Rappers That Have Ghostwritten For Dr. Dre

It's crazy how much bigger Dr. Dre has gotten (figuratively and literally, have you seen the guy lately?!  He looks like he could bench press an NBA player), the guy is a rap legend, an even more talented producer, and he's even developed an entire line of headphones and just sold them for $3 billion. But how would you react if I told you the man doesn't write his own rap verses (you know, when a pig flies by on a golden horned unicorn and Dre actually puts out some music, usually these things happen on the same day)?  You may be surprised or you may already know, but I got curious enough one day to actually look into some of Dre's verses and see who wrote them for him.

Kendrick Lamar - Compton

A little known fact about this banging Just Blaze produced masterpiece (also mixed by Dre, talk about a dynamic duo) is that this is actually the very first song that Dr. Dre ad Kendrick Lamar recorded together. What subject better to tackle for your first song together than some common ground; the city that both artists call home. Dre's first verse starts out in a familiar flow; "still I'm at it, peel the plastic off it you can feel the magic, still I'm laughing at the critics talking I can see 'em gagging, when I'm back in the back of my city, back in the 'bach with a batch of them bangin' Dre beats with me," etc. The "still I'm at it" start is in the same vane as "Still D.R.E" featuring Snoop Dogg.

Still D.R.E - Jay Z

Speaking of one of Dr. Dre's biggest tracks ever, Dre's verses on "Still D.R.E." were actually written by Jigga himself, Jay Z. Weird, right?  Someone like me might wonder how in the actual hell this ended up happening. Obviously Dre ends up in the studio with some huge rap heavyweights that you could never see coming (I actually read that Dre reached out to Drake and Lil Wayne to record a few records for Detox, but you know, it's Detox), and Jay Z is just another one of those guys I suppose. It has been said around the industry that Dre is a perfectionist, and it shows that he only reaches out to the best to work with.

The Message - Royce Da 5'9

Slaughterhouse and Bad Meets Evil member Royce Da 5'9 might have some of the sickest pen game in rap, and though sometimes it's hard to tell if a verse is ghostwritten or if the artist actually wrote it themselves, Royce disguises his writing pretty well for Dre in "The Message." As Dre discusses his now deceased brother in the song you'd think that Dre would actually want to write something himself for such a dedication, but Royce does a very nice job of making this one sound like Dre. A little known fact about Royce Da 5'9 and Dr. Dre working together is that Royce actually recorded another hook for the original version of the song "Xxplosive" that did not end up on Dre's The Chronic 2001 album.

Eminem - Forgot About Dre

                                   (*I do not own these songs, videos, or the rights to them*)

"Oh woooow, no waaaaay, Eminem wrote for Dr. Dre?" That was me being incredibly sarcastic. OF COURSE EMINEM WROTE FOR DR. DRE, YOU'VE SEEN EVERYONE ELSE THAT DOES DON'T YOU?  WHY WOULDN'T HIS MOST FREQUENT COLLABORATOR (besides Snoop) WRITE FOR HIM?  Dre's first verse has Eminem's fingerprints all over it too, the lyricism and wordplay are signs of a verse that only Eminem could pen, I mean just listen to that first little bit of Dre's first verse; "who you think taught you to smoke trees, who you think brought you the O.G.'s, Eazy-E's, Ice Cube's and D.O.C.'s, and Snoop D-O-double G's, and the group that said mother fuck the police?" Written down this doesn't seem like much, but listen to it rapped and the syllables fall into place perfectly, something Eminem's writing is widely known for.

So yes, you can definitely still classify Dre as a legend behind the boards (or so I hope so, heard some rumors awhile back saying he didn't produce any of the songs on his or Snoop's albums, apparently it was Snoop's cousin Daz Dilinger, so who knows, at least I hope Dre produced all of the stuff he said he did), but writing isn't exactly his specialty. I got all the love and respect in the world for Dr. Dre, but to me the words being spat in a song mean so much more when they're your own. I mean how can you not write your own stuff? If all you have is a voice and no writing or instrumental talents, then you shouldn't be famous. Simply put.