Seeds of Wisdom: Dr Dre

By Coby Gerstner

These seeds of wisdom come to you from one of the most sage rappers there is – Dr Dre.  Before Dre was the mega-mogul that he is today, he was a member of the controversial group N.W.A.  You might know N.W.A. as one of the most influential rap groups ever.  They ushered in the era of gangster rap and gave us that funky, funky west coast sound.  If you ever liked 90’s rap, you probably knew a thing or two about those smooth beats coming from California.  From N.W.A came Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren, DJ Yella, Arabian Prince, and Dr Dre.

Dre, who was more well known for his producing than his rapping skills, still managed to be a very good rapper.  The seeds of wisdom that we will be choosing come from the song Express Yourself off of the album “Straight Outta Compton,” by N.W.A.  This is the most Dre heavy track on the album, even compared with his own albums on which it’s not uncommon for Snoop Dogg or another artist to rap at least one verse and Dre rap the rest.

“Blame it on Ice Cube; because he said it gets funky

when you got a subject and a predicate

add it on a dope beat; and it’ll make you think…

I still express, yo, I don’t smoke weed or cess

cause it’s known to give a brother brain damage

and brain damage on the mic don’t manage – Nuthin’

but makin’ a sucka and you equal

Don’t be another sequel… (Express yourself)”

I love these lyrics.  “Add it on a dope beat, and it will make you think.”  Not only were N.W.A. controversial and fresh, they were making you think.  Dre went on to put out two albums, The Chronic and 2001 – which were huge and gave the world G-Funk.  With all of his recent success and the enormous popularity of his Beats by Dre headphones, it’s nice to see where it all started.