The Biography: Dr.
Dre
By Ronin Ro (Thunder's Mouth Press, $25)
Before such a title would have been considered an insult, many
observers had trumpeted rap producer Dr.
Dre as "the Phil Spector
of hip-hop." It was an apt enough comparison, as both men had
reshaped the music industry, redefined youth culture, and made
massive fortunes through their sheer creativity and sonic
innovation in the recording studio. With
The
Biography, Ronin Ro - an award-winning nonfiction reporter
and prolific author - attempts to examine the life and work of a
gifted and frequently conflicted visionary. The book moves quickly
through the early years of Compton-bred Andre Young, finding its
feet in exploring the fascination that the newly christened Dr. Dre
had with the still-fledgling early '80s rap game. As the creative
force behind controversial group NWA, Dre achieved his first great
triumph while peddling a hard-core thug image that would haunt him
in later years. He was a millionaire by the time he was 24, but his
success was blighted by the death of his younger brother in a
street fight in 1989. Dre then branched off into a solo career, and
the creation and impact of
The Chronic, his
1992 zeitgeist-altering masterpiece, is explored in vivid detail.
The juiciest parts of the story concern Dre's role in the meteoric
rise of Death Row records, the label he built with notorious
gangster figure Suge Knight. Ro, who explored the more lurid
details of the Dre/Death Row relationship in
Have
Gun Will Travel, his study of the label, dissects the years
of fear, feuding, and recrimination that followed their split in
1996. Though the book has a few narrative lulls as Dre quietly
coasts through the late '90s, the story eventually picks up pace,
exploring his more recent work with
Eminem and 50 Cent -
associations that have ushered in another, even more lucrative era
of success. Impeccably researched, and written with an intuitive
grasp of insider politics, the book is a welcome and necessary
addition to the growing library of hip-hop scholarship, even if it
doesn't quite feel like the definitive portrait its title suggests.
- B.M.