Dr. Dre Trivia: 40 interesting facts about the rapper!

Dr. Dre is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur.

Let’s see some fun facts about him!

1. Andre Romelle Young was born February 18, 1965 in Compton, California.

2. He is the first child of Theodore and Verna Young.

3. His middle name, Romelle, is derived from his father’s amateur R&B singing group, The Romells.

4. His parents married in 1964, separated in 1968, and divorced in 1972.

5. His mother later remarried and had three children: sons Jerome and Tyree (both deceased) and daughter Shameka.

6. In 1976, Young began attending Vanguard Junior High School in Compton, but due to gang violence, he transferred to the safer suburban Roosevelt Junior High School.

7. He lived a few years in Carson during his middle school years.

8. Young has told that he was mostly raised by his grandmother in New Wilmington Arms housing project in Compton.

9. His mother later married Warren Griffin, whom she met at her new job in Long Beach, which added three stepsisters and one stepbrother to the family; the stepbrother would eventually become rapper Warren G.

10. Young is the cousin of producer Sir Jinx.

11. He attended Centennial High School in Compton during his freshman year in 1979, but transferred to Fremont High School in South Central Los Angeles due to poor grades.

12. Young attempted to enroll in an apprenticeship program at Northrop Aviation Company, but poor grades at school made him ineligible.

13. Thereafter, he focused on his social life and entertainment for the remainder of his high school years.

14. Young fathered a son with Cassandra Joy Greene named Curtis (born December 15, 1981).

15. Curtis was brought up by his mother and first met his father 20 years later, when Curtis became rapper Hood Surgeon.

16. Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru and later found fame with the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life.

17. His 1992 solo debut The Chronic, released under Death Row Records, led him to become one of the best-selling American performing artists of 1993 and to win a Grammy Award for the single “Let Me Ride”.

18. That same year he produced Death Row labelmate Snoop Dogg’s quadruple platinum debut Doggystyle, and even molded artists into top-notch producers such as his step-brother Warren G, which led to his Multi-Platinum debut Regulate…G Funk Era in 1994, and Snoop Dogg’s cousin Daz Dillinger which led to the double platinum debut album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound in 1995.

19. In 1996, he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment.

20. He produced a compilation album titled Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath in 1996, and released a solo album titled 2001 in 1999.

21. During the 2000s, he focused on production for other artists, while occasionally contributing vocals to songs.

22. Dr. Dre signed Eminem in 1998 and 50 Cent in 2002 to his record label respectively, while contributing production on their albums.

23. He has won six Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year. Dr. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, The Wash and Training Day.

24. Rolling Stone ranked Dre at 56 on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All-Time”.

25. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics. Dre was previously the co-owner of, and an artist on, Death Row Records.

26. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including 2Pac, The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turn’al, 50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar.

27. He is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, a style of rap music characterized as synthesizer-based with slow, heavy beats.

28. As of 2017 he is the third richest figure in hip hop according to Forbes with a net worth of $740 million.

29. Dr. Dre has been accused of violence against women in the past.

30. On January 27, 1991, at a music industry party at the Po Na Na Souk club in Hollywood, Dr. Dre assaulted television host Dee Barnes of the Fox television program Pump it Up, because he felt dissatisfied with her news report about the feud between the remaining N.W.A members and Ice Cube.

31. In March 2015, singer Michel’le accused him of physical abuse during their time together as a couple, but did not initiate legal action.

32. Former labelmate Tairrie B also claimed that Dre assaulted her at a post-Grammy party in 1990, in response to her track Ruthless Bitch.

33. In August 2015, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Dre lamented his abusive past, saying, “I made some fucking horrible mistakes in my life. I was young, fucking stupid. I would say all the allegations aren’t true—some of them are. Those are some of the things that I would like to take back. It was really fucked up. But I paid for those mistakes, and there’s no way in hell that I will ever make another mistake like that again.”

34. In 1983, Dr. Dre and Lisa Johnson had a daughter named La Tanya Danielle Young.

35. In 1988, Dr. Dre and Jenita Porter had a son, Andre Young Jr.

36. In 1990, Porter sued Dr. Dre in Orange County Superior Court seeking $5,000 of child support per month.

37. On August 23, 2008, Andre Young Jr. died at the age of 20 at his mother’s Woodland Hills home. The coroner determined that he died from an overdose of heroin and morphine.

38. From 1987 to 1996, Dr. Dre dated singer Michel’le, who frequently contributed vocals to Ruthless Records and Death Row Records albums. In 1991, the couple had a son, Marcel.

39. In 1996, Dr. Dre married Nicole Threatt, the ex-wife of NBA player Sedale Threatt.

40. They have two children together: a son named Truice (born 1997) and a daughter named Truly (born 2001).