![]() ![]() In the city of good ol' Watts In the city, the city of Compton We keep it rockin' We keep it rockin' Despite its numerous flaws, Compton is still one of the most engaging listening experiences of the year.California knows how to party California knows how to party In the city of L.A. ![]() The truth is, no one in hip-hop makes music that sounds this good - music that powers through all noticeable shortcomings. Dre Presents: The Aftermath, forgets the big-budget false-starts from Detox and glosses over his instances of misogyny (which is still on display here). The kind that turns his origins with the electro-romance group World Class Wreckin’ Cru into a youthful footnote, forgives his mediocre post-Death Row/pre-Eminem release Dr. Dre has the most bulletproof reputation in hip-hop. It doesn’t matter that the album’s opening promises it will say something significant about the CPT, but never delivers. It doesn’t matter that on this album about Compton only three of the 18 guest stars are actually from the city, or that the other 15 come off as a jumble of generic characters. “Would you look over Picasso’s shoulder and tell him about his brush strokes?” Dre asks on “Deep Water,” a masterwork filled with fractured voices and aquatic metaphors. Dre to Debut ‘Compton: A Soundtrack’ Exclusively on Beats 1 Radio At the end of “Issues,” birds chirp, sirens blare and guns pop - all blending into the other but still standing out distinctly, panning from ear to ear.ĭr. “Genocide,” featuring low end that rumbles and a ferocious verse from Kendrick Lamar (who provides most of the album’s standout verses), is the kind of music that almost justifies the existence of $300 headphones. Though Dre co-produces only half of the album’s tracks (with as many as four other boards men on each song), he’s credited with leading the mix on all, and every sound is meticulously maximized. On “Issues,” Ice Cube’s vocals are overlaid and punched-in to the point that it’s impossible to rap along.īut it’s like critiquing the acting in a Michael Bay movie - because look at those explosions! Here, it’s the unbridled majesty of the sonics. Snoop’s delivery on the punishing “One Shot One Kill” is uncharacteristically vicious on “Satisfiction,” his delivery is oddly truncated. Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg return as co-stars, but it’s not the triumphant reunion it should be: They’re almost unrecognizable here. The album’s new voices - there are 18 featured vocalists - are largely anonymous and strangely non-specific. Dre sometimes sounds awkward and unnatural. It sometimes seems as if Dre has run out of new things to say, and there are quite a few underwhelming vocal performances. It’s an epic boast, the kind that hip-hop was made for, even if it is, like many of the album’s lyrics, a retread of a well-worn story. Dre for the First Time & Why ‘Detox’ Is Dead “Millionaire before the headphones or the speakers/I was getting money before the Internet/Still got Eminem checks I ain’t open yet.”ĭJ Premier Talks ‘Compton,’ Working With Dr. who do it better?” Like everything about Dre during the past three decades, Compton is an addition to the highlight reel that relies heavily on the highlights that preceded it, making it a project both burdened and supported by its own self-mythology - “I remember selling instrumentals off a beeper,” Dre rhymes with characteristic self-importance on the same song, over industrial-strength instrumentation that starts and stops with trap drum rolls and explosive 808s. On “Talk About It,” North Carolina’s King Mez, one of the album’s handful of new Dre co-signs, rhymes, “I’m the black Eminem, I’m the humbler 50, I’m D.O.C. ![]()
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