Dr. Dre

Marcovitz, H. (2007). Dr. Dre. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest Publishers. ISBN 1-4222-0116-3.

Why read this book

Dr. Dre has been a major force in hip-hop music since the 1980s. Find out where he comes from and what he’s done.

Summary

In six short chapters Marcovitz surveys Dr. Dre’s life from his youth in Compton, an economically depressed suburb of Los Angeles where he was born Andre Young on February 18, 1965, to his role as a major rap producer on his own Aftermath Entertainment label. Dre started his career as a rapper with the group N.W.A., whose 1989 album Straight Outta Compton was a seminal work in the gangsta rap genre. The target of censorship fights because of the anti-police lyrics in some of the songs, Straight Outta Compton got little radio play but sold 3 million copies. Dre was involved in the production of three N.W.A. albums on the Ruthless Records label, experience he built on in 1991 when he and Marion “Suge” Knight founded their own label, Death Row Records. Dre’s first album for the new label, The Chronic (1992), was another landmark album in West Coast hip-hop. Consistent with hip-hop tradition, the content glorified drugs and violence, but Dre broke new ground musically by bringing studio musicians playing horns into the hip-hop sound. The album also featured rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg in his breakout performance. It earned $50 million in sales for Death Row Records.

The next few years saw a rivalry between Knight and East Coast hip-hop artists, especially Sean “Puffy” Combs. The rivalry became violent at times, including the shooting deaths of Death Row rapper Tupac Shakur and East Coast rapper Notorious B.I.G. In 1995, in part to distance himself from the feud, Dre left Death Row and founded a new label without Knight called Aftermath Entertainment. The first few albums on the new label were not well received critically, but Dre re-established his reputation with Dr. Dre 2001 in 1999. About the same time Dre discovered white rapper Eminem and signed him with Aftermath Entertainment. A few years later Dre hit gold again by signing 50 Cent, whose 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ sold nearly 1 million copies in its first week. Dre continues to develop new talent as a rap producer today.

Critical evaluation

The text of Dr. Dre reads more like an encyclopedia entry than a thoughtful analysis of a major musical talent. The author and publisher are to be commended for avoiding the cheap shots that mainstream media often lob at rap music, but they shortchange their readers by not going into more depth on the controversies that have made hip-hop the important force that it is in popular culture. The book is very engaging visually, with many color photos, background color frames on the pages, and blocks of type in various colors. It includes a nicely done timeline of hip-hop events from 1970 to 2006, a timeline of Dr. Dre’s life, a discography and awards list, suggestions for further readings (both print articles and Web sites), a glossary of terms that appear in bold face in the text of the book, and an index.

About the author

Amazon.com’s bibliography page for Hal Marcovitz lists more than 100 titles, all of which appear to be non-fiction for 9-to-12 and young adult readers. The topics range from the historical (Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, Benjamin Franklin) to the contemporary (marijuana, teens and sex) and from sports (the Manning brothers, Venus and Serena Williams) to popular culture (Justin Timberlake, Lindsay Lohan) and psychology (A Guy’s Guide to Jealousy/A Girl’s Guide to Jealousy; A Guy’s Guide to Loneliness/A Girl’s Guide to Loneliness).

Genre: Music, Contemporary non-fiction

Curriculum ties

For younger teens, the book would be a good option on a non-fiction independent reading list and a good topic for a book report.

Book-talking ideas

• Play some of Dr. Dre’s music.

• Explain Dr. Dre’s close connections to many of the major figures in hip-hop music since the 1980s, including Eminem, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and 50 Cent.

Reading level/interest age

The San Francisco Public Library shelves this book with teen non-fiction and Amazon.com lists it as a young adult book, but I wouldn’t buy it for a high school library. The simplicity of the content makes it more appropriate for middle school readers than high school readers.

Challenge issues

Rap music has been hugely controversial for decades, but the objective tone of this book would probably make it less a target for challenges than more analytical books or the music itself.

Responses

• Remind the challenger of the policy (in the case of the San Francisco Public Library) to present “all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

Why I chose to read this book

Because I am researching music as a young-adult genre, I wanted to see what kinds of print sources are available for readers who like rap music.

References

Hal Marcovitz Bibliography (n.d.). Amazon.com. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Marcovitz/e/B001JP4ANS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1