If Dr. Dre doesn’t drop his long-awaited new album ‘Detox’ before November 16 this year, it’ll officially overtake Guns ‘N Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’ as the most notoriously tardy release of all time. It’s been almost fifteen whole years since the former NWA rapper’s last record, the game-changing ‘2001’, released to seismic fanfare in November 1999. While the hip-hop world has hardly forgot about Dre in the ensuing lull – how could it? – the Compton man has since helped turn Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar into rap big-leaguers, not to mention cornering the headphone market with his Beats By Dre designs – you’d forgive fans for wondering if he’s now procrastinating slightly.
To put the lengthy wait in perspective, and maybe even convince Dre to get his skates on and finish the thing, here’s an illustrated guide to mankind’s achievements while waiting on ‘Detox’:
Survived a number of epidemics including SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu and, err, the Millenium Bug.
Fought a war on terror.
Sent a robot all the way across the solar system to explore the surface of Mars, the aptly-named Mars Explorer drone.
Found the Higgs Boson Particle. Dr. Peter Higgs (above), the man responsible for much of the scientific theory behind the breakthrough, looks more likely to drop a rap album than Dre as it stands.
Invented mp3 players. When ‘2001’ came out, ‘iPod’ would have sounded to most people like something out of a science fiction movie.
Watched Google take over the world. The company had only just launched when ‘2001’ came out, operating out of a tiny Californian office back in 1999, tussling for search engine supremacy with Ask Jeeves and Yahoo.
Elected a black US president. When ‘2001’ came out, Barack Obama was living a life of relative anonymity.
Invented smartphones. Back in 1999, a ‘smartphone’ was considered any mobile carrying Snake 2.
Staged three Olympic Games including London 2012.
Invented Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and the concept of social media.
And just to really hammer our point home:
Tupac Shakur has released five more albums than Dre in the time since ‘2001’ was released. Despite being dead.
So might ‘Detox’ actually see the light of day in 2014? Possibly – a new advert for his Beats By Dre range in late 2012 revealed a new snippet of music rumoured to be from the elusive release. With a legacy as unblemished as his, maybe it’s better that Dre doesn’t release his next episode until its perfected (better that than it be a chronic disappointment). We’ll have to wait and see…