 Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine |
Dr. Dre, the most influential man in Hip-Hop at the moment, and possibly its history, thanks to his deal with Apple, recently launched his own radio show with the tech giant. The hour-long show is called “The Pharmacy” and airs on Apple Music’s Beats1 radio station every other Saturday.
The inaugural episode launched over the July 4th weekend. Dre discussed a variety of topics in between songs while chopping it up with co-hosts DJ Pooh, Eddie Francis, Wyann Vaughn and DJ Jus Incredible.
During the episode, he discussed the upcoming movie “Straight Outta Compton,” which centers around the group and the making of their landmark 1988 album of the same title. According to Dre, if it were not for the experience Ice Cube has as a filmmaker, the movie about the group would never have seen the light of day.
“It took a long time for me to actually say, ok I am actually going to do this. I didn’t want anything to pour water on my legacy, so I was against it at the beginning. I read a few scripts that were kind of corny but Ice Cube he actually grabbed the bull by the horns, and he went in and got the script done. I read this new script he brung in, and I was like ‘oh, ok. I like that.'”
| [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/213343128″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] |
As a director Ice Cube, who once penned an anti-industry song titled “Burn, Hollywood Burn,” has earned hundreds of millions at the box office, thanks to his “Friday” and “Barbershop” series of films. As an actor, Cube has starred in classic movies like “Boyz N the Hood,” “The Players Club,” “Janky Promoters” (can’t leave that out), “21 Jump Street,” “Ride Along” and others.
So, when F. Gary Gray came on board, Dr. Dre was sold. F. Gary Gray pretty much launched his career with the short film “Murder Was the Case: The Movie,” which was produced and co-directed by Dr. Dre [and Fab 5 Freddy] for Snoop Dogg in 1995.
F. Gary Gray went on to direct and/or produce movies like “Set It Off” (which featured Dre), “Be Cool,” “Friday,” “The Italian Job” and most recently, “Law Abiding Citizen.” And while Dre’s filmography is not nearly as diverse as those above, the producer/mogul has had parts in movies like “Training Day.” Dre even showcased his comedic skills in the cult classic, “The Wash.”
That is all to say, that besides being a prolific producer with the ability to spot talent like Eminem and Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre knows his shit when it comes to the movies too.
“When F. Gary Gray came in and said he wanted to direct it, I’m like ‘Ok, we might have something here.’ Let’s roll up our sleeves, blackout give these people what they want, but let’s display what it took not only to put that record together, but the friendship, the love that we had for each other, the betrayal, and ultimately trying to get back together and do an NWA record before Eazy passed away.”
“Straight Outta Compton” is due in movie theaters in August of 2015.
