- a an we re 4 thee [ebro nos prophetic rise of NWA, the most dangerous hip-hop revlon the world By Brian ‘Hiatt ay RCS aon cecse oy a ne a et isR. DRE RUBS HIS MOUNTAINOUS right deltoid through a snugblack T-shirt, not quite allowing himself to wince. His shoulder hurts. He has an online radio show to record, a sort-of-secret album to mix, a call from Jimmy Iovine com- ing any minute. But in the middle of an overscheduled July afternoon, Dre - genre-shaping beatmaker; oft- reluctant MC; mentor to S: bass-heavy headphone brand ~ exudes a leonine air of serenity and snoop, Eminem and Kendrick; walking, ‘control, as if hes excutive-producing his comedy clastic Friday. iftsitselfbeyond ‘own behavior, mament by moment. di- thestandard stuf of music biopics with its mond-speckled watch is on bis wrist (I attention othe realities oflifein Compton ‘hink its a Rolex ~ it was a gift), and and South Central in the Eighties, where crispy white Air Force Ones are on his it was easier to find an AK-47 than a job, foot (legend has it he wears a different where the crack trade, gangbangers and brand-new pair each day). Hols perched cops ~ under the militaristic eommand of fn the edge of an oversize brown leather LAPD Chief Daryl F Gates - were all out ‘ottoman in the dim lounge of the sleek, gated Sherman Oaks recording-studio complex he just bought and remodeled, ‘after years of renting it out Teywas, under is current cir- ccamstances, a trivial purchase. "Right now, financally, Tm so fucking good,” says Dre, with some understatement, In the ‘mid-Kighties, a couple of years before the formation of NWA, Andre Young was erashing on 66 We were in the middle of gangs, police br uitality, Re aganonnies, there Wes TOW his cousin's couch; he was #0 e.” says brokehecouldatatird bal || UO € eee ays Himself outfall ashe enlet-— || ae tlpllesefspecdingtckets Last | ice Cube. 99 ‘yea, when he and lovine sold Beats to Apple Inc, Dre took home roughly $500 million Witness the strength ofstreet knowledge. of contol, "You hid to see wy we di the “Tmnotabillionaiceyet,man,” Drosaye. musi,” says lee Cube. "You know, not just “Lill bo, hopefully. Gne day. But let me ‘Wwe were young, angry niggas out of South tell you something: I never have to make Central; hut wy did we make those kind another dollar in this Ifetime. For the ofrecords? We were living in the midale of reat of my lif, i juct about having fun, — dope dealing, gangbanging, police brutal- being creative” ity, fucking Reaganomics, and there was returned 50in February, and hashad nowhere to escape” ‘lot of chances lately to ponder the full The films most affecting scenes are an breadth of his lifes journey. A ig studio nervingly topical in post-Ferguson 2015, Duteredibiy grittymoviewersionofNW.AS dramatizing the routine, dehumanizing ory, Straight Outta Compton, is out on LAPD harassment that inspited Cube to ‘August 14th ~ Dre and his former band- rap about eops who “think they have the rate Iee Cube were deeply involved aspro- authority to killa minority” on "Fuck Tha Alucers, withan eyetownre preservinghoth Polico;'the protost song that riled the FBI verisimilitude and their legacy. The film and served as 2 harbinger of the L.A. riots was directed by F. Gary Gray, who spent three years later. “What's sad is that the some of his childhood in South Central ‘Tuck Tha Pole’ record was actully 400, Los Angeles and made Cube’ 1995 hood- years late,” says Cube, with a small laugh, Theres heen a thousand Rodney Kings Senior writer BRIAN Hint wrote the every year that we don't hear about ~ and ‘Rush cover story in Judy just now with technology, were able tore ally see these pockets of bullshit that poor ppeoplohavebeen dealing with forever. But ‘that shits still usually done in the dark ~ and thats what makes our movie relevant today, and makes NAW.A relevant today’ ‘Alot of musical groupe tear themselves apart quickly, especially ones overstuffed ‘with talent and ego, but NWA may have setaland-speed record, Thedefinitiveline- ‘up - Dre, Cube, the late Eazy-E, MC Reo, 13 Yella ~ made just one epochal album, 1980 Straight Outta Corspton, record cd in a mere six weeks, with production that Dre now finds primitive, “Back then, were supposed to The says. "We had hho fucking idea how big it was gonna be- come, We were just teving to be stars in theneighborhood.” Erle "Eazy-B" Wright’ triple role as sroup member, solo star and president of NW.AS record label, Kutless, eom- bined with his close partnership with their manager, Jerry Heller, was a destabilizing force: As NW.A finished their first tour, ee ‘Cube was on his way out, feel =] ing underpaid. Two years ater, | Sees Peon Ce i ela | Dre let, also grumbling about Eon etc toe Sree srk a oa Sie es | ES Se cron sleet ae tcc oo scm Sie fades athe Ecummabine entire, vicious “Dre Day" video ~ to mock- er srg Sateen michien marae teenie Ee ce ei cleat eel rm speach ge se then cgi i fehesactetse “een ees ghee so Ge oiccentt an ice ite Sachets shat een setiott i itroubling, often hi Tarious mix of nibil- istic gunplay, cast al misogyny, ghetto reportage and furious protest, Straight (Outta Compton was both a great album in its own right and a eultural pivot point ‘avgured the coming dominance of gang- sta rap and all its permutations; ereat- ed, in Bazy-F, the archetype ofthe drug- dealer-turned-rapper, a mantle taken up by acts from Jay Z to Migos; cemented the previously shaky status of West Coast hip-hop; paved the way for The Chronic, Snoop Dogg and Tupae Shakur; inspired sovies like Boye n the Hood and reached ‘white suburban kids by the millions with- ‘out compromise. For once, it was the lis teners,notthe artists, who did the erossing over. "When youre hitting onthe trath anc striking a chord, everybody wants to be Alown;” says Cube. "T used to burp Nirvs- ‘na records, ight? That dude grew up totale Iy different from me, uthestruck schon” N.W.Aé rise also signaled that, from then on, rock bands were going to have a much harder time freaking out suburban parents. "We thought we were so badass” Axl Roselatersaid, "Then NW.Acame out rapping about this world where you walk fost of your house and you get shot, Iewas just 60 clear what stupid litte white-boy oseurs we were” For all its impact, N.W.As music was more evolutionary than revolutionary, ar~ siving from a clear lincage, Their de facto first single, Eazy's 1987 track “Boya-N- the Hood” writen by Tee Cabe, produced Dy Dre and Yell}, drew its flow and sub- Ject matter straight from Toe T's °6'n the Mornin’ and Sehoolly Dis PS." Tn1985, one of the group's direct predecessors, ‘Compton rapper Today Tee, condemned LAPD tacticsin the underground hit “iat- terram,” named after the tanklike vehi- cle cops used to smash down doors with- ‘out warning. And Dre, meanwhile, would rec nsy Sars listen to Public Enemy on the conten ‘way to the st- ey | nustion so xr go-to” says Dre. “was the f biggest Pabife Enemy fan ~ 7 think i's what ingpired the aggression of NW.A. We just took a different route lyrically” Like PE, Dre and Yella strived for con- trolled chaos in their produetion, layering and weaponizing sou samples, Bt Comp fon also showed the imprint of Rick Rix bins work withthe Beastie Boys and Run- DMC the Compton track8 Bal!” samples “Fight for Your Right.” (The influence is leven more blatant in one of Cube's pro- N.W.Acollaboratians with Dre, where you can hear him shout-rapping like a erase between Run and Ad-Rock,) ‘As he would in his fatuxe work, Dre also brought in live instrumentation in the form of funk Ticks from session play Stan “The Guitar Man” Jones. And for 2 few thrilling bars on “Gangete Gang sta,” Dre stumbles upon the sine-wave synth whine that would define his mature -funksound, and mauch of1990s hip-hop. "didn’t know?” says Dre. "We were green ashi, sil earning” iia ety Wright, at least on cer tain blocks of mid-Fighties Compton. Yon couldnt mise him. He stood five feet five ‘on a good day, with an intriguing’y sin- sgular speaking voico, 2 high dra buze- ing through his sinuses, He kept « comple ‘of thousand dellarsin cash in his sock and usually wore sunglasses and a Raiders eap lover a Sheri-curled mullet, “He was the neighborhood! hustler” says MC Rea, who knew him years before NWA. “He had all the tight girls, money, jewelry. He was bout that paper ‘But when Wright was in his easly twen- ties, his cousin was shot dead, and he ‘began orethink his path, is first thooght was to work inthe post oie ike hi dad, and Ren says he went so far as to take civil-servie test for the job. Then a more ‘lamorous option presented itself Circa 1987, Dre and Yella were mem. bers of World Class Wreckin Cru, «DI callective ~ complete with shiny, Morris Day and the Time-stylesuits and synch nized dance moves ~ that had evolved into a recording act. “When Run-DMC came totheclab says Yelle, “wen how simple their show was ~ wasnt even a 10-minute show ~ and we, like, lookea at each otker and said, ‘We cues” Dre would wear a stetho- Scope onstage and whisper- rap staf like “Tim Dr. Dre/ Gorgeous nk of a man He enjoyed the female atten ton that came his way. "Dre ‘would have one woman in my studio” recalls Cr lead= other onoin thestrect spying ‘on him st any given moment Hee thought it was funny as ell” ‘But Williams was nearly a decade older, ‘with a taste for smooth R&B and old- School ideas shout showbiz and reepect- ability. Dre began looking for a way out. “We were kinda being controlled Ii tle bit by Alonzo,” Dre says, “He had the ‘money and he heard the masic a certain ‘way that was much diferent than the way heard it” Dre had gotten to know 16-year-old O'Shea “Toe Cube” Jackson through his cousin, rapper Sir Tnx, and began calling fon Ice Cube’ precocious writing talents Cube ghostwrote the danceable, Run- DMC-ish track "Cabbage Pateh for the Cru, which became aloes) hit. After that, Cube and Dre began collahorating on 16- ‘bar mini-songs that Dre would include on ‘what Cube calls “neighborhood mixtapes” = recorded versions of the seratch-hesvy rises Dre and Yella were doing for local hip-hop radio station KDAY,‘The tapes sold mostly via w hip-hop en- trepreneur named Steve Yano (ho died in 2014) at his thriving outdoor record store at the Roadium swap mest, on the sgroundsof an abandoned drive-in. “it was like, ‘This shit gonna be hood shi recalls, “so let's tall about hood shi that became our signature style” who had Dra parties with Dre before his Arug-dealing career, heard the mixtapes and was intrigued. ‘At the time, Dre was driving Williams? old Mazda RX-7, and had racked up enough tickets to earn multiple arrests, "Dre was @ wild dude when he was with ‘me, says Wiliams. "That ear was an at tention-geter, and he kept geting speed- ing tickets - end Dre didn ke going to court Dre also got in trouble trying to protect hislitlebrother, Tyree. Dye is one of those guys that doeset mind facing at the drop ofa ha," says the .0.C."Helives to knocka motherfucker out” yentualy, Williams tired ofbailing Dre ‘ut. Some versions ofthe story have Dre calling Wright for the money, then agree ing to repay him with production work, Dre says that never happened, but thet he did approach Wright with the idea to use some of his drug money to Fund record- ng sessions. ‘Dre next called upon lee Cube to write “Boyz-N-the Hood.” sitting in his high school classes, Cube serawied in his note= Dbook a vividly drawn tale ofa young gang- sta who “Ienaws nothing in lfe but to be legit.” “It was neighborhood shit,” says Cube, *that we all seea, heard of went through growing up.” They brought the track to an il-starred New York group called H.B.0. (Home Boys Only), who in- stantly rejected it. In 2 moment of inte ‘ve genius, Dre came up with the idea of having Eazy-Erecord it, though held never rapped in his lfe. Coaching Eazy through the song, , over an excruelat= Dre crested a hit record, a brand-new rapper andthe seeds ‘of a workd-changing group. ams was soon out of the picture ‘He admits he didat see commervial po- tential in the “reality rap" these kids were recording in is studio. "The eats L worked. ‘with in the basiness were NAACP-award recipients hesays."Teouldnt bring them a group called Niggas With Atkitude. They'd Ihave thrown me out the fucking window" (HeeScurrently working on amemoir subti- sled "NWA: Not Without Alonzo’) of puppet and puppet-mas ter: He was owner and pres ident of what would become NiWaAS label, but as an art we was a te mercy of is ghostwrit- ‘The idew of forming ‘4 group came up while Cube, Dre, Razy and Yella wore hanging out in the studio, ‘working on songs for Eazy; i seemed £0 natural that no one ean quite recall wo suggested it. (Yella thinks it was Dre, hile in Jorry Heller's version Eazy mas- terminded it all) Whon Cube jetted out to Arizona for naurly a year to yet a cer tificate in architectural drafting, they Droughtin another rapper, Weights friend Ren, to write rhymes for Kary. “Ruthless Villain’ was supposed ta be E's song,” re= calls Ren. “Butt was too fast for ‘when Trapped i, they was like, 'M ‘might as well ast get in the group,” ‘The last piece of Eazy-R's style came when Dre encouraged a nimble Texas rapper, who would eventually be known, as the DOL, to move to California and start working with him. The D.O.C. wrote for Eazy’ solo debut, Bazy-Duzlt, and Doth of NW.A\s albums Gneluding Eazy's famous verse on Compton's title track), oe Reig erate arene. een renames Beers “Between me, Cube and Ren,” says the D.O.C. “shit, we had all the pieces we needed to make Bazy. We made and de- signed that motherfucker into proba: bly the greatest mipper ever. Because in 13983, 188, he was rapping with my voice, Cube's voice and even Rens wee, as if they were his own.” Completigghis aid on the Wreekin ra stable, Eazy hired their manager, ery Holler, « hard-drving, bard-lving now vetwho had worked with Creedence, Eton Jolin and Pink Floyd ~ and beard worl sbaking potential in "Boy2-Nethe Hod” ‘As Heller recalls in is memoir, Rutless, Eazy told him he was the first white per- son hell ever spoken to who “wasnt try- ing to collectrent or arrest me" Somehow, the two men became friends and partners = and to this day; the other members of NIWA blame theie business disputes on Heller, ot Eazy. (Heller declined to com ment fr this story)After every major label turned them down, Heller got NW.A adeal with Prior- ity Records, an indie whose only otber big act was the California Raisins. “l heard "Fuck Tha Police,” says Priority Records Founder Bryan Tarver, “and I thought, Tan oing to scare the shit out of lot of white people with this stuff?” ‘At frst, MTV and most radto shunned NGW.A, but the album sold anyway, going platinum that summer on little more than word of mouth, But the relatively innocuous “Express Yourself” finally got ‘them airtime, They also got an unexpect- ed boost fram one Milt Ablerich,assis- tant director of the EBs Otfice of Public Alfars, who sent a threatening letter to Priority Records, chase ieee {ising them for purportedly ad Nocating"yileace against and Unvespect” of lw enforeemest Stree tem wen more dan: | geroun? sage Tuner “So then Eee weve the gotta hearts econ, Te FRI doesn want Ine to hear We probaly wld | shout amon resords, jumeson with at ete: Tee bender | pReces we needed reiee | tomake Eazy. We ‘races Sarees | see re eas alee eee ee oe Eoin peeked eepage e oe se hein of acting advoe for bis 24-year- ‘ld son, O'Shea Jackson Jr, who nha an impreasive move debut playing his dain Straight Outta ‘Compton:"Dontthaveme frown the whole damn time!” But Cube was the angr- txt rapper of his generation, soa cer amount of mean-mugging was manda- tory T know all sdas of my dad,” says Jackson Jr "Thad to humanize hin @ lie bit” Tee Cube grew up in the South Central district of Crenshaw with both of his par- ests im his house, ps « watchful older brother, 1¢ wasn quite enough to keep him entirely ou of trouble. ts hard to s10W up in South Cental and come out fqueaky-clea,” says Cobe, who has spo- ken of stealing car radios and other petty crime. ‘All chat shit is coming right to your doorstep. You either embrace itor get trun over by it. Fortunately, started doing pastive shit hefore really got caught up. Playing sports, doing hip-hop.” For awhile, Cube was bused toa nearly ‘ll-white school inthe San Fernando Val- Jey, 25 miles from Crenshaw. ‘T realized, ‘Dang, we really ate poor. Shit. I thought we was doing pretty good! We really on hhave shit in our neighborhood: Tt was ike ‘going to The Brady Bunck or to The Par- bridge Family every day. You just see ev- exything’s etter ~ from books to class- ‘rooms to faeilities to teachers 66 Between mie, Cube and Ren,” suys the D.O.C., “we had all the designed him.99 ‘The experience played into his near- {instant suspicion of Helle, NW.AS man- ‘ger, He loked ike one of my bullshit istry teachers” says Cube, adding that he was accustomed to dealing with white people so “there was no intimidation fac= torat all” Cube does regret his use of an- ‘Jewish nslts gaint Fler in hs diss track “No Vaseline” “T didnt know what ‘nti-Semitie’ meent,” Cube says, “unt rotherfuckers explained why i was just hot OK to lump Jery with anybody coo But wasn like, T wanna hut the whole Sesh ace ~ jst dom ke that moth- exfikes?™) Like pretty much every young black man be knew, Cube was regularly accst- ‘by the LAPD froma young age."When you In the hood, they get you early" he Says "They start facking with you hen sobe ane, 10, just to put that intimida- on in yon you know? They pull you off youcbike, make you pat yourhands on the hood. You'll be siting om the grass, just played fotball, and these motherfuckers ap up ard fick with you. just hap- Densall through acking fe Fucking with you ifyotebads fucking with you fyoure 00d dont matter” ‘Cle, who was ost 19 years old when NIWA released Compton, got most of his anger out in his musi, but not exclusive- Iy- tn the movie, after a financial dispute, his character uses abascbal batt smach up Turner’ office, “That did actually hap- pen, says Turner, who blames himself for rot agrecing to renegotiate Cube’ con- tact. "Bat we had such a groat relation- ship that I didn't feel threatened for 2 seoond" Cube was, as Turner els it, stra- tegic in his property damage, making a point of smashing an old TV he had been ‘Pushing Turner to replace, and leaving his ‘lass desk alone. “T swear to God, man, T remember him looking around the room trying to look for something to break that ‘wasn't too expensive ~ so he broke the TY, ‘whieh we laughed about aft ‘These days, despite a 22-year marriage, four kids and a highly Tuerative carver in family-friend ly comedies, Cube says he hast || changed much, Over the course coftwo interviews, he never takes off his oversize sunglasses, and is {initially impassive, as ihe saves his considerable charisma for movie cameras, But he Inaghs easily, and gets downright an- jmated, despite himself, when Ihe dig deep into the story of youth, “I see myself as the same ‘kid ~justold,"he says. "My anger fg still there, Bat when you're young, sometimes you dont une ‘derstand shit and you just lash at it. It was easy for me to say, "Fuck the police, fuck everything, fuck the world, but that’s not going to help you. ‘What's going to help you is for me to sey, "Buck the police, and her's how or to be the example of how to get out ofthe hood.” ‘On the other hand, when he address- es NAVAS depiction of women, he seems to channel his younger sof, with rheto- rie straight out of 1993. "Tf you're bitch, you've probably not going to like us,” he ‘says. "Hfyou'reaho, you probably don'ike us. Ifyou're not a bo oF «bitch, don't be Jumping tothe defense of these despioable Tamales, Just lke I shouldn't be jumping to the defense of no punks or no‘cowards ‘or no slimy son ofa bitches that’s men. 1 ‘never understood why an upstanding lady ‘would even think were talking about her” rote distant, more mysteri= fousthan Toe Cube, We never forgot about Dre, not even loge, but we've never real- iy gotten to know him, either. He's fierce |b stoic presence in muse videos; he has never tried to hide the fact that all of bis rap verses are ghostwritten (by the very best, from Cube to the D.0.C. to Emi= rem to Fay 2), and he has never been very talkative in interviews, So. [Comt. on 65],SNe eel NWA [Gone from 49} it’sneatly shocking to see the human foibles of the cinematic Dre in Straight Outta Compton, as played by relative neweome: Corey Hawkins: In his ‘very first seena, we watch his eyes well with tears when his mom slaps him hard across the face. Later, he sobs after learn ing of the death of hie younger brother, ‘Tyree; the real Dre had to leave the set when they filmed that sene. “Thave social anxiety” says Dre.“Tdont like being in the spotlight, s0 I made a fucking weird career choiea.” He laughs. “That's the resson for my mystique and shy Tim so sechuded and why everybody knows nothing about me. Ithinkitadded ‘othe character in the movie because peo- plegetachanee to seebehind the curtain” ‘Large mixed-media portcats of Jimi Hendrix and Milos Davis hangin the halls of Dre's studio, and the lounges windows show off alive room and mixing board ‘where, in recent months, actual new beats by Dre have been coming to life. Not long ‘ago, he quietly abendoned his solo album ‘Detoa, which had been first schoduled for release in 2004, then more or less every year since. “T made a record that wasnt 0d, and I refused to put it out,” Dre Saye. “Thad between 20 and 40 songs for ‘Detoa, and T ust couldn fee it. Usually can hear the sequence ofan album as I'm going, but I wasn’t able todo that. wasatt feeling it in my gut. So I really thought T was done being an artis ‘Bat the more time Dre spent on the set of Straight Outte Compton, immersed in the past, the more ke wanted to get Jbaek to the studio. “It just turned some~ thing on,” he says, In under a year, he recorded Corzpton, « group of songs in- spired by the movie that will serve as his final album as a rapper, with goest turns by Cube, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar, “This absolutely itor me on the miero- phone,” he says. Dre subsists, at age 50, on a diet of “mest, vogetables and water” He begins most ofhis days with two to three punish- ing hours of exercise: 90 minutes of ear- dio, 30 minutes of abdominal work, the rest ofthe time lifting weights. But today, the spent his morning getting an MRI of his shoulder. “I had a litte hiking accl- dent,” says Dre. "Thave to get surgery Just found that out a couple hoars ago. 80 my dayhas sucked so faz” He laughs. "Fuekcit, [just gotta deal with it~ gett done and get back in here and do my thing “Thave a high tolerance for pain," he adds, “Both physical and mental.” When re was Il years old, he broke his collar- bone ina car accident, and didn’t mention the injry for six weeks. Out partying one night in 1992, he was shot in both legs (by “random guy" per the D.O.C, and went from the hospital tothe studio, where he finished mixing The Chronic on crutches was the D.O.C. who first befriend- ed Sage Knight and helped persuacle Dre to leave NWA in ‘91 to form Death Row ‘Records. Dre was till contracted to Ruth- ese, so Knight allegedly attempted a God- father-style solution: Wright claimed that Tead-pipe-wielding henchmen loomed ‘over him ina late-night mootingas Knight {alsely) informed him thet his men had 2 gun to Heller's head in a nearby van ~ and threatened Bazy’s mom while be was ait, UEnight hes denied this account) ‘Weight signed Dre's release, But he and Heller immediately fled = RICO awit to invalidate the papers. As Jimmy Tovine sought to aequire Death Row for Inter- scope, he helped negotiate a settlement ~ and Kazy-E ended up getting royalties on ‘The Chronic. (“Dre Day’ only meant Ea ‘y's payday.” he rapped.) Dre parted ways with Knight in the rid-Nineties, but he never would quite ge vray. In what may be the final chap- ter of their conflict, Knight showed up on “(Death Row] was a necessary evil,” says Dre. “Maybe I needed that element in my life.” the set of Straight Outté Compton com- mercial, apparently upset at his inclusion inthe movie, Instead, he ended up illing ‘person with his car outside a nearby res- taurant, and he is facing murder charg- 2." ike, ‘Why the fue does this have to happen?” says Dre, “Why the fuck are you coming up here?” Now somebody's ‘dead and its just so fucked up.” Despite it all, Dre considers his time with Knight as “s necessary evil. T don't think I would go back and change any- thing that’s happened in my career, be~ cease maybe those things were stepping stones towhere Tamnow. Maybe needed ‘hat kind of element in my life. The musie would've sounded a lot different ifT had been around a different group of peo- ple, I mean, there were « lot of deaths; fe was really fucking serious. But I think something about all of thst tension, anger and stupidity helped to fuel the creativity that went into making The Chronic, Dogaystyie, Ths Dogg Pound's album Dogg Food, and All Eyer on Me for Tupac” "The movie alludes, barely, to the in- famous 1991 Incident when Dre assault- ed TV host Dee Barnes, and doesn’ delve into fresh allegations by his then-gitl- friend, R&D singer Michele, thet Dre ‘was abusive ~ she's accused him of break- {ng her nose and ribs and blackening her eyes, “T made some fuckiag horeible mais- takes in my life” says Dre. “I was young, fucking stupid. [would say all the allega tons aren’ true some ofthem are. Those are some of the things that I would like ta take back Ttwas really fucked up. But 1 paid for those mistakes, and there's no ‘vay in hell tha Iwill ever make another sistake ike that again” Dre is often a herole figure in the movie: At one point he bravely faces off ‘with a crowd of thugged-out partyers in he halls of Death Row Records. (Askod if that incident actually happened, the D.OC. laughs and says, *Tin-alet you fig- sure that out") But Dre's most cinematic ‘moment, a drunken high-speed car chase {nbs Ferrari that ended with his arrest by swhat seemed like half of the Los Angelos Police Department, was all too real~ and Jed to a five-month prison stint in 1995 ‘hat hecalls “the best thing that ever hap- pened tome” “Leame out literally a changed person,” he says. “Aftor my brother passed away, Thad started booaing. When I got out of jail, Phacked of fall of i left Death Rom, got martied, just re-evalusted my whole life. My whole plan that I decided ‘on injll, [put that shit in action.” Dsitstsiccometan othe complex other studio, 12s time to record the latest edition of his radio show, The Pharmacy, for Apple’ Deets with Cabe ond Compton director Gray as gests long wth regulars nc ing Cube and Dret old frend DI Pooh, ‘who co-wrote Friday. Cube is wearing & hew-looking NW.A Tshirt, sunglasses fd a Dodgers cop. ‘Breryone fs siting around a circu: lar tble, weating Beats by Dre head ‘hones, eurroundedhy cameramen. "West Coast Mount Rushmore up in ere says Pook. The only awinwnrd moment comes swhen one of the Dis meations that Dre Tod Cube used thelr ow money to sap Dlement the budget fora couple of scenes, Dreshales hishead,“Yeab, but were Dot soing to talk about that" he sage Eventually, Gray thanks them. “Ser- ously, you guys, Tm honored you let me tell he story” ho say. Its a snapshot of ‘American hisary” "They and the show by having Cube introduce the tite trackof Straight Out Compton. Aeyo, waseup, 8 your boy Ts Cube, he say, ia full hype-man mode Fou know who Tin with? My bomehoy Dr. Dre, We made history in 1989." He pauses. “Dre, let them know what they Shoat to witness” Dr. Dre safes, and just ashe did in a recording sto'90 miles, 26 years and ‘many selves ago, he leans close to his mi trophone and intones Tt words ~ more feverenty thls tne, as if be’ casting 8 spell “You are now about to witness the Grongihof eet tnowledge? Avaver 27, 2016