Dr. Dre is one of the most successful rappers living today, but he’s also done so much more beyond his personal rap career. Dr. Dre is a widely accomplished producer, entrepreneur, and all-around music mogul. From Eminem to Alisha Keys to Gwen Stefani to 50 Cent, Dr. Dre has had his hands in the successes of so many artists.
If we were to count his production credits, we might be here all day. However, that’s not to say that his personal discography credits aren’t impressive enough. Dr. Dre has had a successful career as a recording artist both solo and with N.W.A.
Even though the trajectory of his career may have been hard to track for some, especially those unaware of his early days as a part of N.W.A., we can break it down and figure out exactly how many albums Dr. Dre has sold.
Dr. Dre’s best selling album:
Dr. Dre’s best selling album is an easy enough one to pinpoint: 2001. The album went platinum six times, selling nearly 8 million copies in the United States alone. It was his second solo album, edging out his debut, The Chronic, which also sold almost 6 million copies.
Sometimes referred to as The Chronic II, this album remains his most successful to date, though, among his solo albums, he doesn’t seem to have a single flop, all of them going at least gold, if not platinum.
Dr. Dre’s worst-selling album:
Technically, Dr. Dre’s worst-selling album isn’t one of his own solo albums, because it’s the last album he worked on with N.W.A. Their final album, Niggaz4Life, although selling a million copies in the United States, was technically his worst performing album in terms of both sales and reviews.
The album received overall negative reviews from critics, and angered both conservative and liberal listeners alike due to the misogyny and profanity of the album, leaving it the least popular of the two N.W.A. albums.
Dr. Dre’s total album sales:
This one can be tricky, depending on who you want to include. As a solo artist, Dr. Dre has sold approximately 16,546,000 albums. However, we’ve clearly been going with the theme of including N.W.A. Therefore, the 7,720,033 albums they sold should also be taken into account if we’re playing fair.
This means that in total, Dr. Dre has sold 24,266,033 albums in his lifetime. Not only is this abundantly impressive, but again, it doesn’t even include his producer credits. Talk about a powerhouse.