The Source Dec. 1990
On Straight Outta Compton, you seemed to talk about shooting brothers around the way like in the little scene before “Gangsta Gangsta,” but now the EP has you going after cops and runnin’ from the FBI. Is this a shift in your focus lyrically?
Dr.
Dre: It only deals with what’s going on. We make a rap about what happens. We
made “100 Miles and Runnin’” because of that thing that came off with the FBI.
Everything before that was just stuff that happens. If something happens and it’s
good enough to do a song about everybody will like it, we’ll do a song about
it.
“Sa
Prize” is a serious gangster song, especially when you set up those cops. Is
that something that happens?
Ren:
It’s something that everybody would like to do.
Dre:
We got the idea from a movie, “Innocent Man.” Tom Selleck and shit. Me and E
was on our way back from London when we saw it. Same thing came off in the
movie that happened on our record. The cops busted in the wrong house, shot up
this guy and the police planted drugs just to clean up their own act. This guy
went to jail for some stuff that the police did. At the end, they shot one of
the cops and the other went to jail.
The
media understands that the “Innocent Man” is just Hollywood, but how come you’re
jacked up for fictionalizing your fantasies?
Dre:
If you touch a nerve, somebody’s gonna move. If someone hits you in the face,
you’re gonna notice that shit. And we are hittin’ some people in the face.
Ren:
Plus if you look at a lot of movies, you don’t see a lot of black directors
doing movies like killin’ police and all that. It’s mostly white directors. If
a black director was doing something like that, he’ll get a lot of flak from it
just because he’s a black director and they don’t like that.
Dre:
If you say some shit that’s real and people are getting’ into, then you’re
going you’re going to get some flak. When you give a black man some power or
somebody think they got a lot of power, they try to cut it down but nobody’s
ever going to be able to cut down our shit.
Ren:
Yeah, they feel if you’re black and you’re saying something like that, then you’re
going to make all the other blacks want to retaliate. You’re scaring them. They
think you’re going to start a riot. But you never heard any flak about Rambo
and that mutherfucka has killed so many people.
What’s
at stake if you keep making gangsta records like this?
Dre:
Getting’ paid like a motherfucka. Bottom line: we ain’t doing this shit to send
out no messages, fuck all that, we in this shit to get paid. We don’t want to
start no controversy, we just make records that we like listening to and we
think others will like also.
There’s
gotta be more that that. You outsell BDP, PE and all those other groups. Having
the best producer in the business helps, but what you’re saying attracts folks.
What is it?
Dre:
Real shit. A lot of them groups started out saying one thing and ended up
saying another thing. When you switch like that, you lose part of the crowd.
Ren:
They wanted to be good guys. Here’s what they thinkin’: “we’ll start off
talking about all the gangsta shit to get people to listen and then I’m gonna
switch over.” Then you forget the people who got you there. We ain’t switched.
You won’t see us doing this gangsta shit this year, dancing next year and
wearing African medallions the next. Reality ain’t a fad.
What
do you think about the Geto Boys?
Dre:
I heard of them, but I haven’t heard their record. I heard it’s like NWA
take-off. Motherfuckas wanna make some money, I guess.
Your
last record earned you a little love note from the FBI. What response will you
get from “Sa Prize (Part 2)?
Dre:
Don’t know, don’t care.
Ren:
Motherfuckas knocking at the door. Did you see “Tango and Cash”? Stupid dope
set-up. I keep havin’ this dream that they’re gonna keep all of us in different
prisons so we can’t communicate. Yella in Chicago, Dre in Alabama, me in Vegas
and Eric out in Hawaii somewhere.