After last week's critical post on Dr. Dre's latest single "I Need a Doctor"; it seemed right to follow up on the music video. It premiered on February 24 and I was hoping it could join the list of songs I didn't care for that partially redeemed themselves with a kick ass video. It...did not.
Let's do this...
0:02 -- Dr. Dre's 36th birthday fell on February 18, 2001, so I guess the date holds some negligible significance for him. Four days earlier, I was involved in a three-car accident on the freeway during my commute home from work. Fun facts: (1) I've been involved in two collisions, one on Valentine's Day and one on Halloween. (2) This was the song playing on my radio right before the crash. Remember, correlation does not imply causation.
0:15 -- Acknowledging my trite critique here; but how DO movies, television shows and music videos always find the one scenic coastal locale in California that's invariably deserted? Wouldn't you have watched CBS' Jericho if it were set here, instead of a post-apocalyptic Kansas wasteland?
0:25 -- A split screen effect? From the director who guided visceral cinematic experiences such as Menace II Society, From Hell and The Book of Eli? In his defense, Allen Hughes' imagery isn't nearly as creepy as this.
0:27 -- Look...I know that Dre claims to have patched things up with Eazy-E before the latter died from AIDS in 1995. I just don't know if I believe it. Dre's then-label (Death Row Records) was feuding (NSFW) with Eazy's label (Ruthless Records) even after Eazy died. Dr. Dre wasn't involved in the infamous golf course confrontation shown in the link, but their beef was very deep and very personal.
0:35 -- Between the singular lyric on 1999's "Still D.R.E." and the hiccup-quick flashback here; Dr. Dre has acknowledged his time in The World Class Wreckin' Cru for all of five seconds in the past 25 years.
0:59 -- Dre's wedding video! In his music video! Who watches a wedding video for any reason other than unintentional comedy? I wish I knew how to put my wedding video online. You really need to see the
1:30 -- The Tupac conundrum. In early 1996, Tupac and Dr. Dre released one of the most memorable hits of my generation. Several months later, after Dre left Death Row Records, Tupac recorded several venomous diss tracks aimed as his former label mate. After Tupac's death in September 1996, Dre's silence spoke volumes. In 2000, during his "Up In Smoke" tour, Dre dedicated a bit of concert time to his "homeboy" (Dre's words) Tupac. Five years later, Dre refused to work on a posthumous Tupac album. The use of Tupac's imagery in this video seems to indicate he and Dre are friends again. Got it?
2:00 -- This has been done before.
2:22 -- I do appreciate the medical continuity of Dr. Dre examining Eminem in Em's My Name Is video; Dre and Em as bio-engineers overseeing the creation of 50 Cent in Fiddy's In Da Club video and now Eminem the concerned friend gawking slack-jawed at Dre's roided corpse here.
3:00 -- Skylar Grey's hook -- the song's one redeeming ingredient -- emanating from a banshee? Sure.
4:20 -- Oh, Hewlett-Packard. THIS is how it's done.
4:30 -- This has also been done before.
5:20 -- You know what would be even better? Skylar Grey's hook emanating from synchronized banshees!
6:11 -- Dr. Dre's homage to the training montage from Rockys III and IV. Where's the cutaway to his opponent Suge Knight punching the heavy bag or Jermaine Dupri swimming laps in the kiddie pool?
6:30 -- Dre lashing out at all doubters, haters, fair-weather friends and associates who abandoned him. From the comments in last week's TBG post, the list of artists who Dr. Dre has screwed over includes -- but, probably isn't limited to: Rakim, Joell Ortiz, Hittman, Bishop Lamont, RBX, Stat Quo, Last Emperor, King Tee, Eve, Dawn Robinson, Busta Rhymes, The Game, Sam Sneed and 1995-1998 Snoop Dogg.
6:37 -- Stay classy, Dre.
5 comments:
Not saying Dre is on roids but last time I saw a dude put on 30 pounds of muscle in his late thirties he was jacking up home runs for the Giants. Can Dre prescribe himself roids? It raises the question, does the Doctor derive from an MD or a PhD?
Agree with the wedding comment Cam. On my video, you can see the wife, during our loving moment of our first champagne toast as a married couple, utter the words "this is horrible" after taking her first celebratory swig.
I think the song works, as an Eminem song. Game did a better Dre tribute (which included a slowed down version of Busta Rhymes I wish he'd stick to) on his album.
Since Eminem obviously ghost-wrote this, it's kind of odd him writing Dre's verse to remember when they first met. That'd be like me re-editing all of the stories my friends tell except I'm not the one that did dumb things.
Dre wears that same outfit everytime in public. We get it, you've spent more time in the last 10 years lifting weights than producing dope music. You're huge now, go make good beats and actually stick to a release schedule.
Wow, I just saw this video (can't get youtube at work). It's like 7 damn minutes long - being that no stations ever play videos anymore, why have a video in the first place?
And that video was just bad.
You're not surprised that the good doctor dropped the gay slur are you? "Faggot" is as classy as he gets. And I otherwise got nothing against Dre.
@Jon -- No, not surprised. But, it was brought up in the comments in last week's Dre post how Death Row went out of their way to discredit Dre with several repugnant lyrics, skits and entire tracks -- throwing around the same slurs -- when Dre left Death Row.
Dre's use of the word seems especially over the top in its lazy gratuitousness.
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