Post: #1

My first impression is mixed. First of all it doesn't have that Dre sound that his fans are accustomed to. You know that hard hitting beats with simple percussion patterns that emphasizes melody with wicked sounds all over them. When I see "produced by Dr. Dre" I instantly see track full of rich sounds put together in nice order where everything complements each other perfectly. Well I don't see that "order" on this album [maybe 2001 album was just too good].

Surprisingly some tracks have more to do with dirty south sound and trap music [aka too many weak snares and irritating hi hats]. I'd never guess it's Dre's music just by listening to it. I seriously froze a couple if times. I'd pay anyone who would listen first 30 seconds of "Talk about it" and guess that Dre is behind it.

There are some tracks that change their vibe in the middle the song. I truly hate that thing cause the song loses its unique sound and it splits into into two [or more tracks] which causes nothing but chaos. Timbaland does that with Justin a lot but they know how to do it well to maintain the sound of the song.

There are no radio hits on the album. There are no "Kush" or "Under Pressure" caliber tracks. This album sounds more like well produced set of songs but nothing more than that. At least after first few listening sessions by Dre fan. Many songs have some kind of weird transitions, weird pseudo choruses and bridges, pauses, changes of arrangements [Deep Water, Medicine Man, Loose Cannons is awesome from 1 minute mark to 1:29 then it sucks] etc which causes a mess. It feels like Dre wanted to make songs interesting this way instead of producing solid beats from start to finish.

Again, the difference between classic Dre sounding songs [It's on me, All in a day's work, Issues, On shot one kill (snoop dogg almost screams rapping!!), Just another day, Satisfiction, Animal] and his experiments is just huge. I'm not saying that former ones are all fantastic [Animals is boring but 2001's Ackrite was album filler too, Satisfiction's King Mez rap is bit too loud and "close"] but sonically they just sound more like normal songs, not like bunch of loud mess. Too bad Eminem raps over the latter one type of a beat. The last song is straight up Kanye style, I'd instantly point to him for production credits.

In short.. it's quite a surprise. Maybe it's because everyone expected from his next album to be 2001 on steroids [Kush confirmed it]. However, musically we got combo of half assed Dre and trap/dirty south album that surprisingly sounds quite consistent but that's it. At least for me.

I'm not bitching about overall uncommon sound of the album cause it's OK to experiment and surprise listeners. It's just doesn't have that Dr. Dre feeling. Oh well... 2001 will never get old ; )

Post: #2

Horrible follow up to the chronic and 2001.

Its technically a "soundtrack" to the straight out of Compton movie or inspired by the film. What is turns out to be is a mediocre compilation of unfocused songs that vaguely have to do with Compton produced by a billionaire that hasn't lived there in decades and his famous friends that largely sound like they are just going through the motions (with the exception of one or two Game and Kendrick verses).

No memorable songs on the whole disc, even the recently released Eminem produced South Paw soundtrack has more replay value. 16 years and this is what Dre releases? No excuse, especially considering how many solid hip hop albums dropped in the last 9 months.

Post: #3

I always knew this was going to happen. It's happened with so many heavily anticipated albums. DETOX was just so highly anticipated that Dre couldn't handle the pressure. In the end he said he scrapped DETOX because he "didn't like it".

I think it's a mixture of the pressure and a genuine lack of creative drive and creative "juice" left in him. Everyone knows Dre for his beats, signing Eminem, producing fire with him and other veteran artists e.g. Busta Rhymes, Snoop, the list goes on... Maybe DETOX wasn't good enough to be the next 2001 and he literally couldn't do it.

When he was at his prime, Dre didn't have hundreds of millions in the bank. He was not a middle aged man. His son was alive. He had left in him both the desire and ideas to create more in the 90s and early 2000s.

A casual, experimental soundtrack album seems like such an anticlimax, but I've found this nearly always happens with very, very highly anticipated albums. There was a kind of hysteria surrounding Lil Wayne's Carter III album, and it was completely overhyped. It repeats itself over and over again. Rappers and producers, any creators, I think, seem best when they are either up and coming or if they're now an established act they're in a certain period of years where they still have the drive and creativity left in them to keep creating fire.