“Detox is the concept Dre had been trying to fully conceptualize for years. He was so serious at one point just after the second Chronic album that he had T-shirts made up…It was the farewell album he would walk off to, the one that might show him graduating from gangsta rap, basically. It made sense, going from The Chronic to Detox , because that’s what Dre had done, basically. The problem was, he didn’t know what to write about. Who wanted to hear about his stable, suburban life?” pgs 144-145

[click to read Part 1] [Part 2]

HipHopDX: Detox. You already know my question…
Bruce Williams: People are on Dre about Detox and Dre never really wanted to do Detox. He’s 40-something [editor's note: 43] years old, what’s he going to talk about? He’s gotta relate to these 13 year olds buying records. What is he going to talk about? He can’t come out here saying, "Fuck the police," he can’t keep talking about smoking weed, he’s been there and done all that. Where is there to go now? But it has to be done and he’s going to make sure that shit is right before he puts it out.

DX: Will we have to wait much longer to wait for Detox?
BW: I don’t think so. If it comes out, I’ll be shocked - and I’ll also know that it has to come out.

“…But Rakim was not the rapper he once was. He didn’t even rhyme in the studio with the crew hanging out. Dude was writing only at home. Dre wanted to do tracks in a way that allowed you to feel the camaraderie. Rakim’s a legend, but he was a legend in his day. The chemistry between these two just wasn’t there…” – pg 128

DX: So what exactly happened with the whole Rakim ordeal?
BW: Oh My God album? Every time Dre did an interview, they asked him what emcee he would love to work with and his response was always the same: Rakim. We went through all this stuff trying to get Rakim and finally, Dre got Rakim. And with a title like Oh My God, the public was waiting on some astronomical shit! And they just never meshed together. A few of 50 Cent’s songs on Get Rich Or Die Tryin' were Rakim songs. Like “Back Down” and “Heat;” there were quite a few of them.

I’ll put it to you like this: Rakim is a legend…let a legend be a legend. With all these new emcees and things sometimes the world is not going to appreciate this. We appreciate it because we grew up on it.

DX: What is the deal with Aftermath and the “revolving door” of artists?
BW: Look at Aftermath. Are they a household name? No, they’re not. I can say Aftermath, and people will say, “Who is that?” but when I say Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Eminem then they get an idea. If you say G-Unit [click to read], everybody knows G-Unit. If you say Shady, everyone knows Shady. Aftermath is not a household name because we don’t put out enough stuff.

Everybody’s catering to Dre and he don’t have time to nurture new artists. Why do you think Game had so many problems? Game couldn’t do hooks. But for two years he was hustling by himself.

If you don’t push the acts that you have in your company, then your company will never be made whole. Dre is doing records for everyone else on Interscope and not building his own company up. That contributes to not really being a businessman.

“When that beef between 50 Cent and The Game went public, Al Sharpton called over and asked for a half a million dollars. Otherwise he was going to bring the heat on behalf of 'The Community.' We gave him $250,000. Then we had The Game and 50 make up in public, holding an elaborate press conference.” Pg. 148

DX: In your book you basically say that Al Sharpton hustled you guys for money in order to not go and publicly march about the Game/50 Cent beef.
BW: He said if we didn’t have a million, we marching. It’s that easy. Look at C. Delores Tucker back in the day. They was sitting up there talking all that bullshit when behind closed doors they was trying to start their own label. But that isn’t what they were telling motherfuckers in the street! We got a lot of black leaders that don’t do shit to me. I don’t see what they do. In the [Game vs. 50 Cent] situation, you are going to come and say, "We need ‘X’ amount of money,” whether you are going to give it to charity or not. Why don’t you come and say, “Hey, let’s all of us sit down and figure this out;” don’t come and say, “Give me a half a million dollars or we marching!” That didn’t even get the situation resolved. You seen it. They didn’t even look like they squashed anything.

DX: So the so called squashing of the beef…
BW: The entire thing was orchestrated by Al Sharpton. Continued on page 2 »