The Wrath of Aftermath

Although most of the listening in house and studio is of the classical music variety, interlaced with a healthy dosage of Loren Connors, sometimes the ear and eye deviates a little bit towards other genres.  It is true that many years ago, while based temporarily in the West Coast (Los Angeles) and Europe (Switzerland and London), I was quite keen on listening to rap (as it was not termed Hip Hop until recently).  Well, one of the albums which I still consider superior is "The Chronic" by Dr. Dre- it is hard not to let down one's guard and start bobbing one's head to the beats of that album.

Years passed, and I turned my back on the rap scene, while keeping an eye and ear to what has been going on.  For the most part, the old guard (if they still exist) has been reduced to farce.  Those in the limelight now are so produced that they are akin to the worst in Pop, and the ear bleeds upon hearing such nonsensical noise.

Back to Dr. Dre, whose album "Detox" has been under production for over a decade now, and which has been looked forward to by so many (including myself).  The first single ("Kush"), released a few months ago, was of the weed smoking variety that it seemed it should be tossed off the album tracks.  It was a bit of a heartbreaker to hear such typical commercial work by Dre so when I found out a new single was released yesterday ("I Need a Doctor"), I did not expect much in the way of greatness.

I was wrong.

The cinematic video, the flashbacks to the old days of N.W.A. and 2Pac, Eminem coming out of the shell he has somehow been in for the past few albums and tearing the mic up, and Dr. Dre seemingly coming back from the dead with potent and furious lyrics.  It looks like Detox is well on its way.

"Like it was yesterday though..." (screenshot from the video)

"It literally feels like a lifetime ago but I still remember the shit like it was just yesterday though...went through friends...but they just left, they said they was riding to the death, but where the fuck are they now, now that i need them, i don't see none of them...fuck all you fair-weather friends...when the chips were down you just laughed at us, now you bout to see the fucking wrath of Aftermath..." 

Bring it on, Dr. Dre.  Bring it on.

"Now you about to see..." (Dr. Dre in a screenshot from the video)