Death Row legend and talented Compton producer Dr Dre recently unveiled that he declined the opportunity to work with Michael Jackson, Prince and Stevie Wonder. In an appearance on Kevin Hart’s Hart to Heart show.
Explaining why he “bowed out” on collaborating with the icons, Dre revealed that he wouldn’t have known what to make, disclosing, “They just asked me to work with them, and I just was like, ‘What the fuck am I going to do with them?’ Those are my fucking heroes.”
Hart then reminded the producer of his greatness, replying, “But you’re Dr Dre!” The LA beatmaker (real name Andre Young) is a multi-Grammy award-winning artist. Nonetheless, in the case of Stevie Wonder, he felt it would be an unnatural collaboration.
Revealing he didn’t want to tarnish his view of the legends by seeing them in the studio, Young stated, “the way I feel about Stevie, Prince, Michael, Bruce Springsteen and all of these amazing artists could change by working with them.”
He continued, “These are my fucking heroes. … I like the idea of what I grew up listening to, and I want to keep it like that. And I don’t want to fuck up that idea and that look.” Although Dr Dre has worked with many Grammy-award-winning artists such as Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar, he explained that he prefers to work with fresh, undiscovered talent.
Elaborating on his preference, Dre explained, “My entire life and career has been dealing with and working with new artists. That’s what I like. Nobody comes in with an agenda. It’s a ball of clay when they walk in the room. You can just form it and do what you want.”
The entrepreneur also begrudgingly admitted that working with artists that already have an established sound is restricting explaining, That’s not what I want. Everybody else, especially my heroes, they’re coming in, and there’s a set plan as to how the shit should sound, ya know. I can’t, I can’t explore.”
