>that album is so perfectly mixed and engineered, i think it
>loses something
>
>i think he relaxed a little at death row, but then it came
>back again when he was doing 2001, and now that perfectionism
>(aka lack of self belief) has become his main obstacle, as
>well as his need to reinvent himself, which i think he has had
>trouble with since death row ended....
>
>that sterile, clinical sound of 2001 i think takes out a lot
>of the looser, funkier stuff he used to do - its hard to do
>that when youre trying to get perfect mix downs and be really
>minimal sonically

Yo - I've been saying this since the day that album dropped but was never able to put it into words like you just did. But I couldn't agree more. While the mastering is flawless, it's almost as if he traded the density and complexity of his earlier beats for a more "clean" sound and I think the beats suffered for it. I love 2001 and always have but compared to Efil4zaggin and The Chronic the beats are missing something. They're actually missing a lot. All of them sound stripped down and almost like there's too much empty space where music used to be/should be. Whereas, on The Chronic, Dre didn't waste any space in a beat and in fact, packed his beats with subtle instrumental pieces or hard-hitting sound affects to complete the beats. Perhaps those "space fillers" were Yella and Daz influenced but I just think that, like you said, he may have just become so obsessed with the engineering and mixing aspect that he minimalized his tracks and stripped them down, and they suffered for it.


>dre was never like timbaland, but i think trying to compete in
>that/this era (god knows how he feels about todays producers,
>id love to know) was a challenge for him... hes so aware of
>his reputation, he prob doesnt want to sound 'old'.

That may be true. As you get older, you become more self aware and almost guarded about who you are whereas I feel like as a younger cat you're more willing to loosen up and experiment, and that might speak true to Dre's production work as it seemed like he was more experimental in his early days and willing to dip his toes in different waters, whereas as the years went on his work started to sound very similar.


>the problem with this board/hip hop fans in general is that
>collaboration is seen almost as a weakness, but dre is someone
>that has ALWAYS been a guy who thrives depending on whos
>around him, whether its ruthless or death row. i dont see this
>as a bad thing. in the 90s there were probably more rumours
>than facts floating around, so i wonder if all the stuff
>people say about him now (and believe) has also crippled him a
>bit.

Dre --- and everybody else. There isn't one hip-hop artist you came name who had or would have the type of success Dre has had (both critically and commercially) without having a good team around him. This isn't limited to just hip-hop or even music, either. But everyone needs a couple hands on deck to fully realize their visions. Dre's no different. But the difference is that Dre still has the talent to make things happen on his own, albeit to a lesser extent, whereas the cats around him can't do half of what he does without him.