Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre

Dre Interview/article

It's just past noon as rapper-producer Dr. Dre walks down a spiral staircase in his $4.9-million hillside San Fernando Valley home. The staircase is so grand it would be ideal for silent-film star Norma Desmond's fantasized show-biz reentry scene in a remake of "Sunset Boulevard."But then Dre--whose real name is Andre Young--is making his own real-life reentry these days. Next month's "Dr. Dre 2001" will be the first album in seven years from the man who has twice revolutionized rap music.

He did it once by helping popularize the infamous gangsta rap style in the late '80s as a member of N.W.A, and he did it again with "The Chronic," his 1992 album whose seductive R&B and funk textures made hard-core rap accessible to mainstream radio.Calling it one of the 10 most important albums of the '90s, Spin magazine said the record "gave African American resentment and ghetto nihilism a seductive, cinematic flow." Spin also tabbed Dre's "Nuthin' but a 'G' ...