[New Release] Dr. Dre
“Compton”
Label: Aftermath/Interscope
Genre: Hip-hop
Dr. Dre’s new album “Compton’’ doesn’t just unfold, it charges forward - a barreling mass of relentless beats and lyrical strong-arming that amounts to much more than anyone could have expected from a hip-hop legend whose last solo album hit shelves in 1999.
He might be millions of dollars richer and several decades removed from the life that inspired the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton,’’ but Dre has not lost his edge, nor has he lost his touch.
Fellow veterans Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg deliver perhaps their hardest verses in recent memory on “Issues’’ and “One Shot, One Kill,’’ respectively. But Dre’s outstanding production is what makes “Compton’’ enthralling. Verses from Kendrick Lamar and newcomer King Mez also shake things up.
Anger is ever-present on “Compton,’’ but there’s reflection, too. “Still tryna figure out, why the [expletive] I’m full of rage,’’ Dre raps, later adding, “Just a young black man from Compton wondering who could save us.’’
It is a question that needed answering at the start of Dre’s career, and it is a question that could use an answer now. AP
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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