Dr. Dre 'Compton' Album Review

After years of several touted albums failing to materialise whilst taking a backseat producing masterclass beats for apprentice Eminem and more recently Kendrick Lamar, Dre is back after sixteen years with the release of ‘Compton’.
An album brimming with guest artists (the aforementioned Kendrick Lamar and Eminem feature, along with seasoned cohort Snoop Dogg and original N.W.A member Ice Cube) and hitting the airwaves just a couple of weeks before the N.W.A sanctioned biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’ is released in movie theatres, it has been widely considered as Dr.Dre’s adieu, leaving the rap game on a pedestal having sold Beats by Dre to Apple and becoming one of the most powerful businessmen on the planet.
‘Compton’ however proves that Dre still has an influential story to tell and delivers his rhymes with the same vigour and purposefulness that has got him to where he is. ‘Loose Cannons’ and ‘Deep Water’ depict some pretty stark imagery, illustrating the brutality of his hometown, whereas opening track ‘Talk About It’ sketches Dre’s rise from exasperated hoodrat to CEO of the most dominant media conglomerate of the 21st Century – Dre’s inaugural line ‘I just bought California!’ says it all.
With an ear to the street, Dre will keep plucking out rising stars and lending his trademark industrious groove and trip-hoppy production to their future albums, but supposed last effort ‘Compton’ exemplifies that Dr.Dre is still the man to dethrone on the West Coast.
By Thomas Curtis-Horsfall.
@ThomasCurtisH