The reason why Dr Dre refused to work with Stevie Wonder
The saying goes never meet your heroes. But what of working with them? According to Dr Dre when faced with the opportunity to collaborate with the likes of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, it’s a matter of pondering “what the f-word am I going to do with them.”
The seven-time Grammy-winning rapper, record producer and actor has been considered one of the greats of hip-hop for decades now. And yet even titans of the music scene are not immune to awe and intimidation when faced with their own heroes.
“They just asked me to work with them,” Dr Dre explained to Kevin Hart on the latter’s talk show, Hart to Heart. “And I was just like, what the f-word am I going to do with them? Those are my f-word heroes.”
Dre goes on to explain to Hart, in the interview conducted two years ago, that Wonder had gotten in touch to work on a song together. “I like the idea of what I grew up listening to, and I want to keep it like that,” he explains. “I don’t want to f-word that idea and that look.”
Hart reminds Dre, who has been nominated for over thirty Grammys since 1990 and last year was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of N.W.A., that “you’re Dr f-word Dre”.
“There’s a couple of times in my career where I bowed out,” Dre said, when Hart asked him who his dream collaborators are. After listing some cross-genre greats – including the likes of Kurt Cobain, Marvin Gaye, and Jimi Hendrix – Dre shares that Stevie Wonder, Prince and Michael Jackson had reached out at some point in their careers to work with him.
“Yeah, that happened,” Dre says to a visibly shocked Hart. He explains, “what am I going to do in a studio with them? Those are my f-word heroes, man.”
Dre goes into particular detail discussing a potential collaboration with Stevie Wonder. “I’m working on an album with Marsha Ambrosius,” he says. The album, Casablanco, began in 2020 following Dre’s recovery from a brain aneurysm, and released in June 2024. “She’s amazing. And we [were] using Stevie Wonder’s music.”
After calling Dre “super early in the morning”, Wonder invites Dre to “get together and just write a song together. And I didn’t show up. What the f-word am I going to do in a studio with Stevie Wonder? Touch the drums? No. Touch the keyboard? No.”
“When you explain it, I understand it,” Hart responds.
Instead of working with his heroes, Dre has played a significant role in the careers of many artists within their careers, most notably the next generation of rappers and hip-hop artists. He is credited for discovering Eminem and 50 Cent, signing them to his label Aftermath Entertainment. He also played a crucial role in the success of Kendrick Lamar’s debut album good kid, m.A.A.d city, and co-founded group Silk Sonic with Anderson .Paak, who is also signed to Dre’s label Aftermath.
“My entire life and career has been dealing with and working with no artists,” Dre explains. “That’s what I like. It’s a ball of clay when they walk in the room. You can just form it and do what you want. That’s what I want. Everybody else, especially my heroes, they’re coming in and there’s a set plan as to how the s-word should sound, you know. I can’t explore.”