I don’t think I’ve ever heard a long Dre interview like this. Loved it.

http://youtu.be/XyR4qU0UVqA

My man you are 54 years old now - your reputation cemented, nothing to prove anymore ... why do you *STILL* refuse to even acknowledge the World Class Wreckin' Crew era ? It happened. Everybody knows. The internet exists. We can all find the picture(s) in the stroke of a few keys. Why not even MENTION it ???

He's like a bad politician lol

Release some of this cutting room floor magic you selfish motherfucker !!

Him and LL laughing about "oh we got about 30-40 songs together" ... uhhhh cool fellas must be nice to have that to yourselves *eyeroll*

The more I hate the “I got hella music in the vault”.

>Release some of this cutting room floor magic you selfish
>motherfucker !!
>
>Him and LL laughing about "oh we got about 30-40 songs
>together" ... uhhhh cool fellas must be nice to have that to
>yourselves *eyeroll*

I can see that, because he takes a lot of risks with his music. Probably a lot of ridiculous sounding stuff. The best unreleased LL song I've ever heard is NY Mentality, but that's because of the beat. The lyrics are incredibly corny, sounds like a 14 Shots outtake.

... cutting room work as I am the Dre & Eminem stuff they were talking about.

....dude is lucky anyone would even sign him in the mid 90s

Everything except the title track got shelved.

Because I think Mr. Smith gave him life for the next 10 years(of mixed quality, but certainly good success).

Feels like in that era, he probably would’ve been done if Mr. Smith was wack and didn’t hit. Commercially around 95, he was right there with the new biggest stars like Biggie for a minute again, which combined with being a legend was a real good look for him.

When I hear LL talking about how much he loves Pete Rock and Primo with Dre, it makes me wish he would’ve actually worked with them. Especially come late 90’s era? Or at least after Phenomenon was a “nah”?

....at least thats how i see it ...that Hey Lover shit dropped when he was "M.I.A. and nobody cares" status ...i also dont get how you could LOVE pete/preem and have the choice to secure their production on your shit, and still dont use them ..and this is when they were still staples on the biggest rap LPs (Big, Nas, Jay etc)

>....dude is lucky anyone would even sign him in the mid 90s
>
>
>

>My man you are 54 years old now - your reputation cemented,
>nothing to prove anymore ... why do you *STILL* refuse to even
>acknowledge the World Class Wreckin' Crew era ? It happened.
>Everybody knows. The internet exists. We can all find the
>picture(s) in the stroke of a few keys. Why not even MENTION
>it ???
>
>He's like a bad politician lol

right, and he never mentions Arabian Prince being an original NWA member or having contributed production to any early records.

second, and third too probably. The music/art takes a distant fourth- if its even on the list.

I've lost a lot of respect for Dre over the years, and one of the reasons is I realized he is only concerned with his brand.

my car stereo defaults to xm before i connect my phone. usually i switch it to my phone as soon as possible but when i heard them talking i had to keep listening. what i heard was pretty cool. ill need to check out the youtube.

just the audio playing with a still image.


I haven't listened to it all. went to sleep on it. I didn't get anything great from it. a few tidbits here and there.

but I'm also annoyed by LL's interview style. he'll ask some good questions, but then he'll talk too much and the interviewee doesn't get to say everything.

But I was surprised to hear that much out of Dre, and props to LL for getting him to do it and getting him talking.

As a fan, I like hearing the legends of that era chopping it up. For instance, never would’ve known or even thought of LL visiting the studio in a Chronic/Doggystyle era session. Thought it was cool how they got going on giving Larry Smith his props. Cash Money too, when they started talking DJing.

Even shit like Dre having chickens that give him high quality eggs and then Dre catching himself like “wait, y’all probably don’t really want to hear about some eggs”, lol.

Feel like he missed a lot of opportunities to follow up on some important shit. I can't remember exact instances of this but I recall thinking "oh shit why didn't he ask *this*" in response to something Dre said multiple times throughout that 77 minutes.

Still really good, as you said ... but definitely feel like he could've got some even better info out of Dre.

And your comment about LL being in the studio for the Chronic/Doggystyle sessions is a great example of that - like WHAT ? How do they both just drop this nugget of info and not expound on it ? Why the hell was LL there / what was he doing there ?!? Who brought him there ? Feel like that was HUGE missed opportunity. Especially considering I feel like no one has ever heard that before.

it almost felt made up, except....why the hell would LL need to make that up and why would Dre go along with it without missing a beat? So I believe it.

But yeah, in that era? I know they had gone on tour before, but every clique and rapper that was a major star(and let’s face it, from different coasts) felt so major back then and had their own thing going that it kinda blew my mind that LL was at Death Row Studios in the early 90s. I just assumed they would’ve been cordial but wouldn’t have really messed with each other like that.

And when Dre brought up Warren G and LL said something like “shoutout Warren G!”, the music nerd(who was a big fan on both of them at the time) side of me is wondering “what was up with Warren’s verse on ‘What We Go Through’”? Was that a beef? A weird type of shout out? I know I’ve heard Warren talk about how when he was first signing with Def Jam(in 94?) how he looked up to LL, but that song was ‘97. So what the hell was up with that verse? I’m amazed in 22 years its never come close to being discussed on record, as far as I know. I might be one of the few that cares. What I would give to hear LL and Dre talk about that story though, lol.

Also, I think I like “Zoom” more than 99.9999% of the population. I still remember catching that video for the first time in one of my high school basketball teammates basements after practice and another teammate saying something like “LL’s all smiling in the video and Dre’s looking at the camera all tough trying to be all hardcore! This is perfect!” Lol. That song low key knocked though. I liked post Death Row/Pre shock value Eminem Dre a lot more than most. Wish he would’ve been more successful and continue on that path, personally. It was kinda sad that shit didn’t sell(another would be great question for someone like LL who can get Dre to talk to ask, lol). LL said something about “Been There Done That”, and Dre was like “yeah, that shit just did ok. It was aight”, and they kept it moving.

As I recall, Dre seemed to be making a conscious effort to move beyond all that Death Row dumb shit, but it didn’t fully hit so he went right back to at least talking the dumb shit with Eminem.

I also really liked Zoom. I understood folks' displeasure with it, considering the hard left Dre took from his previous persona and what not. But I was digging it, and also wish he would've gone a little further in that direction since it seemed his lifestyle was moving in that direction.

I obviously loved all the later Dre stuff too, the return to shock and hardcore. It was great music. But definitely seemed a little phony. Dre was clearly still partying and shit but he wasn't deep in the hood like he was in the NWA and Death Row days so I'd have been fine with him leaving that content behind. But again, the music was overall fucking *great* so it gets a pass from me haha.

And I'm with you - I know we've been two of the several but relatively few west coast heads on here for a while (shout out to DJ R-Tistic as well) ... I could also listen to Dre/Death Row/west coast stories forever and never tire of them.

and R-Tistic being one of the posters who i seemingly was putting onto that verse with all the LL references. He’s quieter these days(as are most posters), and last I knew was doing well with DJing, so I felt that I was doing something to where I could even somewhat put him onto something - especially west coast related, lol. R-Tistic was a crazy cool poster too, never even saw him entertain some bullshit without being cool about it, lol.

You too, but you still post and I feel like we’re on the same wavelength often!

Can you link up to that "What We Go Through" post or recap it ? I don't recall it at all, I love that song (just listened to it the other day actually), and the album ... but don't really recall picking up on anything LL related.


>and R-Tistic being one of the posters who i seemingly was
>putting onto that verse with all the LL references. He’s
>quieter these days(as are most posters), and last I knew was
>doing well with DJing, so I felt that I was doing something to
>where I could even somewhat put him onto something -
>especially west coast related, lol. R-Tistic was a crazy cool
>poster too, never even saw him entertain some bullshit without
>being cool about it, lol.
>
>You too, but you still post and I feel like we’re on the
>same wavelength often!

Haha thanks my man and likewise - kindred musical spirits for sure. What's funny is that back when I started posting more often (around 2007-2008ish ... from 2001 til 2007 I mostly lurked) I remember that I actually thought you and R-Tistic were the same person lol. Similar names and similar music preferences. Didn't take me long to figure it out but the first few interactions with both of you I remember being like "wait didn't we already talk about this ? Wait not ... different DJ R" .." haha.

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=5&topic_id=2759791&mesg_id=2759791&listing_type=search#2759804

Funny how I remembered making that post, but didn’t remember finding out that LL seemingly took a little shot at him in “Hollis to Hollywood”.

... then, obviously, totally forgot about it. My memory is typically better than that.

But that's dope thanks for finding.

I listened to this podcast last year sometime (it was great, btw, for those who haven't heard it) and so when you brought up this Warren G/LL thing I kept having this nagging feeling that I'd heard a positive story about Warren and LL before but couldn't remember where.

Thought a little harder and found it:

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/mogul/2oh983/part-3-rice-pilaf


I looked at the transcript to pull the below exchange that I'd been thinking about. Obviously based on this it doesn't sound like they ever had any beef, but then again I wouldn't necessarily expect G to reference their beef on a podcast that isn't about that. I'd love to know more about how this whole story, how and why they had beef, etc. Like we talked about I could listen to/read about this west coast shit all day every and never ever get tired of it.

Anyway I pulled this from the part where Warren was talking about how Lighty had recruited him and wanted to sign him but first had to fly him out to NY to show him around (I'd like to make specific note of the blatant disrespect shown to The Twinz here by not capitalizing their name nor fucking spelling it right lol):


Warren G: They flew me to New York. I’d never been on an airplane. Me and the twins.

Matthew: Who were the twins?

Warren G: They was one of my groups. Told my buddies, “Y’all come with me.” The first night I stayed there I was just chilling, enjoying being in New York, able to order whatever I want. Steaks, whatever, liquor, in my room. Me and the twins we was lifted. We went down to Times Square. We was on 47th and 2nd at the Embassy Suites. So the next morning I get a phone call. And I was like, “Hello?” And it was like, “Hey, this is LL Cool J. I’m downstairs, come here.” So I was like, “Huh?” So hung the phone up, so he called back and was like, “Yo, this is LL. I’m downstairs, man. Come down, I want to holler at you.” So I said, “Okay.” So I called twin. I was like, “Man, come with me down stairs. There’s some dude sitting up here telling me he’s LL Cool J. Let me see who the fuck this is. So uh, back then you could get on the plane with guns. I had a glock. And so we went downstairs. Sure enough it was LL Cool J. Jump in the car with him.

Matthew: Did you have the gun with you?

Warren G: Yeah. He didn’t know it. Because he probably wouldn’t have let me get in the car. We went to Queens, went shopping at the mall. He took me to his house. Showed me how he started, with all his clothes laid down in the basement. Just really laid it out to me on how, you know, how his story was. How he built himself and how he, you know, what it took. And I thought that was the greatest shit ever, because I was—I am still, and I was a humongous fan of LL Cool J. So that really, like, blew my mind. Just to meet him and be in the fucking car with him. All of that came from working for Chris Lighty, man.

Primarily because of all the folks chiming in who don't really post anymore. I miss when The Lesson was more alive like that.

And the discussion was great - so much stuff I wanted to respond to now that I didn't then haha.

As a kid I remember Dre being fat and seeming kinda dumb and seemingly drunk a lot(this all image but also based on real stories that his ass got in trouble for), the Dee Barnes shit, him getting shot in the leg, getting arrested for breaking somebody’s jaw, getting arrested for drunk driving at like 100 mph or something, on house arrest.....most of this at damn near 30(!), not 20.....it’s good to hear somebody that really seemed like a cartoonish screwup(even to me who was like 12)sincerely being solely about his family, eating healthy, and exercising, and at 50+ talking excitedly about his future and what’s new and what’s next.....it’s so, so dope and in a way, inspiring. I’m legit happy for him on every level.

It’s just a good look to hear one of our at one time seemingly self-destructive legends turn his life around and be seemingly good and all set. We lost Heavy D, Nate, Phife, Prodigy, Dilla etc. to various health issues way too young and that’s not even bringing up those lost to violence. If you would’ve told me in ‘94 that in 25 years Dre would be old and healthy and sounding like my Uncle back then who juiced and ate bananas and rode bicycles and shit, I definitely wouldn’t have believed it. So really that’s doper than anything else music related. Same with LL, though that’s far less surprising to me based on how I viewed him back then. He’s always seemed like Superman to me, which is inspirational in a whole other way. Respect to them both though, for real. I’m glad that they’re both doing great at 50+ and I think I just loved hearing them chop it up like that.

He even sorta touched on his complete turnaround when he was like "yea I workout in the morning AND at nite cause if I don't have a late workout to look forward to I could fuck up and hit the bar" (paraphrasing) hahaha. That shit was great and again, I agree that it's good to know and hear that he's taking complete care of himself and focused on the proper things this late in life. Could've obviously gone the complete opposite way considering the way he used to live, that you summed up pretty well haha.

And I’m not going to lie, being a good 15-20 years younger than Dre,
I was thinking “double sessions? The hell? How?” I don’t think know that I could pull off double sessions even if I was somehow both jobless and rich. I can occasionally workup to going fairly hard 5-6 days a week once a day and that is IT! I’m sleeping GOOD, if I’m managing to go that hard, and At the same time I was also fully relating to that “ if I don’t workout like that, I’d probably fuck up and go to the bar” quote. That’s probably one of the realist quotes ever for an adult man, IMO. 20’s-50’s or maybe even more, lol.

Also, I might be one of the few who kinda wanted to hear more about Dre’s chickens and eggs, lol.

Sometimes I play basketball in the morning but that's like once or twice a month. And when I do, I am DRAINED by the time like 2pm rolls around. I am not a morning person AT ALL so working out regularly in the morning is a no go for me, and working out AGAIN in the evening after a morning workout is DEFINITELY out of the question. Haha. Fuuuuuuuuck that.

>And I’m not going to lie, being a good 15-20 years younger
>than Dre,
>I was thinking “double sessions? The hell? How?” I
>don’t think know that I could pull off double sessions even
>if I was somehow both jobless and rich. I can occasionally
>workup to going fairly hard 5-6 days a week once a day and
>that is IT! I’m sleeping GOOD, if I’m managing to go that
>hard, and At the same time I was also fully relating to that
>“ if I don’t workout like that, I’d probably fuck up
>and go to the bar” quote. That’s probably one of the
>realist quotes ever for an adult man, IMO. 20’s-50’s or
>maybe even more, lol.
>
>Also, I might be one of the few who kinda wanted to hear more
>about Dre’s chickens and eggs, lol.

Dre understands that he can't just tell himself to stop drinking, philandering and fighting. He has to replace all that with some other form of stimulation, and that's what it seems like he's doing. Salute to him, that's wisdom.