interview with Mel-Man
Q: Does "The Vault" really exist?
A: Yes it does. Dre's vault is the stuff of legend. It is almost mythical. I have sworn to secrecy about its location so i won't touch that part. Have I Ever been in there? Ha, If I told you that I'd have to k!ll you. What is in the vault? The vault basically has every track dre has ever recorded. He has copies of everything he did on de@th Row but can never release. You can't even imagine how many instrumentals that have accumulated over the years I've been at Aftermath. It's in the thousands. Dre keeps all his music for his own personal use and listening. He basically keeps them as a soundtrack to his life. Most of the leftovers will never be heard. Most of the unused instrumentals will never be heard, at least while Dre is alive. There is enough music to release hundreds of albums so Dre could possibly live through music for many additional lifetimes. But you'll most likely never hear them. I don't know what will happen when Dre passes away. it depends upon who controsl his massive estate. Hopefully that is many years from now, though.
I have had the privalege to hear a lot of music you will never have a chance to hear and for that i am sorry. Dre usually does a great job of using the right beats and songs, but some of the unreleased music is some of the dopest sh#t I have ever heard. We sometimes are in awe of what Dre tosses out but Dre knows what Dre wants. Who are we to argue. We may plead and beg but in the end its Dre's music so he can do with it what he wants. I truly wish that I could let you hear the music because you are missing out on some the most innovative and dope unreleased music in the history of this business. From ruthless to Aftermath there is truly some great tracks out there than only Dre will ever hear. If I knew how to do it I might be able to post some old Ruthless Dr. Dre remixes that are very very rare. I got these tracks from Dre cause they were released in very limited edition so they qualify as released.
Anyway, The Vault is real and does contain close to the entire Dre creative library. I am honored to have heard a lot of mind blowing unreleased Dre tracks.
But alas, like you guys I am sure there is a lot of great sh#t in there that I, along with the rest of the human race, will never hear. Peace.