Dr. Dre painted as resolute perfectionist, compared to Steve Jobs in WSJ profile

Posted:
in General Discussion edited June 2014
The Wall Street Journal on Friday published an in-depth look at Beats cofounder Dr. Dre, who will be joining Apple after his company was purchased for $3 billion. He is described as a perfectionist, workaholic and someone who relies on their gut -- like late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.


Dr. Dre and LeBron James wearing Beats.


To piece together a bio of Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, the WSJ spoke with colleagues and acquaintances of the rap superstar who will soon take a seat as a senior executive at Apple. The company was purchased for $3 billion in late May and Apple expects the deal to be finalized by the end of its fiscal fourth quarter.

According to the publication, Dre operates mostly behind the scenes, offering assessments of products or ideas at Beats that come with little or no explanation. His comments are usually terse -- dismissing an idea with "I'm not feeling that" -- and his word is usually followed as Dre serves as the company's "cultural barometer."

Dre's main job is to tweak the audio of Beats Electronics' headphones, but the rapper-turned-tech executive has his hands in everything from future products, ads and even font styles. With a finger on the pulse of pop culture, Dre is able to offer unique insight on current trends across a variety of industries.

Jimmy Iovine, the music mogul who worked with Dre for years in the music industry and cofounded Beats, noted the rap guru is very aware of what is cool.

"Once you try to describe cool you run the risk of going perpetually to non-cool hell. The whole premise is not to talk about it," Iovine said.

Although Iovine is said to have done most of the wheeling and dealing for the Apple deal, it was Dre who showed up in a cameo appearance during this year's WWDC keynote. In a demo of OS X 10.10.Yosemite's new "continuity" features, SVP Craig Federighi made a live call to Dre, routing the audio from his iPhone through an onstage iMac.


Source: Beats Music


Some industry watchers believe Dre and Iovine were the main targets of the Beats acquisition. With Iovine's storied background in the music business and Dre's "cool factor," the pair could rejuvenate Apple's iTunes, which is seeing increased pressure from streaming radio services like Pandora and Spotify.

It's not clear what roles "Jimmy and Dre" will fill at Apple, though CEO Tim Cook said the Beats buy gives the company a head start in the subscription-based music streaming business.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 78
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member
    Visually they look thick as pig shit
  • Reply 2 of 78
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    When you scratch beneath the surface, that's when you find the true measure of a man.

    Andre Young seems to be a very savvy business man.

    Stay hungry Dr Dre, never stop striving.

    Think

    different!
  • Reply 3 of 78
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member

    Good gracious- a Red Sox jersey with a matching Beats headphones?????? You've got to be kidding if you think that is cool style. So street- so absolutely laughable.

    The whole thing is a nightmare in the worst way.

  • Reply 4 of 78
    elrothelroth Posts: 1,201member

    We really know nothing about Dre's talents or what he'll be doing at Apple, and this kind of "profile" doesn't tell us much. It could be totally different than what anyone has written.

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Dre's main job is to tweak the audio of Beats Electronics' headphones

    That statement, however, is depressing, and doesn't inspire confidence that Apple will produce anthing with high-quality sound.

  • Reply 5 of 78
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Wow talk about click bait. I thought the WSJ was a more serious paper than this. Sigh.
  • Reply 6 of 78
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by elroth View Post

     

    That statement, however, is depressing, and doesn't inspire confidence that Apple will produce anthing with high-quality sound.


    He's not at Beats now Dr Ropata (Sorry, only New Zealanders will understand that last part ;) ).

     

    We still have NO clue as to what his role at Apple is so it's far to early to work out what he can bring to the table but if it's finding the pulse then it seems he's going to fill his role real well.

  • Reply 7 of 78
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    No offense to Dre, there's only one Steve Jobs.
  • Reply 8 of 78
    atlappleatlapple Posts: 496member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by elroth View Post

     

    That statement, however, is depressing, and doesn't inspire confidence that Apple will produce anthing with high-quality sound.


    Dr. Dre has done more behind he scenes. He has helped nearly every rap or hip-hop artist whenever they had problems recovering a career or getting one started. Eminem has a net worth of 160 million and is one of the bet rap song writers around, one of the few that still writes all his lyrics. 50 Cent started out in Rap and then got in on ground level with Vitamin Water made more money off that then he ever did selling records. 

     

    Snoop Dog, Ice Cube, Dre was the founder of NWA. Beats hit the target perfectly, people that don't care about sound perfection they want heavy bass to overcome the rest of the music. Not sure what plans Apple has for him but he certainly has a creative mind.

  • Reply 9 of 78
    vaporlandvaporland Posts: 358member
    hill60 wrote: »
    When you scratch beneath the surface, that's when you find the true measure of a man.

    Andre Young seems to be a very savvy business man.

    Stay hungry Dr Dre, never stop striving.

    Think

    different!

    think-different-just-like-everyone-else-1.jpg
  • Reply 10 of 78
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    pazuzu wrote: »
    Good gracious- a Red Sox jersey with a matching Beats headphones?????? You've got to be kidding if you think that is cool style. So street- so absolutely laughable.
    The whole thing is a nightmare in the worst way.

    Your posts are a fucking nightmare. Your negative obsession with Dre is pathetic. Have a tad of humility for Gods sakes.
  • Reply 11 of 78
    dsddsd Posts: 186member

    I'd love to see a game at Fenway.

  • Reply 12 of 78
    rgh71rgh71 Posts: 125member
    Dr dee is too old to know this gen's cool
  • Reply 13 of 78
    agramonteagramonte Posts: 345member

    Wow, this is just a disaster! 

  • Reply 14 of 78
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    rgh71 wrote: »
    Dr dee is too old to know this gen's cool

    You mean the way Steve Jobs was older than Dr. Dre is now back in 1997 and yet under him the iPod, modern Macs, iPhone and iPad, and a plethora of services, like iTunes Music Store were born?

    You mean so uncool that Beats By Dre was able to dominate the headphone market's revenue and profits. If you add the claims that they are the worst sounding, work looking, and worst quality headphones yet sold at an inflated price how the hell are the selling? Sounds like definition of cool to me.
  • Reply 15 of 78
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post

     

    Good gracious- a Red Sox jersey with a matching Beats headphones?????? You've got to be kidding if you think that is cool style. So street- so absolutely laughable.

    The whole thing is a nightmare in the worst way.


     

    Yeah, imagine hiring on a guy who made a fortune from his music and not content with that, went on to co-found a very lucrative business.

     

    You gotta think outside the box a little.

     

    Just think, Dre is more successful than you'll ever be, even if you multiplied your wildest dreams by a factor of a hundred.

  • Reply 16 of 78
    I bought iPhone 1, 2, 3... iPad 1, 2, 3...
    After this beats acquisitions... samsung, here i come!!!
    Apple F U!
  • Reply 17 of 78

    Bought iPhone 1, 2, 3...  iPad 1, 2, 3....

    After this latest Beats acquisitions...

    Hello samsung...

  • Reply 18 of 78
    jakebjakeb Posts: 562member
    solipsismx wrote: »
    You mean the way Steve Jobs was older than Dr. Dre is now back in 1997 and yet under him the iPod, modern Macs, iPhone and iPad, and a plethora of services, like iTunes Music Store were born?

    You mean so uncool that Beats By Dre was able to dominate the headphone market's revenue and profits. If you add the claims that they are the worst sounding, work looking, and worst quality headphones yet sold at an inflated price how the hell are the selling? Sounds like definition of cool to me.

    Exactly. Even if all the worst criticism is true, that Beats are overpriced, have terrible sound, and silly style, then even then you have to admit they pulled off a marketing miracle. At the very least, they're great a business.

    FWIW, my freind has a Beats bluetooth speaker and it is truly amazing the sound that comes out of that thing. It's so small yet it sounds beautiful.
  • Reply 19 of 78
    misamisa Posts: 827member
    jakeb wrote: »
    Exactly. Even if all the worst criticism is true, that Beats are overpriced, have terrible sound, and silly style, then even then you have to admit they pulled off a marketing miracle. At the very least, they're great a business.

    FWIW, my freind has a Beats bluetooth speaker and it is truly amazing the sound that comes out of that thing. It's so small yet it sounds beautiful.

    When I was at a Apple hiring thing a few years back, the Dr.Dre stuff was in their marketing. Apple wouldn't be selling it if it wasn't good for some reason. Personally I'm just mad that specifications aren't being put on headphone packaging/online anymore. Your average piece-o-crap headphones have 20-18,000hz range the better ones have 8-24,000, but I've only been able to find specs on the stuff put out by the Japanese companies (Sony, JVC, Panasonic) and none of the cheap low-end store-brands, nor any of the high-ends (including this beats by dr.dre stuff.)

    If we assume that there is some reason to spend 100$ instead of 6$ on earbuds, or 300$ instead of 30$ for headphones, I sincerely want to see specs showing there's a reason to spend this money. Let's be serious here. We know Apple is a premium luxury brand, and you do pay more for the better designed durable pretty hardware. I can genuinely justify spending more for a Mac laptop, but not for a Mac desktop, because I tend to replace parts incrementally with a desktop, and you just can't do that with any Mac.
  • Reply 20 of 78
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member

    Let's see where Beats (music and headphones) goes and then we can make a value judgement for this acquisition. Wait to years and try again.

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