Dr. Dre says he's got two more projects left in him before he disappears. The hip-hop mogul, whose career has spanned more than 40 years, revealed on a new podcast that once those final releases are done, he's stepping away from music entirely for a year or two, calling it a true break after four decades of nonstop work.
“I'm going to go away, and I'm going to get off the grid for a year or two,” Dre said, according to Complex. The comments came during the debut episode of Ice Cube and Mike Epps' new podcast, Listen & Laugh, where Dre opened up about what's left on his plate and what comes after it. He said one of the two unfinished projects is “one with an artist named Marqus Clae from Houston,” though he did not share further details about either release or when fans might hear them, Cleveland.com reports.
A Break 41 Years in the Making
Per the same account, Dre has been making music for a staggering 41 years, and the planned hiatus would mark the first significant break of that entire run. He said he wants to free up the mental space music has occupied for so long and devote it to another passion, reportedly wondering aloud whether a new pursuit could ever match the feeling he had when he first discovered music.
Dre's last solo studio album, Compton, dropped in 2015, according to Rolling Stone. The outlet also reported that Dre estimates audiences have heard only around 20% of the music he's recorded since 1985 — a staggering backlog for a producer who has described sitting on an incredible vault of music and ideas still unheard by the public.
Decades of Hits Still in the Vault
That vault has only grown over time. The same Complex report notes Dre recorded 247 songs during the COVID-19 pandemic alone, adding to a stockpile that already dwarfs what's been officially released.
Dre rose to prominence as a member of N.W.A. before launching a solo career with The Chronic, and he went on to produce career-defining work for Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar. He's earned seven Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of N.W.A. in 2016. He also took home the Best Rap Video award at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, held at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
On the podcast, Dre also weighed in on artificial intelligence's growing role in music, and he named Larry Smith as the greatest hip-hop producer of all time, according to the Cleveland.com report. For now, fans are left waiting on two more releases — one confirmed to feature Marqus Clae — before the producer makes good on his promise to disappear from the grid.
