Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre’s Attorney Says Disney Wanted To Sign Him Following Success Of “The Chronic”

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In a new interview on Samson Shulman’s, Connection is Magic, podcast, Dr. Dre’s attorney, Peter Paterno, revealed that Disney was interested in signing the now music mogul and super-producer to a record deal after the success of “The Chronic.”

According to Paterno, the deal was going to be worth $4 million but Disney reconsidered after finding out what Dre’s lyrical content focused on.

“We’d have these music meetings every week with Michael Eisner at Disney, and Michael Eisner came by and he sees the record’s at No. 1 and he goes, ‘I thought you had a relationship with this guy?’” Paterno said He added, “I said, ‘I do.’ He said, ‘How come we don’t have this record?’ I go, ‘Well, Michael, let me just read you some of the lyrics… Muthaf*cka, muthaf*cka. And you know what this is on the cover? That’s a marijuana leaf.’ The deal was $4 million. He goes, ‘We can’t do that!’ I go, ‘That’s why he’s not on the label.’”

He went on to say that Jimmy Iovine would have ended up signing Dre anyway, which is what ended up happening.

During his Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech in 2016, Dr. Dre thanked Paterno as well as the other members of N.W.A. for being a huge factor in his success.

“I definitely want to thank these guys standing behind me. Ice Cube, MC Ren, DJ Yella,” Dre said. “Got to thank my brothers for a lifetime of great memories. I’d like to thank my legal team — where are you? Howard King, Peter Paterno, thank you for keeping the snakes off my back. Ashley Palmer, thank you.”

You can watch the full interview below.

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Dr. Dre’s Lawyer Reveals Disney Tried To Sign Him After ‘The Chronic’

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Dr. Dre was a hot commodity in the’90s, co-founding Death Row Records and being pivotal in the label releasing multiple multi-platinum albums, including his own debut The Chronic. While his story is well-documented, things could have played out very differently for the West Coast legend, as recently revealed by his lawyer Peter Paterno.

During a visit to Samson Shulman’s Connection Is Magic podcast, Paterno revealed that Disney was willing to throw him $4 million after The Chronic topped the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart and racked up two Hot 100 hits. Paterno, previously the president of Disney’s Hollywood Records from 1990 to 1993, said “We’d have these music meetings every week with Michael Eisner at Disney, and Michael Eisner came by and he sees the record’s at No. 1 and he goes, ‘I thought you had a relationship with this guy?’”

Upon digging further into Dre’s lyrical content — and the fact The Chronic‘s cover art featured a marijuana leaf — Eisner decided against pursuing the rapper-producer any further. In hindsight, Eisner likely regrets that move, as Dr. Dre went on to launch Aftermath Entertainment and release his successful solo album 2001 before earning space in the 2016 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction class alongside N.W.A.

Check out the clip of Peter Paterno telling the story on Connection Is Magic above.

Dr. Dre Says He Made ‘247 Songs During The Pandemic’

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Lord knows how many Dr. Dre songs, albums, and productions are sitting in the vault at this moment. Ever the perfectionist, he has long delayed his much-anticipated fourth album, Detox several times over the past two decades. While he has not revealed when, or even if, Detox will see the light of day in the near future, he has shared that he’s been hard at work over the past two years.

In an Instagram video shared online this past Thursday, Dre shared with Busta Rhymes just how many projects he’s worked on since the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

“I did 247 songs during the pandemic, then we paused, did a whole album with Marsha Ambrosius. That’s f*cking nutso, that’s crazy,” Dre said. “Then we came back… what did we do after that? Oh, I did the Grand Theft Auto sh*t and then we working on… Snoop. We two days in right now, we got, what, six bangers done? So, I don’t know. I wanna finish this sh*t and then start Busta Rhymes.”

Dre did not clarify whether the 247 songs were ideas for an album of his own, or potential production placements for other artists’ albums. He also did not reveal when Ambrosius’ upcoming Dre-produced album, Casablanco will be released. But knowing Dre, this is only scratching the surface of the number of projects he’s sitting on.

Happy 54th Birthday To West Coast Legend The D.O.C.!

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On this day in Hip Hop history, Dallas-bred West Coast rapper The D.O.C. was born.Known for his work with N.W.A. and as a huge influence to the G-Funk era as a writer for a number of artists, The D.O.C. is one of the West Coast’s unsung heroes.

Before embarking on a solo career, The D.O.C. was a member of the Texas trio The Fila Fresh Crew consisting of The D.O.C. (then known as Doc-T), Fresh K, and Dr. Rock. The group got their break appearing on NWA’s N.W.A. and the Posse compilation album. Following the album’s success, the group was able to sign a deal with Macola Records and release three studio albums before disbanding in 1988. Shortly after the split, Eazy-E recruited The D.O.C. to work with him on his solo project Eazy-Duz-It on the track “Nobody Move.”

In 1989, The D.O.C. released his debut solo album No One Can Do It Better which spent 2 weeks in the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart and claimed the top spot on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop chart. Following his freshman success, West Coast rappers began to reach out to The D.O.C. to work with him on their own projects.

The D.O.C. has made appearances on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, and N.W.A.’s 100 Miles and Runnin’ and Niggaz4life. He has also released two addition studio albums Helter Skelter and Deuce which have both appeared on the Billboard 200 chart. It is reported that The D.O.C. is currently working on a fourth and final album with Dr. Dre titled Voices through Hot Vessels who’s released date is still to be determined.

Aside from music, The D.O.C. can be recognized from his song appearances in the popular video games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Tony Hawk Underground 2, Madden 2005, and NBA Live 2005, his guest spot in the film “We From Dallas”, or his past relationship with neo-soul songstress Erykah Badu. The two share a daughter named Puma who was born July 5th, 2004.

Regardless of how you may know or have heard of The D.O.C. , his influence on West Coast Hip Hip culture is one that would have definitely been missed. From everyone here at the Source Magazine, Happy Birthday D.O.C. may you see many more years of success.

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Suge Knight Testifies About 2015 Murder and Allegations About Dr. Dre Trying To Have Him Killed

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On Wednesday, Suge Knight testified about the 2015 “Murder Burger” incident that left one man dead and another injured at Tam’s Burger in Compton.

The testimony was a part of a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit that was brought forward by the victim, Terry Carter’s, family. Suge is currently serving 28 years behind bars for the murder. Even though Suge was originally charged with murder, the charge was lessened to voluntary manslaughter as a result of the plea deal. That day, Suge was trying to get a meeting with Dr. Dre because authorities were telling him that Dre had put a hit out on him in 2014 when he was shot 7 times outside of a Chris Brown afterparty.

However, Suge testified that Dre was not behind the shooting because of his prior history with Dre.

“Dr. Dre—we’ve been really good friends for years. Matter of fact, I know his kids, he knows my kids. And I was told that he had paid some guys to harm me,” Knight said. “I didn’t believe it because authorities do lie. So I went up there. …I was going to talk to him and say, ‘Hey man, I’m not going to react to what authorities say about you having something to do with me getting shot. I just want to make you aware they are saying this, putting it out there.’”

Suge also testified against rumors that he met with Dre and Cube over the way how his character was depicted in the movie, or to demand money for his likeness. Suge maintained that he went to talk to Dre about what the authorities were telling him. However, as he was leaving the set, someone caught him and said “Hey, Cube wants you to come [back] because we’ve been trying to catch you to take care of you.”

Suge said that he did not want to wait around very long and that’s when Cle “Bone” Sloan apparently got “aggressive” over a joke Suge said. Suge added that he saw someone pull something over his windshield, and when asked if it was the restraining order that Dr. Dre allegedly issued him, he said “no.”

Suge said that after he left the office, he got a call from a man that he said was Carter and they agreed to meet at the home of Dwayne “Knob” Johnson, who lived across the street from Tam’s. Suge testified that when he parked his car next to Carter’s, he was ambushed, and Sloan began to punch him through the window of his car with a gun in his hand.

Suge said that he “feared for his life,” and acted in self-defense when he hit Carter and Sloan, killing one and injuring the other.

However, the Carter family’s attorney, Lance Behringer, did not believe Knight. Behringer asked Knight, “You want this jury to believe that Bone Sloan was there to kill you, and he had a gun that he intended to use to kill you, but instead of using that gun, he decided to throw punches. Is that true?” Knight replied, “That’s not true at all,” and Behringer continued. “The truth is this: Tam’s is called ‘Murder Burger’ for a reason. One thing we all know is, you can’t do anything by the area of Tam’s because of the cameras. …Nobody pulled their gun out by Tam’s. Everyone knows there’s cameras. Ask anybody, they call Tam’s ‘Murder Burger.’ Lots of people who didn’t know they have cameras there, they’re still in prison today.”

Suge said that he did not think Carter and Sloan were trying to kill him because he had not done anything to make them want to kill him. However, he said that there was a “contract,” but did not clarify what exactly he meant.

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Today In Hip Hop History: N.W.A. Dropped Their Second LP ‘Efil4zaggin’ 31 Years Ago

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On this date in 1991, “the world’s most dangerous group dropped their second and final album as a group, ironically titled Efil4zaggin on the Ruthless/Priority imprint.

On the heels of Ice Cube departing from N.W.A. on a sour note to embark on a solo career, the now four-man group was slowly disbanding, but managed to churn out one last full length album. Dr. Dre and D.O.C. left the group to help form Death Row Records shortly after this project was released. The album offered up three singles; the memorable “Always Into Somethin”, “Appetite For Destruction”, which featured an Ice Cube sub and “The Days Of Wayback”. Because of the group’s success, the LP did eventually reach platinum status.

Salute to Dre, Yella, Ren and Eazy for giving us a piece of Hip Hop history!

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LeBron James Names His Top 5 Hip-Hop Albums Of All Time And Doesn’t Really Go Out On A Limb

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In case you didn’t know, LeBron James is a huge fan of hip-hop and he wants you to know it. Perhaps you watched LeBron showing off his dance moves while blasting the new Kendrick Lamar album in his backyard this past weekend? It was hypnotic, in a real dad sort of way. To his credit, he’s leveraged his relationships in hip-hop for good causes, like when Drake recently donated $1 million to LeBron’s I Promise School. But did a Drake album happen to make it’s way into the King’s top 5 hip-hop albums of all-time?

Yesterday, seemingly on a whim, LeBron decided to host an informal Q&A session on Twitter. “Q&A folks???,” he tweeted before adding, “Aight fire off.” He was pretty candid in his responses, saying that his favorite Lakers moment of all-time was Anthony Davis’ buzzer beater against Denver in the 2020 Western Conference Finals, saying that Luka Doncic is his favorite player, and clapping back at Tom Brady’s question about who would win in an ice hockey shootout.

Then, journalist Sierra Potter asked him to reel off his “Top 5 hip-hop albums.” LeBron, who has typically been a safe interviewee throughout his career, kinda kept with that tradition and didn’t really light the world on fire with his choices, instead, reeling off a handful of undisputed classics: Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, Jay-Z’s The Black Album, Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death, and Nas’ It Was Written.

Perhaps the only gripe people could make is that Illmatic is the better choice of Nas albums instead of It Was Written, but we can hardly fault the man’s personal taste here. So if you were hoping to see LeBron namecheck an obscure rapper’s joint as one of his go-to’s, well, then you’ve come to the wrong basketball star for that. He did however, end his reply with, “But I have so many more to name for real!” So if he made anybody mad with his answers, he left the door open to save some face. Classic Lebron.