressure" for Dre in June by leaking it, prompting him to issue this statement: "The song that's on the Internet is an incomplete song that I'm still working on. When it's ready, you'll be hearing it from me."

    Rapper Soopafly called Dre a "perfectionist" this week, echoing what 50 Cent said about him in 2007.

This summer, Dre released the first two singles from Detox, "Kush" featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon, and the Eminem collaboration "I Need a Doctor." But a year and a half after his Fenway stunt, a release date for the record has yet to materialize. Posting under the "Kush" video, a YouTube commenter said it best: "i used to say 'when pigs fly' now i say 'when detox comes out [sic].'"

Dr. Dre is part of a lineage of great artists who've had trouble producing the follow-up to a notable album. Notoriously, Guns N Roses' 2008 record, Chinese Democracy, was a critical and commercial failure that took 15 years and more than $13 million to produce (Detox has become known as the "Chinese Democracy of hip-hop"). An article in Psychology Today called "Axl Rose: Obsessive Monomaniac Perfectionist," speaks of the album in terms of "the latest act of a tortured genius in the great tradition of other tortured geniuses."

Uncomfortable with the superstardom wrought by the runaway success of her only studio album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill retreated sanctimoniously into obscurity. Despite her husband Rohan Marley's claims about the singer's prolific songwriting around the house—she writes "in the bathroom, on toilet paper, on the wall," he told People in 2008—by now, those who once held their breath for a Hill comeback have either exhaled or expired.

The list continues: After putting out great records, My Bloody Valentine, The Avalanches, Neutral Milk Hotel, and D'Angelo have all seemingly ground to a creative halt. Amy Winehouse passed away as the fifth anniversary of Back to Black, her breakthrough last album, approached.

A few factors are at play, usually. Artists who become known as musical geniuses are often rewarded with an autonomy that does away with the usual record label strictures—deadlines and checks and balances—that ensured that their previous records actually saw the light of day. Issues like addiction, alcoholism and legal troubles can also play a part in delaying an artist's work, as was the case with Winehouse, and D'Angelo, who started making his third album, James River, in 2002.

Dre, himself, has already faced this challenge. His previous, critically acclaimed, multi-platinum album, 2001, came seven years after his equally successful solo debut, The Chronic. Compare this low productivity rate with that of his fellow hip-hop artist/producer/studio-mad-scientist Kanye West, who has managed to release six popular, critically lauded albums during Dre's time away from the spotlight.

It's likely that the most frequent cause for creative paralysis in the wake of landmark albums is the pressure put upon musicians by their own work—that they look back at their last effort and think, how did I do that?

It's a reasonable thing to wonder, says Dr. Simon Sherry, an assistant psychology professor at Dalhousie University. Mathematically, most talented people don't live up to their own past achievements.

"In the statistical sense, it's far more likely that following an exceptional, well-above-average performance, the performance drops," he says. "You see that all the time in the world of sports, where an athlete has an exceptional year... hitting 50 home runs in baseball. That's their peak performance, and it's much more likely that they're going to then regress towards a more average one."

But for Dre, "average" is not an option—possibly to his detriment.

Speaking about Detox to HipHoxDX.com this week, rapper Soopafly called Dre a "perfectionist" who "takes his time." It sounded a lot like what 50 Cent, in 2007, said of his label boss in an interview with the same website: "He's such a perfectionist. But sometimes that can be a bad thing. You create new pressure when you wait that long." HipHopDX.com

Sherry, a registered clinical psychologist who assesses and treats perfectionists, says that there are two main forms of perfectionism. One, known as "perfectionistic striving," whereby a creative person can't relax until they've lived up their own standard of excellence, can be motivational. The other is a more destructive form of perfectionism, referred to as "perfectionistic concerns."

The destructive form "involves things like a tendency to be harshly critical of yourself," Sherry says. "To doubt your actions and your performance abilities. To have an extreme, exaggerated concern over mistakes. And to often perceive or misperceive that other people around you require you to be perfect."  
   
"That aspect of perfectionism is more clearly related to a range of work-related difficulties, including procrastination."

It wouldn't be hard to make the case that Dre's been procrastinating. Over the years, he has set aside Detox multiple times to focus on other projects. There is his hugely profitable line of headphones. His brand of Cognac . Endorsement deals with Hewlett-Packard, Dr. Pepper, Coors Light, and Chrysler. The eight studio albums he has executive-produced through his label, Aftermath Entertainment, since 2003, including Eminem's Recovery, the highest-selling record of 2010. His newest protege, 21-year-old Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar. Time at the gym. Fun in the studio with Justin Bieber.

But between these departures, and a period in 2004 when he gave up on Detox altogether, the doctor has been squeezing in sessions for the album. By all accounts, the results have been extraordinary.

"The man is getting piano lessons from Burt Bacharach and he's reinterpreting Chopin symphony stuff ," longtime Dre cohort and reported Detox collaborator DJ Quik effused in a 2008 interview with Loud.com. "It's crazy, he's lost his mind. He's got like 400 records."

In December, another Dre affiliate, rapper Kurupt, told SOHH.com about the seismic effect the album would have on hip-hop at large.

"I think it's going to do the same thing [2001] did—it's going to change the game," he said. "The one thing you don't play with when it comes to this [rap] game is the doctor. Point blank. Never play with the doctor... Because he plays no games. He's a stickler. He's a stickler for perfection."

Dre's exacting sensibility can be heard in his production aesthetic, which has grown increasingly meticulous over the years. On The Chronic, he favored loose riffs lifted from funk and soul artists. For 2001, he developed a clean, quantized balance of rhythms and melodies.

But in the past few years, his obsession with precision has rendered many of his beats cold and mechanical to the point of lifelessness - the antithesis of funk. As Ian Cohen wrote in his Pitchfork review of Eminem's 2008 album, Relapse: "Dre has treated production like a test run for his very expensive headphones, concerning himself with only the most inert, stainless steel sounds."

Beyond Bacharach, the list of artists who have allegedly logged time on Detox is a cavalcade of Billboard heavyweights that includes Eminem, Jay-Z, Beyonce, R. Kelly, and Lady Gaga, to name a few.

If the hype is to be believed, Detox will be Dre's magnum opus, a true, modern rap classic, something more akin to the Sistine Chapel (which, incidentally, only took Michelangelo four years to complete) than Chinese Democracy. Should that happen, his protracted creative process will be vindicated, and the doctor will always be remembered.

The anxiety that people aren't acknowledging his legendary status could be the prime motivation for Dre's perfectionism. The notion that the public has neglected him has been a theme reiterated often throughout the post-millennial part of his career.

On 2001, we "Forgot About Dre," forcing him to respond that he's the same O.G.—but he's been low-key—before breaking down his vast inventory of accomplishments (the studio full of tracks; the wall full of plaques hanging up in his office like trophies; the careers of Snoop Dogg, Easy E, and NWA). On his previous single, he reminded you that he's "Still D.R.E." And on " The Watcher," from the same album, with the tone of a mother, upset that no one complemented her casserole, he admonished, "I started this gangsta shit, and this the motherfucking thanks I get?"

Asked if Dr. Dre's contentious attitude toward his audience could be related to his perfectionism, Dr. Sherry says it's probably more a product of ego.

"Often times, people who are narcissistic are disappointed with how other people treat them," he says. "Because others don't acknowledge their so-called brilliance or uniqueness or special talents. And that lends itself to a sort of defensive orientation towards the world where everyone's attacking you, and everyone's disappointing you."

His most recent single, "I Need a Doctor," advances that narrative to its apotheosis—we need Dre—while inflating his return to almost messianic proportions.

The song opens with two melodramatic verses by Eminem, who raps, "you're either getting lazy or you don't believe in you no more... I demand you remember who you are!" In 2011, even Dre has forgotten about Dre. Finally, vehemently, he emerges for the song's climactic third verse, concluding, "...I'm back, bastards. One more CD and then I'm packing up my bags, and as I'm leaving I guarantee they'll scream 'Dre, don't leave us like that, man.'"

Ultimately, the fact that Detox will be the 46-year-old rap legend's last project could best explain what's taking it so long. It's his swan song, one he hopes will be the perfect last installment in a classic trilogy of hip-hop albums.
So like a pitcher on the mound, winding up for his third strike, a nation of listeners waits to see if Dr. Dre can do it again.

Source - http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/whats-taking-dr-dre-so-long-with-his-new-album/244390/