DR DRE spoke about his reasons for turning down the offer to work with MICHAEL JACKSON on his forthcoming album after he collected his gong for Favourite Rap/Hip Hop artist at the AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS on Monday (January 8).
And he also said that he still firmly believes Napster will be “the end of new music,” despite losing fans over his anti file-sharing stance.
He told US music news site [url=]www.allstar.com that he wanted to focus his energies on developing new talent, such as Truth Hurts, the female R&B artist who he has been championing, and is set to release an album this year, or old collaborators.
He said of Jackson: “Somebody approached me about working with him and I did say no, because I like working with new artists. I can develop them from the ground up. There’s no set standard that I have to live up to or anything like that. All I have to do is go in the studio and they’re basically going to bust their ass to come in their and do their thing the way it’s supposed to be done. So that’s why I only like working with new artists or people that I’ve worked with in the past.”
He also acknowledged that he had lost fans after demanding his tracks be taken off Napster, saying: “I just think Napster is a high-tech way of bootlegging. I go into the studio and I work hard on my music and they’re allowing people to get it for nothing. I mean, this is my job.
“In my opinion, it’ll be the end of new music because nobody will be going into the studio if people can’t get it for free. I would still do music because I love doing it but it wouldn’t be my top priority.”
Dre applauded Eminem for finding himself at the eye of the storm of controversy whipped up by his Grammy nomination, with gay rights and womens’ groups protesting at the content of his ‘Marshall Mathers LP’.
He exclaimed: “I love it. I love all the controversy. What we’re doing is working, we’re pushing buttons… wait till the next record.”