He’s one of the greatest influences on hip-hop culture of all time, but Dr Dre didn’t rely on the icons of the genre to build out his own inspiration. As the musical creative behind NWA, Dr Dre would burst onto the mainstream hip-hop scene as one of the best ears in the game. A pioneer in bringing his extensive soul collection to new audiences, Dre’s ability to produce unique beats using unusual samples has made him an icon.
As he grew into his role as one of the genre’s primary tastemakers, first as a rapper in his own right on The Chronic and 2001 then as a serial music mogul, working with Jimmy Iovine to break artists such as Eminem and 50 Cent, his dedication to broadening his audio horizons never wavered.
Over the years, Dre has consistently cited more leftfield artists as influences on his work, having previously claimed Nirvana to be one of his favourite rock bands. In the HBO documentary, which charts Dre’s life from NWA. to global media mogul, the rapper opens up about the trials and tribulations of his life. And while many bands and artists have figured in his life in some shape or form, there’s only one group which can be called his favourite; “Nirvana” proclaims Dre in the film.
The scene arrives as we see Dre in the Bahamas, and like any real fan, as Nirvana’s track ‘Stay Away’ rings out on the speakers, we see Dr Dre, one of the most famous men in hip-hop history, losing his cool and screaming as any fanboy would. “Yo, I’m starting to sweat right now,” says the producer, “just listening to this shit. It’s bananas. Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, that’s my favourite rock group of all time.”
But there is another band that predates the grunge icons who also inspired Dre, and they’re even further from the mainstream. Kraftwerk are an essential band for any lover of electronic music. The German, calculator-wielding pioneers are routinely cited as forebearers for modern music and it would seem that Dre was also hugely influenced by their robotic sounds.
Sampling the group on his 2010 song with Jay-Z ‘Under Pressure’, Dre opened up about his love of the group: “Kraftwerk had a really big inspiration on the beginning of hip-hop. My tastes change with the season. Right now it’s Kraftwerk. I’ll see what happens this summer.”
Dre also notably sampeld the group on ‘Been There Done That’ and once freestyle over a Kraftwerk beat, suggesting that the mogul is widely influenced by a huge amount of different music. Dr Dre has always been a pioneer, and here he proves it with an unusual selection as one of his favourite band of all time.
