The Defiant Ones

[formerlyfreedom]

Airing on HBO July 9-12, 2017.

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A four-part documentary series that tells the stories of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre -- one the son of a Brooklyn longshoreman, the other straight out of Compton -- their improbable partnership and surprising leading roles in a series of transformative events in contemporary culture.

[mstar1125]

Anyone else watching? I've always been a big fan of Dr. Dre's music and already knew a little about his relationship with Jimmy Iovine. What I didn't realize was how many influential artists Jimmy worked with long before Dr. Dre - John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith. There wasn't much new about Dr. Dre's early life in the first episode (that wasn't already covered in Straight Outta Compton), but I'm interested to see where the story goes next, particularly post-NWA. 

[ganesh]

I'm watching. I'm actually more of a fan of Ice Cube than Dre et al., because I think his writing is what really was the real transformational factor in hip hop, but I like learning about how records are produced and the small steps that each of the guys took to get more and more successful. Not enough D.O.C.!

I'm dying whenever the World Class Wrecking Cru guy is on. He's hilarious. 

I never knew Eazy E was behind JJ Fad, but it made perfect sense to get a radio friendly pop act on the label for pr. 

Edited July 11, 2017 by ganesh

[Lambie]

I really enjoyed this series. I liked the juxtaposition of the classic rock production with the rise of hip-hop. I guess I knew Jimmy Iovine was responsible for a lot of successful artists but I had no idea how many. I didn't realize what a big role he played in the Death Row/Suge Knight/Tupac saga but it makes sense that he and Dre bonded through that. 

It really encapsulated so much of what music meant over the last few decades. Well done.

[TiffanyNichelle]

I caught up on episodes 2 & 3 last night and now I wish I'd saved all four episodes to binge on the weekend because this is so good I don't want it to end. I also wish I'd gotten into music production because it does sounds kind of cool.

I didn't realize how much of the music I listened to from the late 90s was Interscope artists (or Bad Boy, sorry not sorry Suge) and now I'm about to hit up Spotify and Pandora to make some playlists.

[ganesh]

RICO SUAVE!

We did the song in spanish class for our teacher because we had been cracking up about when the video came out. 

[Caseysgirl]

It really bothers me that though Dre rather reluctantly apologized for some of his previous physical abuse of women, particularly Dee Barnes and Michel'le, he has never actually made amends to either of them as far as we know. He is a billionaire and neither of these women even have a career any more.  I feel particularly for Dee who said after the lawsuit her opportunities dried up.

[Kairay]

I've always wanted to know more about Dr.Dre. I think he is super talented and very subtle about it. Not showy or boasting like Kanye or using all the auto tune and extra stuff people use today.

  I think he feels bad about how he treated those women. I think his wife now actually commented about how he was before he met her. But I agree that he could at least give a heartfelt apology to those women. Especially as women like myself appreciate his talent. Maybe it was the way of rappers. Women are always b's and video ho's. But after watching his mother, she sure didn't raise him to be disrespectful. 

And after finding about JJ Fad. I want to know more about the women of rap. 

Edited July 17, 2017 by Kairay

[ganesh]

JJ Fad was HUGE!

I do think Dre was genuinely remorseful, but yeah I can see asking if that's enough. 

He might have apologized to them and just preferred to keep it private. With all that money though, you'd think he'd give back. 

[7isBlue]

This documentary is so well done! I couldn't believe all the fantastic moments caught on home video.Dre's first DJ gig! Wow! It's also very well-edited and the cuts back and forth between the life stories of these two musical geniuses really adds to both stories. Jimmy Iovine gave a great interview to Howard Stern a couple of weeks ago. It's worth it to track it down on YouTube, if you don't have the SiriusXM app. 

[biakbiak]

I wish they had shown the letter of when Dre tried to buy Burning Man when scouting for the California Love video!

[Kairay]

I just need to say Suge Knight got his karma. You can only be evil for so long. I'm glad that he wasn't able to screw over Tupac in death. I just wish these rappers that act like they are part of gangs and all that shit had of stood up to Suge sooner. What was the fear?? He ran over a nobody and is rotting in jail now. 

All these big music execs were AFRAID of him. 

[Sheenieb]

On 7/30/2017 at 1:27 AM, Kairay said:

I just wish these rappers that act like they are part of gangs and all that shit had of stood up to Suge sooner. What was the fear?? He ran over a nobody and is rotting in jail now. 

All these big music execs were AFRAID of him. 

 Most, if not all of those rappers were poseurs. They were pretending they were hard. Whereas, Suge was really about that life. Easy-E using a paint gun to shoot at drivers on the road (which, WTF) and Tupac was a theater kid who ran with ain't shit thugs and paid dearly for it. I keep thinking about the interview some exec gave when he said he asked Suge why he would still do shady, illegal shit when Jimmy was legitimizing him and Suge said, "it's what I know." 

[revbfc]

All of the documentaries that cover the 90's-00's always show the file sharing blind spot.  I can appreciate that they didn't see it coming, but why can't the music industry people ever understand (or articulate) how their overcharging consumers exacerbated the problem?  The documentary explicitly stated that CD's were a cheaper product, but album prices only increased in the 90's.  They made bank off of milking the consumer and were surprised by a backlash?  The industry deserved a steep correction.

[AgentRXS]

Its crazy how much Jimmy Iovine shaped the music of my childhood---the stuff I grew up listening to with my parents in the '80s, and then the stuff I liked in '90s. I knew of his Interscope connection but had no idea about the '80s rock stuff.

Suge Knight is the biggest piece of shit in rap history. I, too, thought Suge provided the money to bail Tupac out of jail. To learn all these years that all he did was bring someone else's money to the jail house, and then to take credit for it and get Tupac wrapped up in his gang-related bullshit--unbelievable.

LOL at Puff talking hard now--he knows he was shook as all hell back in the day when we all thought it was a very real possibility that both he and Big would be taken out. I've never been able to shake the feeling that Puff is more involved in Biggie's death (and even Tupac's recording studio shooting that set the beef in motion) then he lets on, but that theory is for another program. Its sad that both creative and talented young men (2Pac and Big) died so young over nonsense that really had nothing to do with them.

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 The documentary explicitly stated that CD's were a cheaper product, but album prices only increased in the 90's.  They made bank off of milking the consumer and were surprised by a backlash?  The industry deserved a steep correction.

This.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 7/28/2017 at 10:28 PM, biakbiak said:

I wish they had shown the letter of when Dre tried to buy Burning Man when scouting for the California Love video!

Every August when people are preparing for the Playa, I think of that letter and chuckle to myself. "I wish I was deep up in that ass."