Dr. Dre

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Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. 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. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turn'al, 50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar. 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. In 2014, Dr. Dre was ranked as the second richest figure in the American hip hop scene by Forbes with a net worth of $550 million; he is at the top of the 2015 Forbes list, with an estimated pre-tax take of $620 million in 2014.

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. 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". 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.

2001 (Dr. Dre album)

2001 is the second studio album by American hip hop recording artist Dr. Dre, released on November 16, 1999, by Interscope Records. It is the follow-up to his debut album The Chronic (1992). It was produced primarily by Dr. Dre and Mel-Man, as well as Lord Finesse, and features several guest contributions from fellow American rappers such as The D.O.C., Hittman, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Xzibit, Nate Dogg, and Eminem. 2001 exhibits an expansion on his debut's G-funk sound and contains gangsta rap themes such as violence, promiscuity, drug use, street gangs, and crime.

The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 516,000 copies in its first week. It produced three singles that attained chart success and has been certified sextuple platinum in sales by the RIAA after sales of six million copies in the United States. Despite mixed criticism toward its gangster-themed lyrics, 2001 received general acclaim from music critics. As of August 2015 the album has sold 7,800,000 copies in the United States.