Day Twelve

Look, I get that Dr. Dre's time in the sun has passed by. "The Chronic" might be the most important hip hop album of all time, it was certainly the biggest rap album of my generation. But it HAS been almost 20 years since it came out. I get that. Deep in my heart I am at peace with the fact that, despite easily being one of the top 5 most influential hip hop producers ever, Dr. Dre has gotten old and will never again do anything as important as "The Chronic" or discovering Eminem. I know these things and I am ultimately comfortable with them. I know these things in the same way that I know that John Cleese will never again do anything as brilliant as Monty Python and Fawlty Towers. Artists have a window in which they will perform at their highest level. After that point you do not know what they will do, but the higher they were at the peak, the bigger the fall will seem. And I think the majority of us are comfortable with letting Dr. Dre ride off into the sunset (in a lowered El Dorado of course). But what I cannot abide by is Dr. Dre doing commercials for Dr. Pepper. 

What's going on, Dre? What happened? I would think that the man responsible for "Let Me Ride" would not be as amused that his name is "Dr" and the product's name is "Dr." I know that an ad executive would think it was brilliant, but you Dr. Dre should think that the similarities are  "whack." In the pitch meeting did they hit the "Dr" angle really hard? Or did they give you the "your fans have grown up now" pitch? What sealed the deal? Did they tell you they'd have a DJ in the ad so you'd keep your cred? Or did you spend all your money? Why didn't you say "Dr. Pepper is really good on Deez Nuts" in the ad? Is Snoop going to start doing ads for the Peanuts Christmas special? Please tell me it ends here. I think the right thing for you to do would be to announce that you've made a horrible mistake to stop the bleeding. Please, Dr. Dre go out into the world and discover another crazy rapper. I expect more from you.

Love,

Joe

I'm getting lazy.