Dr. Dre

Andre learned of former Locking dancer, and promoter Alonzo ‘Grandmaster Lonzo’ Williams who had started a mobile DJ crew called Disco Construction, was playing shows at new nightclub, Eve's After Dark on Avalon and El Segundo in Compton run by Lonzo. Dre visited the joint and soon became a regular. He witnessed the DJs working the stage behind brand new turntable equipment, studying their moves. Lonzo had his performers dressed in uniformed lavender outfits, heels and slacks stepping in choreographed dances. Lonzo had his entertainers sport jackets with 'Wreckin Cru' on the back. Dre wanted in. He wanted to be in the Wreckin Cru. Dre was inspired to perform his DJing routines around town from a van, playing p-funk from George Clinton's Parliament. In January 1983, his girlfriend Lisa gave birth to his second child, a daughter named La Tanya Danielle Young. This time he was present at the hospital after the girl was born, despite Lisa's mother's bitter dislike for him. Now a proud father, Andre furthered his quest to join Lonzo's crew. He frequented Eve's when he finally found his moment, that initial fifteen minutes. His distant relative, Tim knew Lonzo and saw to it thatr Andre get a spot filling in a DJ spot. He challenged one of Lonzo's top spinners DJ Yella, (Antoine Carraby). Dre went after Yella, and opened with Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" then the Marvelette's Motown hit, "Please Mr. Postman" on the second turntable, where he mixed both records and had their countering tempos meet halfway. The crowd cheered, showing their appreciation for this brave engineering. Lonzo gave him a nod and another chance to perform at Eve's with his Cru. That evening Dre remodelled himself into Dr. Dre the Master of Mixology after NBA star, Julius 'Dr. J' Erving. Lonzo soon offered Dre a $50 DJ spot per night. He got that jacket, the newest member of the Wreckin Cru. Dr. Dre as we know him was born that night.

Wreckin' Cru

Queens, New York super rap group, Run DMC changed the way Dre saw hip-hop. Their style, their noise and swagger completely flipped Dre 180 degrees their direction. Their single, "Sucker MC's" floored him, he bought a copy and repeatedly played the music trying to isolate every instrument and memorising every note. He learned his way around a drum machine from Eve's and recorded his makings. He would sit and listen to it, get up repeat it, changing one aspect at a time, experimenting new sounds and developing new techniques of a seemingly endless art form. Soon Dre was making final cuts to tape and marketing them to clubs, friends and local promoters. A Dre tape sound found its way to the front doorstep of local radio station, KDAY's newest musical director, Greg Mack. The station found an answer to competing with the larger scale station, KFGF. Dr. Dre and Yella were poached to work on the radio station making mixtapes for the five o'clock rush hour program, The Traffic Jam. The pair came back with fifteen-minute pieces and by September, 1983 their routines were aired on KDAY and one day the small Echo Park station's ratings increased to an incredible 22 percent in audience share becoming number one at that time slot. After seeing Run DMC perform at Eve's one night in late '83, Jam Master Jay gave Dre some advice on becoming a more commanding rapper on stage. Both Dre and Yella felt they had the confidence to become performers and record their work. Lonzo had pressured them into a studio to record more accomplished tracks.

By 1984 Dre, Yella and Lonzo joined the rest of the Wreckin Cru at Torrance studio, Audio Achievements run by engineer, Donovan Smith. Against Dre and Yella's new style, Lonzo put $100 down to record two "Planet Rock" like cuts, "Slice" and "Cru Groove" with dance beats and simple scratches. Dre and Yella filled a tape full of drum beats and scratches for the record. Lonzo in turn would take the tapes to Santa Monica pressing plant, Macola to press a few hundred vinyl. Macola, for a few hundred dollars would let you press your music under your own record label, in Lonzo's case, Kru-Cut Records and keep control of the publishing rights. Soon the Cru were selling twelve-inch, double-sided singles out of the trunk of Lonzo's Mazda RX-7. They eventually sold over five thousand copies. This encouraged Dre to further invest all his time in a career as a performer. Be it as a DJ or rapper, this was the direction to take. By February 1984 Dre was nineteen years old and too old to stay at Fremont high where he was failing at, his mother urged him to continue schooling to finish his senior years. He enrolled in Chester Adult School in Compton. He even signed up at a radio broadcasting school, only to find out he already knew the ropes they were teaching him to climb. He moved out of home and in with his grandparents' then his biological father, Theodore's place until he was arrested ona drug charge. He moved back in with his mother and siblings. Andre stayed there for the following two years, completed his education at Chester and still a Cru member at Eve's making over forty-nine cuts with DJ Yella. After small record shop owner, Steve Yano took Dre's tape to the swap meet where crowds chanted for Dre to perform live, pushing his tapes for sale, he became the hottest DJ in town, and the Wreckin Cru's most talented performer. Dre was now performing behind the wheels of steel in a long white lab coat with a stethoscope for a necklace. Newest Cru emcee, Cli-N-Tel wrote raps about Dr. Dre performing surgery behind the decks. Soon the single, "Surgery" would be the promotional track for Dr. Dre's DJing. Cli-N-Tel would rap,

"L.A. is the place to be for you to witness Dr. Dre in surgery
Seven days a week, he's on call/to get the party people up off the wall"

During the break section of the song Dre would do a scratch solo giving a weakened-produced song a more hardcore edge to it. Lonzo would still insist on the songs following the "Planet Rock" played-out format, similar format to rival group, Uncle Jam's Army by Roger Clayton. Then following the break unnaturally Dre would break out in a lyrical outlet with,

"I'm Dr. Dre, gorgeous hunk of a man/doing tricks on the mix like no others can.
The nurses say I'm cute, they say i'm fine/but you betta beware cuz' i'll blow your mind.
I'll take you to my car I'll take you to my home/hands up and down your body my finger will roam.
The nurses say that I'm nasty they say that I'm mean/but when you come to my pad you're guaranteed to scream."