It's Throwback Thursday, so it seemed appropriate to dig deep in the vaults and pull out a timeless classic. If you didn't grow up in the nineties, you probably missed out on Dr. Dre's late-decade revival. With his position in Interscope's good books waning by the day, Dre was treading water, seeking the next big thing that would elevate his personal Aftermath imprint to the next level. Everything changed when Dre linked up with a whiteboy from Detroit, and the next thing you know, the pair of them had dropped "My Name Is." From that point on, Dre & Eminem became a fixture in the genre, with the former developing a polished, minor key sound to better suit the latter's zany and macabre lyricism.
The peak of their creative stride came on the 2001 single "Forgot About Dre." I remember catching this music video when it first dropped, and having my young mind blown. At once undeniably dope, sinister, and heavy with gravitas, "Forgot About Dre" emerged at a time when the world needed a staunch reminder of exactly what Dr. Dre was capable of. It didn't take long for the immortalized opening lines to ingrain themselves in the collective consciosuess, and I would safely assume that the majority of hip-hop fans can rap this song in full.
While Eminem's second verse stands alongside his finest collaborative efforts, he may very well be outshone by his mentor on this one. Dre's closing verse is the stuff of legends, and his unusually dexterous flow slaps doubters in the face with one bar after another. Honestly, I could go on at length about the glory that is "Forgot About Dre." Hell, the instrumental alone holds up nearly twenty years later, and both rappers deliver peak double-time performances. And if you're one of the people who forgot that Dr. Dre was once dropping this level of fire, let this be a reminder.
Quotable Lyrics
I told 'em all, all them little gangstas
Who you think helped mold 'em all?
Now you wanna run around talkin' bout guns
Like I ain't got none; what, you think I sold 'em all
‘Cause I stay well off?
Now all I get is hate mail all day saying Dre fell off
What, ‘cause I been in the lab with a pen and a pad
Tryin' to get this damn label off?