ASCAP President Paul Williams said Dr. Dre “laid a foundation for hip-hop as we know it today.” The society will honor him Thursday.
It’s 2023 and Dr. Dre is still etching his name in the history books. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers announced on Tuesday that it will honor the revolutionary producer and rapper with the first-ever ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award. The seven-time Grammy Award winner will receive the distinction at the Rhythm & Soul Music Awards on Thursday in Los Angeles. Dre previously earned the ASCAP’s Founders Award in 2010.
“Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking early work laid a foundation for hip-hop as we know it today,” Paul Williams, chairman of the board and president at ASCAP said in the release. “As a champion for some of today’s biggest artists and a successful entrepreneur, he changed the culture around hip-hop.”
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The Compton native dominated the hip-hop scene in the 90s and is the mastermind behind a number of hits from music’s best of the best: Jay-Z, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Nas, 50 Cent, and Kendrick Lamar to name a few. According to Billboard, Dr. Dre’s three studio albums — The Chronic, 2001, and Compton — have amassed about 20 million album consumption units. Earlier this year, Dre commemorated the 30th anniversary of The Chronic with a re-release of his debut project, which was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2018 — an honor limited to “recording[s] of lasting qualitative or historical significance.”
Dr. Dre took home his first Emmy for his 2022 Super Bowl halftime performance with Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Lamar, and 50 Cent.
The 58-year-old forever changed music in 2006 when he co-founded Beats Electronics with Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine. Eight years later, Dre parlayed his headphones business into a streaming platform, Beats Audio, which Apple subsequently acquired for upwards of $3 billion, effectively making Dre hip-hop’s first billionaire. Some of the famous faces to be part of the Beats family include LeBron James and his son Bronny James, Travis Scott, and Michael Phelps.
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