Well done Dr Dre

JaShea99 said:

He's also not a rapper, not sure why people keep calling him one.

JaShea99 said:

Ok. You know he doesn't write his own raps right? His ghostwriters, usually the rappers he collaborates with write for him. I'm not knocking that, it's fine and as you point out he's made some absolute bangers. But for that reason, he's not a rapper, wouldn't consider himself one, and no one with any hip hop knowledge would call him a rapper. But you knew that right?

kentaddick said:

smudge7946 said:

All_Thaid_Up said:

smudge7946 said:

He can use all his money to finance social inprovements in Compton and other deprived areas of America.

Would you?

I am pretty sure he does a lot for charity already, why should he give up his money.

At the end of the day he is self made billionaire good luck to him

I would do if my money was made in the same way.
There were three themes to NWA and Dr Dre music
1. How jolly super they thought they were.
2. The use of racist terminology.
3. How frightfully hard it is to be black in socially deprived areas of America.

Now with his wealth he can fix point 3 rather than just 'sing' about it. He is the lucky position to make a real difference on point 3.

I don't think Dre has ever "sung" in his life.

it will take a lot more than a billion dollars to even start to "fix" the systematic and nationwide racism directed at black people that goes on in USA, indeed the world, as your post so illustrates. I'm far from being a bleeding heart "but you dont know what its like being x and y" you REALLY don't know what its like being black and poor in the USA. The most likely thing that will happen is that you'll end up either in prison or dead, and not just at the hands of other criminals, but under the "custody" of the state.

The fact that you so brush under the carpet number 3 is alarming. It was probably also why NWA were so important, they tackled these issues directly in their music which broke through into the mainstream.

Sparrows Lane Lion said:

kentaddick said:

Carter said:

His skin colour makes him a bit interesting and had a novelty value fifteen years ago. His colour doesn't come out with the words

Anymore than someone like kele okerke and bloc party were good because he looked different to most lead singers in bands like them. Thats a bit lazy mate

the colour of his skin helped along the way, especially when he started out as a white guy who could actually rap and do it well. After that the success feeds itself if you hang around long enough. I'm not saying he's talentless, far from it, but his skin colour helped being marketed as "safe" for consumers, more so than the likes of biggie or tupac who were seen as criminals, or at least part of the black panther movement. That combined with the fact he was being produced by a hip hop great like dr dre (another smart business move by dre) almost qualified him to the hip hop community.

Macklemore has admitted himself that he benefits commercially from being white, he acknowledges that he's "gentrifying" hip hop to an extent and being white makes him seem "safe" to record execs when being black and saying the same stuff he'd be called a gangsta.

I'm not saying Eminem has no talent, He's very talented, but there are talented people, more talented if you ask me, that are in the underground hip hop scene and wait, get this, they're black.

When Eminem 'made it', his whiteness made rap a lot more accessible to white people, so in a roundabout way, his whiteness made him more commercial yes.

But do you think as white trailer trash in Detroit, trying to rap, it gave him an advantage? Not at all.

He's made it because he's a pretty good rapper and the first 2 albums in particular were fantastic.

There are more talented people all over the place who didn't make it. There'll be players on Hackney Marshes who could've been in the prem, people on checkouts who could've been big city hot shots. Not everyone makes it, and Eminem being white wasn't the sole reason for him rising to the top out of Detroit.

he's very talented, but not the best, i was reacting to some one posting that he's the best because he sold more records. I'm not denying he had serious talent to get out of the trailer trash shithole he was in. But that also adds to his commercial appeal... in the same way it made pac's and biggie's music commercially appealing, but he had the added bonus of being white and "accessable" to white, middle class kids across the world.