Andre Romelle Young was born in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton on 18 February 1965. It was a crime-plagued area during his youth but his parents, who divorced when he was 7, steered him away from drugs and gangs. (One of his own sons, Andre Young Jr, died of a drug overdose in 2008.)
Music paid well so he dropped out of high school to become a club DJ. He joined the electro-rap group World Class Wreckin' Cru but was embarrassed by both the music and the gimmicks.
When Dre was arrested for unpaid traffic fines in 1986, local drug dealer Eric "Eazy-E" Wright agreed to pay bail in return for production work. That led to the formation of Niggaz With Attitude (NWA) with DJ Yella, MC Ren and the talented Ice Cube. NWA's 1988 debut album Straight Outta Compton didn't invent gangsta rap but it defined it, and Dre's production was as compelling as Ice Cube's raps. Dre was arrested for various offences in his 20s. Most notoriously, in 1991 he was convicted of assaulting television presenter Dee Barnes, who later told Dre biographer Ronin Ro, "There's a lot of women that he beat up. But I'm the one who f***ing pressed charges." Last year R&B singer Michel'le, and a former bandmate both made similar claims. Dre has not commented on the claims.
In 1991 Dre left the group over a financial dispute and formed Death Row Records with former bodyguard Marion "Suge" Knight. His triple-platinum-selling solo debut, The Chronic, revolutionised hip-hop yet again and made gangsta rap the new norm. Rolling Stone named it the second best album of the 90s.
Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Photo / AP
In 1996, tired of Suge Knight's thuggish antics, Dre left Death Row. His new venture, Aftermath Entertainment, took off when he signed a young Detroit rapper named Eminem.
His second (and, to date, last) solo album, 2001, came out the same year and has since sold more than 7.5m copies in the US alone. Track titles such as Still D.R.E. and Forgot About Dre betrayed a defensive frame of mind.
"Magazines, word of mouth and rap tabloids were saying I didn't have it any more," he grumbled. "What more do I need to do?"
Dre has always been a stolid, uncharismatic rapper, giving the impression that he'd much rather be behind a console than a microphone.
Dre enjoyed another purple patch in the early 2000s, with hits for Eminem, Mary J Blige, Gwen Stefani and 50 Cent. Each one used minimal hooks over speaker-wrecking beats and bass.
Since winning his fifth and sixth Grammy awards for his work on Eminem's 2009 album Relapse, however, Dre has seemed increasingly uninterested in making music. The idea for Beats arose from conversations about the poor quality of Apple's white earbuds with music mogul Jimmy Iovine, his friend and mentor since Death Row partnered with record label Interscope 23 years ago, who has called him "one of the best [producers] that ever lived".
The phenomenal success of Beats is seen by some as a triumph of hype over hi-fi. Beats trades subtlety for power, delivering walloping bass. An interview with Esquire last year revealed a man who loves music and business and can live without the rest. He bragged about enjoying the studio so much that he once worked for 79 hours straight but said he had no interest in hearing his own records. "Once it comes out, for me, it's just business. Numbers." The numbers are looking very good indeed.
- Observer
