Compton
Studio album by
Dr. Dre
ReleasedAugust 7, 2015
Studio
  • Dre's Crib
  • Record One (Los Angeles)
  • Sony (Culver City, California)
[1]
GenreWest Coast hip hop
Length61:40
Label
Producer
Dr. Dre chronology
2001
(1999) 		Compton
(2015)
Singles from Compton
  1. "Talking to My Diary"
    Released: August 14, 2015

Compton is the third studio album by American hip-hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It was released on August 7, 2015, on Apple Music and the iTunes Store, with the physical editions released on August 21, 2015.[2] It is the follow-up to his second album, 2001 (1999), after the cancellation of the premeditated album, Detox.

Production for the album took place with Detox, but the album itself was devised when production of the N.W.A biographical film Straight Outta Compton gave Dre the idea for a soundtrack, with album specific production taking place in 2013–2015 at several recording studios and was handled by a variety of high-profile record producers, including Dr. Dre himself, Focus..., Dem Jointz, Trevor Lawrence, Jr., DJ Dahi, Cardiak and Theron Feemster, among others. Compton features guest appearances from Anderson .Paak, Marsha Ambrosius, Craig Owens, King Mez, Justus, Kendrick Lamar, Candice Pillay, Jon Connor, Sly Pyper, Dem Jointz, The Game, Xzibit, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and others.

The album debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200, selling 295,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. Upon its release, Compton received acclaim from music critics.

Background

Following 11 years of unsuccessful work on his infamous Detox album, Dre officially canceled the project on August 1, 2015, during an episode of his Beats 1 radio show, The Pharmacy with Dr. Dre. He stated that the album did not meet his standards and had decided to scrap the project as a result. During the same episode, Dre announced that he would be releasing a brand-new album, entitled Compton, on August 7 on iTunes and Apple Music, with a physical release following on August 21. Earlier the same day in an interview with Power 99FM, Ice Cube had preemptively announced the album. The album was inspired by the N.W.A biographical film Straight Outta Compton and features a number of collaborators from various points in his career, including Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Xzibit, and The Game, among others.

"During principal photography of Straight Outta Compton, I felt myself going to the studio and being so inspired by the movie that I started recording an album," Dre said on his radio show. "I kept it under wraps, and now the album is finished. It's bananas. It's an 'inspired by' album. It's inspired by Straight Outta Compton. We're gonna call the album Compton: The Soundtrack. I'm really proud of this." Dre also described the upcoming release as being his 'grand finale.'[3] This claim has turned out to be false and Dr. Dre hinted at a release of his upcoming fourth album.[4][5]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.8/10[6]
Metacritic82/100[7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The A.V. ClubB+[8]
The Daily Telegraph[9]
The Guardian[10]
The Independent[11]
NME7/10[12]
Pitchfork8.8/10[13]
Rolling Stone[14]
Spin7/10[15]
USA Today[16]

Compton was released by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records on August 7, 2015, to widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 82, based on 36 reviews.[7] Following two weeks of Apple exclusivity, the album was released for other streaming services as well as music stores on August 21.[17] Rolling Stone critic Jonah Weiner deemed the album "by turns confounding and enthralling" while writing that it "contains some of his most ambitious, idea-stuffed production ever" and that "Dre's rhyming (aided as always by co-writers) is impressive".[14] Robert Christgau from Vice was somewhat less enthusiastic, naming "Genocide" and "Animals" as highlights while writing that the record benefitted significantly from Dre's absence from half the songs because of so many guest artists.[18] At the end of the year, Compton was named the 32nd best album of 2015 by Pitchfork,[19] while The Guardian ranked it 35th.[20]

Commercial performance

Prior to its release, there was heavy anticipation on whether Compton or Luke Bryan's Kill the Lights would debut at the top of the US Billboard 200 chart.[21] Ultimately, Compton debuted at number 2 with 295,000 equivalent album units; it sold 278,558 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales.[22] Compton is Dr. Dre's third solo album to debut at number one on the Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[22] The album remained in the chart's top ten for the next several weeks,[23][24][25] and, as of June 2016, the album has sold over 600,000 copies in the United States.[26] Compton has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Compton debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart after selling 45,721 copies (including 2,079 streaming sales),[27] becoming Dr. Dre's first number-one album in the UK.[28] It outsold its nearest competitor, Frank Turner's Positive Songs for Negative People, by over 28,000 combined chart sales.[28] Additionally, as the physical version of the album was not released until two weeks later,[29] Dr. Dre became the first artist in history to top the UK Albums Chart with a non-physical release.[27] Compton has been certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

In 2015, Compton was ranked as the 45th most popular album of the year on the Billboard 200.[30]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Intro"
1:15
2."Talk About It" (featuring King Mez and Justus)
3:15
3."Genocide" (featuring Kendrick Lamar, Marsha Ambrosius and Candice Pillay)
Dem Jointz4:26
4."It's All on Me" (featuring Justus and BJ the Chicago Kid)
3:47
5."All in a Day's Work" (featuring Anderson .Paak and Marsha Ambrosius)
5:13
6."Darkside / Gone" (featuring King Mez, Marsha Ambrosius and Kendrick Lamar)
  • "Darkside" produced by Best Kept Secret
  • Dr. Dre
  • "Gone" produced by D.R.U.G.S. Beats
  • Dr. Dre
3:53
7."Loose Cannons" (featuring Xzibit, Cold 187um and Sly Pyper)
  • Focus...
  • Lawrence, Jr.
  • Dr. Dre
4:13
8."Issues" (featuring Ice Cube, Anderson .Paak and Dem Jointz)
  • Focus...
  • Chambers
  • Lawrence, Jr.
  • Neff-U
  • Dr. Dre
3:41
9."Deep Water" (featuring Kendrick Lamar, Justus and Anderson .Paak)
  • Young
  • Duckworth
  • Ricks II
  • Mohrle
  • Anderson
  • Edwards, Jr.
  • Carl McCormick
  • Natche
  • Abernathy, Jr.
  • Focus...
  • Cardiak
  • DJ Dahi
  • Dem Jointz
  • Dr. Dre
5:11
10."One Shot One Kill" (performed by Jon Connor featuring Snoop Dogg)
  • Focus...
  • Lawrence, Jr.
  • Dr. Dre
3:25
11."Just Another Day" (performed by The Game featuring Asia Bryant)
  • Lawrence, Jr.
  • Feemster
2:21
12."For the Love of Money" (featuring Jill Scott, Jon Connor and Anderson .Paak)
Cardiak4:08
13."Satisfiction" (featuring Snoop Dogg, Marsha Ambrosius and King Mez)
  • Young
  • Ricks II
  • Ambrosius
  • Abernathy, Jr.
  • Broadus, Jr.
Dem Jointz4:24
14."Animals" (featuring Anderson .Paak)
3:47
15."Medicine Man" (featuring Eminem, Candice Pillay and Anderson .Paak)
  • Young
  • Marshall Mathers
  • Pillay
  • Mohrle
  • Anderson
  • Ricks II
  • Abernathy, Jr.
  • Edwards, Jr.
  • Chambers
  • Dem Jointz
  • Focus...
4:14
16."Talking to My Diary"
  • DJ Silk
  • Mista Choc
  • Dr. Dre
4:23
Total length:61:40

The album was mastered by Brian 'Big Bass' Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering, LA[31]

Notes[32]

Sample credits[32]

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[71] Gold 35,000^
France (SNEP)[72] Gold 50,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[73] Gold 100,000*
United States (RIAA)[74] Gold 500,000^

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region Date Format Label
Worldwide August 7, 2015.[75]
August 21, 2015[76]
November 20, 2015[77]

See also

References

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External links

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