Dr. Dre – Compton

I know more about what happened with Aftermath between 2006-2009 than probably any other human that wasn't employed by them. It makes no sense, in retrospect, why that was. My formative years as a hip-hop listener 2002-2005 were dominated by the G-Unit/Shady/Aftermath conglomerate. As a fan and at that point admitted producer groupie, I paid attention to a lot of different producer-led movements. By 2005/2006 though, Star Trak didn't really amount to anything, and Tim's group didn't pop off until Nelly and Justin's albums. So yeah, I paid attention to what was going with Aftermath.
There was the Aftermathmusic.net fansite/also sort of official site?, DubCNN, HipHopDX, Wikipedia, whatever. There was a point in the summer of 2007 where the Detox Wikipedia page was updated almost everyday. I know this because at the time I had no friends. I remember when Eminem said "We gon' make him do it" on the Encore title track. I remember when Dre said "Look out for Detox" on The Documentary. I remember all the changes that the artist roster went through. Game went to Geffen. Eve never dropped, even after "Tambourine." Stat Quo's single never popped and he got shelved. Busta's album was what it was. Bishop Lamont leaked "Grow Up" and was never heard of after that. Raekwon was rumored to have signed.  Marsha Ambrosius did some hooks but left without anyone realizing it. There was a dude named G.A.G.E., who had a cool song I heard on YouTube song. Joell Ortiz was there for like five minutes. Slim the Mobster was always this mysterious figure. They didn't really push him until 2010 but things got weird and he disappeared.
I remember the producers. Mike Elizondo, who did 50, Em and Game's biggest hits, left to do Maroon 5's second album. But there were still Mark Batson, Dawaun Parker, Focus..., sort of Mr. Porter and technically DJ Khalil even though things didn't really work out like that for him until 2009 when he did singles for Clipse, Slaughterhouse and Eminem. I even remember when Focus... said he wanted his album to be as big as The Chronic even though it was a free download on some random website.
I wrote a cover story on the myth and status of Detox for the A&E section of The Monarch, my high school paper Spring 2009. At the time, it was supposed to happen after Relapse and Before I Self Destruct. 50 used to throw around the phrase "three-headed monster" then. But those albums were what they were and that plan fizzled. But there was a plan in motion. Dre had presented Video of the Year at the VMAs. He signed a deal with a liquor company. He hopped on Kardinal Offishall and the Clipse's "Set It Off." And then his son died of an overdose. I think he has lots of kids, and this wasn't one with his wife. Not that one kid is more important than the other, but you get it.
Then Beats launched. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Lebron all appeared at a Red Sox game to promote a new color way. Just the week before, there were rumors of a Dr. Dre and Jay-Z song called "Under Pressure." Splash leaked it three months later, and well, that shit was terrible.
But there were the good leaks! The T.I. references - "Coming Back" (Hi-Tek's best beat?), "Topless" and "Shit Popped Off." And they were really great. Literally, nothing to complain about. From what I understand, even as some of those songs went to commercials or a T.I. mixtape, different version were worked on well over time. A year or two later, there were other leaks. A song called "Syllables" with 50, Em and Jay and some more songs, but no one really remembers those.
Then there was a moment in 2012 when it was really supposed to happen. Nottz, Jake One and Bink were involved. This is before the official singles were released. But it seemed like someone pushed the button on "Kush" too early. And then there was "I Need A Doctor"...
Kendrick came along. He did Coachella. Slim the Mobster vanished. At that point I stopped caring. Even if it dropped, it would not have mattered. But it's actually here now.
And it's weird. It's good, probably not that great. But it's weird. In many senses. From what I understand, at least half of this album existed previously. Maybe the verses were re-written but the music was there. "Talking To My Diary" was in a Beats commercial four years ago. After all that I just covered, the names involved with Compton make no sense. Focus... left Aftermath in 2009. I understand everyone came back to work on different iterations of this project, but his name is on more than half of these songs, with mixing credits. Stat Quo and Slim The Mobster only have writing credits on one song each. Marsha's back on a bunch of songs. There's lots of King Mez, Justus and Anderson .Paak. It's not really a reunion album. It's just sort of an album that the people who were around in the past year made.
I strongly feel that the album came out when it did because Straight Outta Compton the movie's release date was the only realistic deadline Dre could have ever given himself for this project. Calling it a soundtrack is a bit of a cop out. The way music works today it would have never been as significant culturally than it would have been if it dropped ten years ago.
The songs for the most part are very busy. So much is going on. Too much. It's unnecessary. Why is there a "For the Love of Money" sample? And what's with all the Eazy references? And the line in that Em verse? There's a weird murder skit that doesn't make any sense in the context of the rest of the album. And the drowning skit?
The credits make no sense. Too much is made of what Dre actually does in studio, but even with his name as lead writing credit on every song, he has production credits on less than half of the album. The Game joint goes though, and "Animals" is very dope.
It's out, so he's off the hook now. That's the point of this album. It will never do what the other two albums did. He doesn't need them too. He just needed this album not to be terrible. Even if it was, it wouldn't have mattered. It's hard to say this album could have been better because this album is probably the best it could have been. I probably wanted something different, but there's no point trying to speculate anymore.