Cinematic, broad and with Jill Scott bringing her unreal beauty to the outro, it’s strangely welcome. “For the Love of Money” seems out of place on a Dre album – that’s not a slight on the song itself, just the feel/combination. A crazy beat inspires Game to a near-perfect performance, and I’d argue that this could/should have kicked off the entire album (it’s certainly more traditionally impactful than the intro and “Talk About It”). Dre’s biggest fan in the history of the universe didn’t get his heart broken and instead delivers one of the standout tracks in the form of “Just Another Day”. Whilst the replay value of “One Shot, One Kill” remains to be seen, it contains some brilliant moments: a killer verse from Snoop Dogg, a truly stunning appearance from Jon Connor, and a menacing beat.Īfter X, Cube and Snoop, I was listening to “Compton” on my knees in a church/temple/mosque just praying to any God that would listen to ensure that (The) Game would not be excluded from the party. “Deep Water” is a hard one from Kendrick, blending styles from GKMC and TPAB (the hood, the esoteric), and Dre rides shotgun with aplomb. Regardless, having Cube and Dre reunited is worth the entrance money alone to a lot of people. From a personal perspective, the beat on “Issues” is disappointing considering that Mos Def used the same “Ince Ince…” sample on “Supermagic” – the opener on his fascinating “The Ecstatic” LP back in 2009. First up is Xzibit, who must have finished pimping his ride, with a welcome return on the Kim-esque “Loose Cannons.” Then, as Ice Cube details his numerous “Issues,” it starts to sink in that this is a real album, and you may start to pinch yourself. It’s at this point that Dre starts to bring his old mates back to the booth. “Darkside/Gone” is an interesting dual cut, harking back to “2001” (albeit updated with a slightly more spiritual vibe, with Marsha Ambrosius deserving special praise, she’s always had a unique talent). It’s a stunning three-track combo, and gives the album some breathing space. Paak and some ridiculously head-nod shit on the boards, Dre positively infects you with his work ethic. It’s a seemingly personal track (even if you know somebody else is actually writing the lyrics), and the formidable opening is helped by “All In A Day’s Work.” Possessed by the ultimate self-help motivational steroid speech by Jimmy Iovine, a stupidly soulful performance by Anderson. “It’s All On Me” continues that ’92 vibe, with a laid-back groove and the kind of beat that Nate Dogg would have killed (Justus and BJ do their best, and REST IN PEACE N-A-T-E). It’s already clear after two tracks that Dre’s delivery (which has always been a bit underrated) is excellent, and then Lamar brings his energy to the proceedings. “Compton” arguably kicks off in earnest with “Genocide” – it’s practically perfect in every way, fluidly fitting in with the legacy of “The Chronic”, with maybe THE outstanding instrumental on offer. It also has two artists without Wikipedia pages (King Mez with two verses and Justus with the chorus), and it’s certainly likeable but possibly too bold a choice for such a significant position. After a short intro, “Talk About It” is a strange track to start with: produced by DJ Dahi, it’s a grower for sure but has a derivative Rick Ross ’09 feel.

Clearly, Kendrick takes the lead role that Snoop Dogg adopted in 1992, and that Eminem ran with in 1999 – this proves to be both hugely beneficial and somewhat disappointing (we’ll get to that later). “Compton” probably sprang to life thanks to some cosmic tag-team of Tim Cook and Kendrick Lamar: Cook making Andre Young a billionaire, and Lamar breathing life into Compton due to his stunning albums. With that little preamble out of the way, let’s just “Talk About It” – no, not “Detox” (which Dre scrapped due to a lack of freshness). Jesus, I even had to figure out the lyrics for myself – imagine that (!) Without the memes, reviews or even the opinions of my friends, I had a set of Ears By Jay and my knowledge of “The Chronic” and “2001” alone.

It’s a rare privilege and basically what we used to do back in the day – buy/consume an album for personal listening pleasure, without the need for analysis, dissection and the public mocking/praise of social media. Due to travel commitments I had the immense fortune to listen to “Compton” and nothing else since the release, with almost no influence from that pesky internet. “I JUST… BOUGHT… CALI-FORNIA!” booms the good doctor upon his (unsurprising) return album (his deal with Apple made an LP inevitable).

Dr compton