Interview with nme.com

Dr Dre shaped the future of gangsta rap with NWA, was responsible for giving Eminem a leg-up and is threatening to change the course of hip hop...again. Steven Wells flew to LA to have lunch with Dr. Dre and find out...somewhere in a subtly declasse steak house in an especially bland part of Hollywood...

NME: Let's pay the rent and talk about the Up In Smoke film. Did anyone come close to losing it on the road?

Dr. Dre: Nah, nah, nah! I mean, um, of course there was a few arguments here and there. You know, minor internal arguments within our family. And I got into it with a couple of our production people a few times when, um, some of the pyro-blasts didn't go off, leaving us standing up there looking fucking stupid. It was crazy, but other than that it was perfect. Mission accomplished, we didn't have any problems as far as violence goes.

NME: So it's something you're ready to do next year?

Dr. Dre: No, no, no! I don't necessarily enjoy touring. I don't really like travelling. I like being in the studio. That's why it's been nearly ten years since I toured. I got motivated after the '2001' album and I started winning all these awards, so I'm like, 'Yo, why stop now?'. I'm in the blueprint stages of the next album and I'm probably going to start on it sometime in April. I'm thinking about calling this album 'Detox'.

NME: Any reason for that?

Dr. Dre: Heh, heh, heh, heh! I got some ideas that are going to be pretty out there. I'm gonna try and change the course of hip hop again.

NME: You were instrumental in Eminem's rise to infamy.

Dr. Dre: Yeah, definitely.

NME: Hasn't the controversy that surrounds Eminem got uncanny echoes of the shit that hit the fan with NWA and Death Row?

Dr. Dre: Yeah, I'm getting kind of used to it. Aha, ha, ha, ha! It's exciting to me as long as it doesn't go any farther than this. I don't want to go to a position where our stuff is being watched so close that we're going to have to watch what we're saying in the studio.

NME: So, who's gonna be President then?

Dr. Dre: Hopefully it's Gore. You know what? I didn't get a chance to vote because I was working on a video in Canada with Snoop and I'm fucking pissed off.

NME: But that would mean that Tipper (Gore, wife of Al and founder member of the NWA- hounding Parents' Music Resource Center) is going to be in the White House?

Dr. Dre: Yeah, that's crazy, But I'd rather deal with Tipper than Bush. He's trying to kill everybody in jail. Fuck it! I don't care if you did get a traffic violation. You're going to the death chair! Heh, heh, heh, heh! He's not giving a fuck!

NME: If you had the 20-year-old Dre sitting opposite you right now, do you think you'd like the guy?

Dr. Dre: Aw! That's a different question! I never got asked that one! Heh, heh, heh! That's a good one! Would I like him? You know what? I would have to say yes and no. I think I would like the person but I would hate his ways. The immaturity, the fucking, um, because I was wild, I was a wild kid, man. I would just party all the time. Womanising and - I would definitely like the person if I was with them solo. I would love them. But if I was with that person at a club I would hate them. Obnoxious, wild, careless - I was really obnoxious. You got to realise that when I was 20 years old, I had a house, a Mercedes, a Corvette and a million dollars in the bank before I could buy alcohol legally. And taking a guy that grew up the way I did, out of Compton and put him in this fucking mansion, you couldn't tell me shit at that time. It was pretty bad, actually, now I think about it. But I got through it. I grew up.