As your surrogate finger pokes and prods it’s way through the fiber optic free way of the illusionary universe we call the Internet, you will eventually stumble upon the digital institution known as Youtube. So as your twilight arrow rummages through all the videos posted by other viewers, you will begin to remember a band, that someone, somewhere had told you was the next big thing, or something. So once you pick that right video from the digital gallery, you will be immediately greeted by an unwarranted advertisement, and right to the left of this nuisance will be an austere, yet familiar face. Who is this grim, yet strangely comforting figure?… Why you can’t believe it? How could you forget, forget about… about Dre. Yes, it is that very same old g, who taught you to smoke trees, who brought you Ol G’s, eazy-E’s, Ice Cube’s and D.O.C’s and the Snoop D O double G’s? How could you forget? He was the man who thought that cartoon character Slim Shady was a base head Oh, how you used to love Eminem, he was so wacky and dangerous, and you bravely hid his cd and secretly listened to them at night. Dr. Dre was that wizened hip hop father figure that brought you this clown prince of violent hip hop. He was also the main man behind NWA, which you are pretty sure is the Sex Pistols of hip hop, or something. So you immediately forget the supposedly next big thing and see what this Ol’ G is now cooking up.You hit play, wait through a tiresome commercial that reminds you of the days when no video on Youtube had such advertisements. Then there he is, driving up in a Lamborghini, dressed in all black, walking through various parties with female eye candy and hundred-dollar bills thrown up in the air. He looks like the Donald Trump of the Matrix. As for the music, it’s typical rap fare. Booming drums, piano, a few distorted guitar chords, and… and … that voice. That metallic banshee wail, which seems to haunt every last hip hop hit that’s come out in the last few years. Auto-tune has infiltrated the entirety of hip hop, much to my dismay.

Anyways, It’s not bad, the beat is catchy, but nothing really new or genius. Well, how about the lyrics? It’s rap, right? Lyrics are the main point, so what does this latest single have to offer. Well, it’s about smoking cannabis, a subject matter which has well been done to death in the hip hop genre. Rapping about how great it is to smoke pot in hip hop is well, as innovative as promoting how awesome you are, which ageing Dr. Dre continues to do. Honestly, in your heart of heart’s this song is disappointing and you say to yourself, “Man, this latest Dr. Dre outing surely is a sign of his decline. I remember when he was good, maybe even great… when was that? Man, I wonder how Dr. Dre began his illustrious career. Where did this combiner of hip hop clichés began putting vinyl to needle and how does it compare to today”

Well, Here I am, your humble bloggist, here to answer part of your hypothetical question. Now Dr. Dre, despite being mainly remembered in this day and age as the man that produces the pop gangster rap that plagues radio, began his career in the strange cultural wasteland of the Reagan administration. It’s interesting to note that the good doctor did not begin his career looking like a gangster Morpheus, but instead he spinned records in the scrubs of surgeon, a fitting costume for his DJ Name.

Apparently after a brief stint DJing in various clubs around the Compton area he teamed up with a collection of other MCs and DJs. They called this group the World Class Wreckin’ Cru and I, somehow through the magic of the internet, was able to grab their first recording, called World Class. On first inspection, this is obviously not the same ol’ G Of NWA or The Chronic, nor is he like the Dre in Kush. We see Dr. Dre, in a white suit, next to three similarly dressed men.who all look like back up singers for the 1985 Prince tour, or perhaps a mythical Pimp/Pirate hybrid.

The music on this album on the inside does not really match the clothes. This isn’t prince style minimalist funk, but an album clearly showing a culture in flux. This album is like a giant dividing line between Hip Hop and Electronic Dance Music. It also shows just how times have changed in the culture of hip hop.

This album’s main style is that of electro, which is one of the first electronic dance music genres, with I believe only Italo disco beating it. It began when Africa Bambaataa decided to start sampling the rigid electronic music of Germany’s Kraftwerk instead of some obscure funk record for his Zulu nation to rap over.

He first did this on Planet Rock, and provided a historical precedent for Kanye West to make his Stronger Single, where he raps over France’s EDM kings Daft Punk.

Dr. Dre and the World Class Wreckin’ Cru mine this style for pretty much all it’s worth, though they also pass through sub-Run DMC style rap and sub-Grand master flash style conscious hip hop.

The record’s lyrical content touches on some rather odd, non traditional hip hop subjects. Sure, there’s the obligatory “I’m the best MC around, and i get mad ladies” and “My DJ IS AWESOME CAUSE HE CAN MAKE SCRATCHING NOISES,” but there is on this record the obsession of combining sexuality with technology. The opening cut “Planet,” combines twilight zone synths, and heavy breathing with lyrics involving the boys in “the World Class Wreckin’ Cru” leading you on some sort of interplanetary trip to some planet of unlimited sex. It’s strange, the ominous Kraftwerk synthesizer and the really odd heavy breathing percussion makes one feel anything, but sexual.

The apex of this Techno-Sexuality is heard on the track “Horny Computer,” which has to be heard to believe. They use the same heavy breathing and synthesizers except this time all of the rap is sung through the original autotune, the vocoder,. The robotic rap is about, well, a horny computer. He is this all-powerful computer who can solve all of humans problems, but he can’t find a girl to insert his input in. Combine this with some rather strange female orgasm sounds and well, you have all the makings for comedic gold. It’s hard to understand why or how scientists would program a computer with an irrational lust for females, but as another song on this album states, Dr. Dre got his PhD in mixology and not in computer programing. Apparently, at this point in the Hip Hop community, technology (and techno sex) was still a topic worth rapping about, but obviously this was dropped and only the EDM scene would continue worshiping the great gray Goddess of technology.

This album eventually takes on other subjects besides the Techno-Sexual, and on the song “Gang Bang You’re Dead” the early Dre takes on conscious hip hop. This song takes all of it’s cues from Grand Master Flash’s “the Message,” though Grand master does it way better.

The most fascinating thing about this song is not the sound, it’s the message. This song is an anti-gang song. That’s right, Dr. Dre made a mediocre song about how gangs and dealing drugs are bad. The drug in question in this song is marijuana. It was really surreal listening to this song and then listening to his latest single, “Kush,” or the time i listened to 2001, or the time i listened to The Chronic, or the time I listened to Straight Outta Compton. In fact this song pretty much says the opposite of everything Dr. Dre has promoted in the entirety of his career. The lyrics are absolutely astounding. Here is one verse from this masterpiece.

You wear red rag, blue rag, and big shoelaces

You drink 40 ounce brew by the cases

You dress so tacky ’til you look like a slob

and you wonder why you can’t get a job

You wear barrets and you call yourself a man

and you never wear the right size pants

Your clothes are never fresh, they’re always stale

Who’s your designer, the county jail ?

You got secret words and finger signs

twisted egos and warped minds

Your grammar is bad and you think you’re cool

But if you listen to yourself, you sound like a fool

That’s right, it’s rap song which criticizes the grammar of gangstas, co written by Dr. Dre. It’s hard to fathom that in a few short years, Dr. Dre abandons his pirate/pimp attire and take on all the attributes of the gangster and brag about doing the very things he criticizes in this song. Hip Hop Culture has changed immensely from the day and age that this song was written.

The last song on this album continues on revealing just how much times have truly changed. It’s called “Lovers” and features some mediocre ‘80s R ‘n’ B diva.

The song is about how all the members of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru (including the D.R.E.) approach this foxy female, and get this, they did not end up have one huge gang bang. No the woman rejects each and every one of them, including the good doctor, because as the chorus says, “I don’t wanna be lovers before we are friends/ I don’t want this love to stop before it begins…” Yes, In this song , the co-writer of “Bitch iz a Bitch” and the man who taught the children of the ‘90s that bitches ain’t shit but hos and tricks, raps on a song which actually represents women in a respectful manner. What really gets me, is that Dr. Dre is rejected. THIS HAS NEVER OCCURRED IN ANY HIP HOP SONG I HAVE EVER HEARD, EVER. In fact it seems like since the mid 1980s male chauvinism has had a strangle hold on popular hip hop and yet the chief orchestrator of the gangsta takeover of hip hop, deep in the recesses of electro hop co wrote a song contrary to this notion.

Which begs the question, what the hell happened, Dr. Dre? Why the complete and total change in message? music is understandable, shitty synthesizers get replaced with better ones, but why promote gangster activity and treating woman like subhumans? WHAT THE HELL? My theory is that Dr. Dre is a business man, and misogyny and unrealistic Gangsta idealism appeals more towards adolescent young men. Dressing up like a pimp/pirate and writing songs about horny computers does not. So Dr. Dre decided to go where the money was, which is why this new song has shitty auto tune and lyrics that can only appeal to teenage stoners. In summation, Dr. Dre is a money gobbling fake and his first record proves it.