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Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre performed on tour for Darrin McGillis Productions

with the World Class Wreckin' Cru

The World Class Wreckin' Cru

The World Class Wreckin' Cru - was a west-coast electro rap group, consisting of DJ Yella, Dr.Dre and Cli-N-Tel.

They recorded some solid West Coast electro with Dr. Dre in the production chair, hitting the pop charts with a smooth love jam named "Turn Off the Lights" during 1988, the same year Dr. Dre's N.W.A. delivered the gangsta landmark Straight Outta Compton.

The group was formed by Lonzo (Alonzo Williams), owner of the Compton club Eve After Dark, who recruited a pair of popular local DJs, Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, along with Dr. Dre's high-school friend Cli-N-Tel. Early singles like "Surgery" and "Juice" -- many of them recorded at a four-track studio that was part of the Eve After Dark complex -- stood alongside work by the Egyptian Lover and L.A. Dream Team as stellar examples of the fast-moving fusion of old school rap and electro. But even as The World Class Wreckin' Cru became one of southern California's most popular rap acts, Dr. Dre and DJ Yella were pursuing other production opportunities, one of which came from a new label (Ruthless) formed by Eazy E. Along with Ice Cube, they wrote a single named "Boyz N The Hood" that was initially offered to the Ruthless act HBO, but later prompted the entire crew to form as NWA. After street-level singles like "Dopeman" and "8 Ball" became huge local hits, The World Class Wreckin' Cru became less of a priority for both Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. Even after the loverman ballad "Turn Off the Lights" entered the R&B Top 40 in 1988, they continued with NWA and the group dissolved.

Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre - real name Andre Romel Young (born February 18, 1965 in Los Angeles, California).

Even in the early eighties, eighteen year old Dr. Dre was a well known and valuable DJ in Compton and South Central-L.A. by performing at big clubs and on the radio. Everything began at a nightclub called Eve After Dark where he jobbed and where he could take unrestricted use of the internal studio as compensation for poor payment. Many hits like "Surgery" and the "World Class Wrecking Cru Megamix" were formed here.

In 1984/86 he was a member of the World Class Wrecking Cru which became very popular around L.A. because of its dark Electro-Funk sound.

1986, Dr. DRE became member of the Gangster Rappers N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude) against which was investigated by the FBI. This didn't endanger the success but on the contrary it made the band even more known.

In the following years, DRE did not only produce N.W.A. but also solo LPs from Eazy E., Michel'le (his later on wife) and J.J. Fad. Everything in his hands turned to gold, everything was sold for 1-2 million times or even more.

1990 he produced the main song for the Rap-sampler "We Are All In The Same Gang", on which almost all stars of West-coast HipHop at that time appeared.

After having produced the final N.W.A album "Niggaz4life" in 1991, which landed on number one of the Billboard Album Charts, he quit N.W.A. This because Eazy E. turned the flow of money mostly into his own wallet. Even though of this conflict, Dr. DRE was really shocked by the death of Eazy E in 1995: "I miss him... he was my nigger".

Together with Suge Knight he founded Death Row Records in 1992. Already the first production of this new HipHop label was sold for more than three million times: Dr. DRE's "The Chronic". The single "Let Me Ride" won a Grammy in 1993 and the new style of Rap was called G-Funk, which became very popular. On "The Chronic", DRE introduced, among others, a friend of his half-brother Warren G. (Warren Griffin III), a rapper from Long Beach, California, called Calvin Broadus - better known under the name Snoop Doggy Dogg. In the following years, DRE produced a lot of very successful albums for Snoop.

When DRE composed the music and some of the rhymes for the hitsingle "California Love" of Tupac Shakur, he led 2Pac to enormous selling. DRE himself published Grammy-nominated single "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" on the soundtrack to the film "Friday" in 1995.

After that, Dr. DRE spent some months in jail for sexual annoyance. When he came out in 1996 he changed his life, married Michel'le and quit his label Death Row for founding his own firm Aftermath Entertainment. His first publication for this new HipHop and R&B label, was the compilation "Dr. DRE Presents... The Aftermath" in 1996. A year later, he produced on Aftermath "The Firm" - a big rap project with Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ and Nature. Unfortunately this project always stayed behind expectations, DRE himself calls it of a flop today.

In his long career as one of the biggest HipHop producer ever, he discovered and promoted a lot of superb artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg, Eminem, the D.O.C., Michel'le, Above The Law and many others.