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Andr� Romelle "Dr. Dre" Young (born February 18, 1965) is an American record producer, rapper, and record executive. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records, also having produced albums for and overseeing the careers of many rappers signed to those record labels. As a producer he is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, a style of rap music characterized as synthesizer-based with slow, heavy beats.
Dr. Dre began his career in music as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru and he later found fame with the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A, which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. His 1992 solo debut The Chronic, released under Death Row Records, led him to become one of the best-selling American performing artists of 1993 and to win a Grammy Award for the single "Let Me Ride". In 1996 he left Death Row to found his own label Aftermath Entertainment, producing a compilation album, Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath, in 1997 and releasing a solo album titled 2001 in 1999, for which he won the Grammy producer's award the next year.
During the 2000s he focused his career on production for other artists, while occasionally contributing vocals in other artists' songs. Rolling Stone named him among the highest-paid performers of 2001 and 2004. Dr. Dre also had acting roles in the 2001 films The Wash and Training Day. His final solo studio album Detox is set to be released in 2008 following much delay and speculation.
From 1990 to 1996 Dr. Dre dated singer Michel'le, who frequently contributed vocals to Death Row Records albums. In 1991 the couple had a son, Marcel. In May 1996 Dr. Dre married Nicole Threatt, who was formerly married to NBA player Sedale Threatt. Dr. Dre and Nicole have two children together: a son named Truth (born 1997) and a daughter named Truly (born 2001). He is also the biological father of rapper Hood Surgeon (real name Curtis Young), with mother Cassandra Joy Greene, then 16, when Dre was 17.
Dr. Dre's son Andre Young, Jr., 20, was found dead at 10:24 am on August 23, 2008. According to reports, Andre Jr. returned home early in the morning on Saturday and was later found unresponsive by his mother.
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