Mac Casper
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STRICTLY BUSINESS RECORDS
Vallejo’s Mac Dre was already a living legend by the time he was slain under mysterious circumstances after a show in Kansas City in 2004. His murder remains unsolved and while Dre is gone his legacy has been cemented and his music lives on. With a discography that spans back into the ’80s, his catalog is as vast and expansive as any other rapper in history.
With 18 albums, four EPs, six collaboration albums Dre had recorded enough music for his label to release five, double-disc greatest hits albums. All of that music makes it nearly impossible to narrow down the 10 best Dre songs, but picking the most essential ones may be even more complicated. But, we wanted to give those unfamiliar with his music and entry point to understand why Thizzelle Washington is cherished by so many. Here is our Mac Dre primer and 10 songs from the late, great, Vallejo icon that you absolutely must hear.
“Too Hard 4 the Radio”
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Mac Dre’s original single is a must listen for anybody choosing to check out Andre Macassi and get hip to his Bay Area flavor. The sound is a tad dated, but if anything that further helps to understand just how long he’d been at it and how much Dre reinvented himself at the tail end of his career and life.
“Life’s A bytch”
Dre hit the ground running in ’96 after a five-year prison stint for a bank robbery. He’d released several albums while in prison, recorded on a jail phone but by this time he was back in a studio and killing it. On “Life’s A bytch,” he uses the platform to tell his side of the story, saying “They sent me to the pen for five years for a crime that was never committed/ I ain’t no bank robber but those five years had me thinking I should have did it.”
Sampling Too $hort’s favorite word, Dre utilizes a rapid-fire flow to also kick some life lessons and reflect on his prison time. “I ain’t no sissy or punk so don’t trip when you see me crying/ A n*gga just hella mad his partners dead and his folks keep on dying,” he says before reminding you “Life’s a bytch, and then you die.” It’s hard hitting, but as the news clip at the beginning of the track shows, a reality for him.
“Grown shyt”
As life went on, Dre seemed more committed to having a good time than anything. Born from that was plenty of party music that’ll be the soundtrack to functions in the Bay Area for years to come. “Grown shyt” is just another example and one of the most popular of Dre’s immensely popular party anthems. He leisurely jumps around the beat, shifting rhyme patterns at ease and feeding his fans catch phrases to use in conversation at almost every turn. “Do anything to win, my referees cheat/ I flagrant foul, and bruise the beat,” he spits before asking for shrooms to get mushed.
Bay Area lingo is abundant as the track is full of “hellas,” “beezies,” “thizz” and everything else, displaying yet again that not only did Dre give the region its soundtrack but also their vocabulary as well.
“Feelin’ Myself”
When it came time to relieve tensions on a crammed BART train and get the New Year’s party started on Fruitvale Station, this was the song director Ryan Coogler choose to lighten the mood. “Feelin’ Myself” is yet another Thizzle classic that starts with a brief interlude only to quickly and excitedly kick into gear with so much exuberance you can’t help but jump out your seat. Yet again, Dre coined a phrase that will be uttered in Northern California for years to come as anybody who is feeling good is likely to remind you “I’m in the billin’ and I’m feelin’ myself.”
“Thizzle Dance”
Of all the party tracks of Dre’s Thizz era, 2002’s “Thizzle Dance” is the crown jewel. At a recent Bay Area show, an out of town DJ had to wake up a restless crowd and “Thizz Dance” was his choice of stimulant. He didn’t play the whole song though, just the first bar, “First, I do like this,” cut the sound off and let the crowd do the rest of the work. Then, he dropped the track as soon as the hook started in perfect unison with the crowd. The crowd never calmed down again. That’s the power Dre has in the Bay.
“Get Stupid”
For those outside the region, this might be Dre’s most well-known song. “Get Stupid” ushered in an era of “Going Dumb” before it ever hit the mainstream with E-40 and Mistah F.A.B. The lines “This beat pounds, cutty where’d you get it?/ Oh you ain’t know, Dr. Dre did it” started the myth that Dr. Dre did indeed produce the track.
The truth is a former Dre ghost producer named Focus made the beat, and, depending on who you believe, Mac Dre helped or it was originally a Dr. Dre skeleton making the line true in some sense.
“Dollalalala Lotsa Paypa”
Pimping is part of the Bay Area culture. The first Bay rapper to really penetrate the mainstream was Too $hort with his explicit and raunchy tales of his pimp lifestyle. While Vallejo is just a tad bit further from the ocean that lifestyle has permeated the city as well and Dre flexed his muscles on “Dollalalala Lotsa Paypa.”
In the last three bars of his verse, he breaks down just how to make money in the oldest profession in the world, “P***y’s foul but the head’s A-plus/If I put her in heels and a little make up/ And hit Vegas, will she make us… Dollalalala Lotsa Paypa.” Never has pimping sounded so easy, or fun.
“Not My Job”
Yet another common phrase in Northern California lifted from a Ronald Dregan song. “Not My Job” is a smooth, reserved number by Dre, that goes from humorous to politically savvy to street savvy and all the way back within the span of a few bars. “Dre bogart, he shove and he push, and start a war for nothing like G.W. Bush,” he quips just a few seconds before joking “B*tch gon’ ask me to come with her to the grocery shop, I told her straight up like this ‘No-sir-e-bob,’ That’s not my job, I don’t do that.” It’s an impressive display of just how personable he could be on a track while maintaining his hardened demeanor.
“Early Retirement”
If you need an example of Dre’s skill as a rapper, “Early Retirement” is the place to go. This 2004 cut is over three minutes of Dre just going in, no hook just quick beat breaks. As soon as he kicks it off with “I’m doper than a Bobby Brown piss test,” it’s nonstop colorful similes, braggadocios and street tales. There’s wordplay, multi-syllable rhyme patterns, and a reserved but potent instrumental to give him all the space he needs for his verbal acrobatics.
“4 Myself”
Mac Dre wasn’t the most radio-friendly rapper there ever was. He set the tone with his very first single, proclaiming “I’m too hard, for the f**kin’ radio.” That held true throughout his career with Dre not only being explicit but forgoing typical song structure and with content rooted in drug abuse and street life. “4 Myself” was all of that: explicit as could be with stories of pimping and pandering and the like. But with the Hall and Oates sample and a hook so smooth that it sounds like a love song, “4 Myself” probably could have stolen some radio play.
The Primer: 10 Mac Dre Songs Everyone Should Know
There's some interesting selections and other tracks notably missing but you really can't pick out just 10 tracks from Mac Dre. It would be easier to pick 10 tracks from Prince (because the highs in Prince's catalog are so much above and beyond anything else that exists in our realm. Mac Dre is the type of artist that you can't really pick out 10 tracks like that . . like Tupac or The Beatles.
