STREAM Dr. Dre ‘Compton’ here (iTunes or iOS)
Dr. Dre’s first album in 15 years! Featuring Eminem, Kendrick Lamar (multiple times!), DJ Premier, Snoop Dogg, and much more!
I pressed play instantly. The album goes up as one giant 3 hour stream before it’s scheduled premiere tonight and release for retail on Apple Music. Compton actually clocks in at a little over an hour. When you click the link, you can sift through to find when a desired song starts. For instance, you can skip right to the Eminem song at the 53 minute mark.
It’s Dre Day! Enjoy.
1) Intro
2) Talk About It (feat. King Mez & Justus)
3) Genocide (feat. Kendrick Lamar, Marsha Ambrosius & Candice Pillay)
4) It’s All On Me (feat. Justus & BJ the Chicago Kid)
5) All In a Day’s Work (feat. Anderson .Paak & Marsha Ambrosius)
6) Darkside/Gone (feat. King Mez, Marsha Ambrosius & Kendrick Lamar)
7) Loose Cannons (feat. Xzibit & COLD 187um)
8) Issues (feat. Ice Cube &Anderson .Paak)
9) Deep Water (feat. Kendrick Lamar & Justus)
10) Jon Connor – One Shot One Kill (feat. Snoop Dogg)
11) The Game – Just Another Day (feat. Asia Bryant)
12) For the Love of Money (feat. Jill Scott & Jon Connor)
13) Satisfaction (feat. Snoop Dogg, Marsha Ambrosius & King Mez)
14) Animals (feat. Anderson .Paak) (prod. DJ Premier)
15) Medicine Man (feat. Eminem, Candice Pillay & Anderson .Paak) (starts at 53:10)
16) Talking To My Diary
For those on the go…
1st Listen Impressions:
- Very positive. The album bangs from beginning to end, with layers like horn solos that enter the overall sound too. Definitely a Compton/west coast sound that you’d expect, and it’s definitely modern too. Also: don’t even listen if it’s not loud. High volume adds to the experience, for sure.
- It’s tough to find a drawback in tracks 1-9. The first half of the album is strongest, brought in properly by the intro + first real track. This stretch also has features 3 (!) Kendrick Lamar features in this stretch. All of them are on point and I liked his work on “Darkside/Gone” and “Deep Water” a little more than “Genocide”.
- The beat drop for Xzibit and his subsequent energy was new/classic. That definitely worked.
- Cube’s feature + the murder fantasy on that track took the album a dark direction for a couple songs that I feel longtime fans will definitely appreciate. Reminds me of the 90s.
- Dre himself is flowin with more rhythm than some of his random, rare appearances in the past few years.
- Singers doin it justice too, specifically Marsha Ambrosius, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Anderson .Paak. Dap to Asia Bryant on “Just Another Day” too.
- Wait, can you imagine this album live? It flows really well and will definitely jump another level if the rumored Straight Outta Compton Tour with N.W.A. and Eminem comes to fruition. Whoo!
- Ran back “Medicine Man” twice in a row. Dre and Em definitely feels right and both delivered. How bout Dre disgusted at today’s rap game?! The eerie, and explicit female hook from Candice Pillay works. Then Eminem kept getting better and better and even had some shock value lines along the way. Lots of songs will make the rotation for awhile to come, this is one of them.
- R.I.P. Eazy-E. Dre appropriately paid homage to him throughout, especially to close it out on “Talking To My Diary”. *applauds*
What are your first impressions?! Let me know @gowherehiphop
UPDATE: Lots of speculation of Kendrick sub-dissing Drake in “Deep Water”, namely the beginning and end bars of his. Also on “Darkside/Gone”:
But still I got enemies giving me energy I wanna fight now
Subliminally sent to me all of this hate
I thought I was holding the mic down…
I dunno, part of me feels like this is a stretch. (In fact, Mickey sums it up well.) But whatever the case, the bars are hot and if it snowballs into an even greater competition, I’m all for it.
Gowhere Hip Hop 