The Major League Baseball season started Easter Sunday, April 4 in Boston, Massachusetts. As the hometown Red Sox ultimately came back to defeat the New York Yankees in a 9-7 shootout, Hip Hop fans may be interested to know in who took batting practice besides Derek Jeter and David Ortiz. One of Rap’s icons, Dr. Dre, joined Interscope President Jimmy Iovine at historic Fenway Park to endorse their Beats By Dre headphones.
Fox’s New England Sports Network spoke to Dre and Jimmy, both wearing Red Sox uniforms – and Beats By Dre headphones. “I was cool right up until I walked on the field. Now it’s a little intimidating,” said the Aftermath Records founder, noting some nervousness. Sporting the unform number 808 (after the historic Roland drum machine), Dre admitted that while he’s long been known to wear team caps, he’s only a novice baseball fan. “I played a little bit when I was a kid,” said the Compton, California star producer and rapper.
Iovine, a Brooklyn native, said that he was not uncomfortable wearing Red Sox colors despite his city’s bitter sports rivalry between the Yankee pinstripes and the team where Babe Ruth began his American League career. “If you were from Brooklyn, you were a [New York] Mets fan, a [New York] Jets fan, or drank Pepsi. Those were the three rules,” said the man who helped launch the imprints of Death Row, Aftermath, G-Unit and Shady Records throughout the last 20 years. Both record executives stated they rooted for Boston.
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The big news came when correspondent Heidi Watney Jason asked the duo what their ideal at-bat anthem would be. “The new song [Dr.] Dre has in his pocket – called ‘Under Pressure.’ It’s a brand new single by Dr. Dre [featuring] Jay-Z. That’s the song I’d use,” said Iovine giving details to last week’s confirmed rumor of a Dre/Jay Detox collaboration. Dre concurred, “Absolutely. That’s be it. ‘Under Pressure’ – it’s so fitting.” Lastly, Dre said if he had to choose, he’d like Ortiz to use that as his at-bat anthem, pulling from the two lineups.
Dr. Dre and Jay-Z have previously worked on Volume 3: Life & Times of Shawn Carter and Kingdom Come. Jay-Z also famously penned Dr. Dre’s 1999 smash single “Still Dre.”
