Dr. Dre Says Older Artists Hating on Current State of Rap Sound Like 'Somebody's Grandfather'

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Dr. Dre Says Older Artists Hating on Current State of Rap Sound Like 'Somebody's Grandfather'​

"If you don't like it, don't listen to it," the producer said in a new episode of Kevin Hart's talkshow 'Hart to Heart'​

HART TO HEART -- Dr. Dre Episode 303 -- Pictured: Dr. Dre --

Dr. Dre on Kevin Hart's talkshow "Hart to Heart.". Photo:
Peacock

Published on July 17, 2023 04:30PM EDT
Dr. Dre has a message for people hating on young rappers: don’t.

In a candid chat with Kevin Hart on a recent episode of the comedian’s Peacock series Hart to Heart, the conversation arrived at the artistry and “state of hip-hop today” and Dre, 58, was more than ready to give his two cents.

When Hart, 44, asked the legendary producer about “old heads,” or stuck-in-their-ways rappers who are not supportive of their successors, Dre responded with some choice words: “F--- that.”

“Let me tell you something,” he elaborated. “Hip-hop is what it is. Anybody that’s talking about the state of hip-hop right now and talking about it from a negative place sounds like somebody’s f---ing grandfather.”

“You know what I’m saying?” he asked Hart. “This is just what it is. Hip-hop is evolving."


HART TO HEART -- Dr. Dre Episode 303 -- Pictured: (l-r) Kevin Hart, Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre on "Hart to Heart" with Kevin Hart.
Peacock

He also offered up some simple advice for haters of today’s hip-hop: “If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it.”

Despite his fervent support of young rappers, however, Dre told the Hart to Heart host that he does not necessarily tune into new hip-hop. “I don’t listen to a lot of that s---,” he told the Ride Along star. “But I’m not hating on it. I’m never gonna hate on it.”


The “Still D.R.E” musician went on to acknowledge the accessibility of the genre — which he said is very different from when he was an up-and-coming artist — saying that young rappers “have everything at their fingertips right now.”

“But you can’t be mad at that,” he said, once again adding that it just “is what it is.”

The Death Row rapper also offered up a call to action.

“If you don’t like it, motherf---er, do something about it,” he said. “If you don’t like what’s happening right now, are you f---ing strong enough or talented enough to do something new to change it, to do something that you like?

“Other than that, shut the f--- up. That’s it. Stop hating."

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In the same episode, the producer commented on why he turned down working with some of his industry "heroes,"including Michael Jackson, Prince and Stevie Wonder.

"They just asked me to work with them and I was just like, 'What the f--- am I going to do with them?'" Dre told host Hart.

"My entire life and career has been dealing with and working with new artists. That's what I like," Dre said, per BET. "It's a ball of clay when they walk in the room. You can just form it and do what you want. That's what I want. Everybody else, especially my heroes, they're coming in and there's a set plan as to how the s--- should sound. I can't explore."

He added, "I like the idea of what I grew up listening to [them], and I want to keep it like that. I don't want to f--- up that idea and that look."
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jj23

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Did he mean to say regress instead of evolved?

The sound is cleaner, but is the music better, are the lyrics and rhyme schemes better?
 

Toe Jay Simpson

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It’s true but the evolution of the genre allows it to be a more complicated response than that

It is the music of young black Americans. Drill and all this other stuff is what they like, old heads are not supposed to find it appealing; it’s cultural. But the game has been allowed to evolve a grown man lane based off the eras before. We’re young enough to still be here so while we can acknowledge what we like and what we want, we need to be reasonable enough to acknowledge that a 19 year old from Chicago is not going to appear to us without being overly condescending about it
 

Awesome Wells

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He's right though.

We just had a talk about this at the barbershop recently. Too many legends spend mad time hating on what the younger artists are doing, but they're not even releasing music themselves. They'll go on all day about how sh*tty the music and culture is today, but then they're not doing anything to contribute. Daddy-O spoke on this too. If you're not even making music or doing anything to move the culture forward today, then you don’t have the right to complain.

Way too many legends feel like they did whatever they did back in the day, so they're set today. Nah, if you're just sitting back and talking sh*t and not helping to mentor new artists, help manage careers, or even putting out new sh*t yourself, then you're just as much a part of the problem as the wack music itself.
 

BK The Great

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Today's music is garbage, sometime i have to go back to the older stuff. But he's the wrong one to talk about it since most of the music he's made is all about violent shyt and drug talk. Not all of his stuff sounds good going back to it.
 
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