Dr. Dre Says He’s Not Inspired By Anything in “Hip-Hop These Days”
Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s new album Missionary is out now and of course they are on a promo run for the same.
The two legendary musicians cover the latest issue of Complex where they speak on their chemistry, reuniting for a new album together, their recording process, meaning behind the album title, collaborating with 50 Cent & Eminem again, working with Sting and much more.
When talking about his iconic work in the past, Dre says he doesn’t like hearing anything he made in the past. “I don’t listen to any of the songs I’ve ever made since 1985, which is when I started. I don’t even allow my family or anybody to play that shit around me. I think that just the process of recording is what I really enjoy. Just recording the albums, and I’m listening to it enough while we’re recording, and when we finish recording, I wake up listening to that shit once it comes out. I’m ready to listen to the next shit,” he said.
From there, he started to speak on how he doesn’t feel inspired by anything that’s out right now.
“..I don’t want to be disrespectful to anybody right now, but I’m not really inspired by what’s happening with hip-hop these days. It’s not for me. I’ve always said I’m not going to disrespect it or anything like that, but I haven’t heard anything that makes me go fuck, why didn’t I do that? I haven’t heard that in a long time, which makes my job easy to be honest,” he said.
Dre was further asked by the interviewer about the last artist or album that inspired him. He answered: “Well, if you’re talking about new shit, I would say good kid, m.A.A.d city and To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar were the last hip-hop albums that inspired me.”
When speaking about working again with 50 and Em on the song ‘Gunz N Smoke‘, Dre said, “It’s a brotherhood. We all show up for each other. None of us has ever said no to each other.”
He added: “The critiques come from Eminem. It’s like a friendly competition among us. And it’s healthy. You’ll hear it. Like the way 50 showed up on the first verse. Then Snoop comes in and then Eminem shows up and you know what the fuck it is with him and that ink pen.”