ithaka

5y

i keep hearing about dre flops before 2001, which i assume this and i believe “the firm”are what is referred to as, at least by dre himself and his crew, but then i keep reading they’re underrated 🤔

El Nigga

5y

tbh his 2 2000s albums after the War/Peace s***s aren't that bad. Inconsistent but they do have some classic tunes

Love me some "smoke some weed", "gangsta rap made me do it", "do ya thang", "go to church", "why we thugs" etc..

ithaka

5y

not to gossip again but this video tho

eazy e hella smart “this national tv? this national tv...” lowkey telling ren to chill and stay on the low without calling him out

El Nigga

5y

lmfaooo never seen this. Jesus christ things were so different back then

Eazy the only rapper that as a grown man I'll say is "so cool" lol

BMZ

5y

Yeah they flopped. Not the worst things on earth but not dre standard at all. Aftermath got a couple of cool rap songs, nothing amazing and some r&b songs that range from bland to s*** tbh. I admire what he was trying to do and I can kinda see the vision but a hip hop version of david bowe's fame was not moving anyone at that time when you listen to what all the other big acts were doing at the time

The Firm album is just a mess honestly. Cormerga got kicked out the group so they sold them as a trio then last minute nature of all people joined. hence why he isn't in any press pics, the first single and is poorly edited on the cover like he was put there last minute (because he was). The line up of the group and what the actual album would consist of would always be up for debate. Sometimes none of the four artists would be on ANY of the songs and they would give up the spots to show love to other artists.

Also the promotion and the original lead single just wasn't it. Massive video for such an awful song. that hook man. that beat too. they really tried to hard for a cross over hit. it just wasn't happening. I know they were going for a puffy formula with using an old dance sample but nah man lol. I can't get over how bad this hook was tho.

The Firm album gets its love for what it is. An album that could have been better but had its moments and also put on some aritsts (think it was canibus first major appearance and put nore on as a solo artist).

BMZ

5y

Yeah they flopped. Not the worst things on earth but not dre standard at all. Aftermath got a couple of cool rap songs, nothing amazing and some r&b songs that range from bland to s*** tbh. I admire what he was trying to do and I can kinda see the vision but a hip hop version of david bowe's fame was not moving anyone at that time when you listen to what all the other big acts were doing at the time

The Firm album is just a mess honestly. Cormerga got kicked out the group so they sold them as a trio then last minute nature of all people joined. hence why he isn't in any press pics, the first single and is poorly edited on the cover like he was put there last minute (because he was). The line up of the group and what the actual album would consist of would always be up for debate. Sometimes none of the four artists would be on ANY of the songs and they would give up the spots to show love to other artists.

Also the promotion and the original lead single just wasn't it. Massive video for such an awful song. that hook man. that beat too. they really tried to hard for a cross over hit. it just wasn't happening. I know they were going for a puffy formula with using an old dance sample but nah man lol. I can't get over how bad this hook was tho.

The Firm album gets its love for what it is. An album that could have been better but had its moments and also put on some aritsts (think it was canibus first major appearance and put nore on as a solo artist).

ithaka

5y

is bowies fame the most sampled song in hip hop history next to jackie brown? i know about that song bc i once did a post here in bowies thread retracing every hip hop that has sampled bowie ever, well of all ive gathered anyway (i can redirect u to that post if u curious) it’s interesting to see one song so much sampled and how each brings his take on it, i appreciate dre trying especially since he lets the original song do his stuff so much more than some others, which is a nice form of homage, but he def was going on it when it was already done, a bit late for a producer known for being onto what was upcoming

that firm story is fascinating, had no idea it went like that, i take it then ppl saying it’s underrated are more nostalgic than being critic, that song you posted is sooo yatch rich ppl jam lol which is a mood and kinda works for 2020 but yeah when you’re trying too hard to get a hit that’s usually when it doesn’t work, nwa shook the world and put new rules onto the game of rap because no one really was doing what they brought

BMZ

5y

nah fame has been sample a fair amount of times but james brown funky drummer has been sampled somewhere around 1500 times from what I remember. plenty more regularly sampled tracks than fame.

The early aftermath story is really interesting honestly. This time it was Jimmy in his ear. Not Suge, Eazy, Jerry or even Lonzo and I feel like the singles and the promotion for the acts at the time really show. Jimmy didn't have the same understanding of hip hop and it really shows. It wasn't until 98/99 where em joined and everything started to organically fall into place.

ithaka

5y

ah my bad then

oh word that makes sense, that era sounds interesting, when did they actually meet?

BMZ

5y

they met when dre played jimmy the chronic for the first time since Interscope was parent company for deathrow. What made things very strange when dre left deathrow was he started a new label, aftermath that was partnered with interscope while deathrow was still with interscope. Created a lot of issues between Jimmy & Suge. Plenty more to that story tho.

ithaka

5y

@El_Senor @Bill_My_Zoot what y’all think about the album Compton in hindsight?

also Dre mixed Wash us in the Blood still got that ear, s*** sounds so crispy

also Zoot my g, have you covered much of detox? i remember trying listening to one or two stuff that leaked but it’s hard to tell if it was real or fake, what’s your take away from it, should it be been saved? i know that one prod on talking diary was from way back on some tv ad he did for pepsi or whatever so it must be a detox era beat he kept

BMZ

5y

Compton is nothing to me honestly. good ideas here and there but doesn't have that organic magic of a 2001 or a chronic. Thats probably the biggest issue with compton and basically all the detox sessions. 2001 is truly an organic project that happened. Dre was reconnecting with snoop and his camp for the first time officially since the deathrow days, eminem was a young new talent with good ideas that was bringing around other new talent and mel man was bringing great ideas production wise, Xzibit and other fresh acts were coming around with some other og acts still around the aftermath team like king tee.

Detox went through so many eras and kept changing. Detox went through so many different phases and actual eras. gotta remember you could date detox sessions back to as early as 2002. it dates back before 50 signed to em & dre and by the time it was officially scrapped kendrick was like 4 years into his career lol. it didn't have a certain team working on it. so many people came and went with working on it. jay, game, snoop, kendrick, drake, wayne, 50, em, nas, many other artist and so many lesser known artists writing. the sessions span over 10 years. it was worked into the ground

A lot of the stuff from the early days of the detox sessions seemed to be a continuation of the sound from 2001. thats the biggest problem with what dre is facing when creating detox. he is trying to top two of the most important hip hop projects ever in hip hop. A lot of the detox sessions leaks are good. some are really good but they just don't feel special.

Then around 08 forward it seemed like dre was trying to make a timbaland influenced club smash album (eg. under pressure, the swizz beatz produced chillin and the awful Mr. Prescription) a sound I don't think anyone would have hated from any other aritst but following 2001 it just wasn't it and then we have I need a doctor...ehh......Dre going the recovery route isn't anything any of us wanted.

So imo scrapping the album was the best thing dre ever did. He was working too hard and worked himself into a corner. trying to make a perfect project from a lukewarm direction.

Akame Ga Trill

5y

Also s/o the mob. Rip the jack