Today, Feb. 18, rap mogul and West Coast legend Dr. Dre is 53.
Andre Young, better known as Dr. Dre, shot to fame in the early days West Coast gangsta rap with his group, N.W.A, but his 1992 debut solo album, The Chronic, has been heralded by the hip-hop community as a culture-defining project. The Chronic spawned hit singles "Aint Nuthin But A G Thang" and "Let Me Ride", the second which earned the Compton rapper a Grammy in 1994 for Best Rap Solo Performance.
After switching gears from MC to mogul, Dre co-founded Death Row Records in 1991, and later went on to found Aftermath Entertainment in 1996, where he's overseen the careers Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar. Dre's latest power play was selling his designer audio company, Beats Electronics, to Apple in 2014, for $3 billion.
In 2015, Dre rode high f having the highest-grossing rap biopic all time when Straight Outta Compton, the story N.W.A, came out in theaters in August 2015. In 2017, he released the Grammy award-winning documentary, The Defiant Ones, which details the personal lives and careers The Doctor and his Beats partner, music legend Jimmy Iovine. He also shared that his t-delayed Detox album may see the light day.
Happy birthday, Dre!