Dr. Dre is the man that made me appreciate rap. Before Dre, rap to me was just a poet with a beat. I enjoyed listening to it, but I didn’t take it that seriously.
Dre’s music is different. I think it was his Chronic 2001 album that was a turning point for me in my appreciation of hip hop. There are a couple tracks on that album that even today I’ll listen to 2-3 times in a row, trying to disect the individual rhythms and melodies. He is truly a master of the art.
This interview has elevated my admiration of Dr. Dre even more. Sometimes, when you experience someone’s art, you just get a sense about what kind of person they are. Before I read this interview I had already built a mental image of Dre as a very smart, articulate person that is passionate and meticulous about what he does. This article confirms that image, and even more so.
Interviewer: What’s your legacy? What do you want to be remembered by?
Dre: I don’t really think about that. My thing is just coming in here and making records, and hopefully people will go out and buy it and bump it. I’m just trying to come in and better myself when I’m in [the studio]. If I had to give an answer to that I’d say that I’d like to be remembered as a person who really cared about his music, and really entertained people with my talent. I just want to be remembered as being the shit.
Passionate people usually all have the same response: When they die, they want to be remembered as being passionate about what they did.