Compton

While Detox seemed poised to erode Dre's sonic reputation, Compton, reputedly his last record, instead solidifies Dre's already ironclad claims to all-time status. Not only does Compton make you forget about Detox, it also makes sure you won't ever forget about Dre.

Each of Compton’s 16 tracks feel like individual set pieces bound together perfectly.

It’s ambitious, it’s diverse, it’s exciting and when you hear you hear what made Dre a legend in the first place. No matter what the era, stream, CD or vinyl, Dr. Dre is just on another level.

Knowing that this is Dre's finale, there's a pleasant melancholy that frames Compton, and with the music in our ears, acknowledging that maybe that's for the best.

Compton’s 16 tracks ebb into each other cohesively.

Compton successfully crams the magnitude of his origin story into ambitious, densely packed sonics.

There are innovative and fresh beats and voices, and the record rarely falters.

It's a rap record for rap people. [Oct 2015, p.106]

In total Compton is nonetheless a flawed masterpiece, an album of broad shoulders that manages to carry hip-hop into the latter half of the 2010s.

Compton has replaced the abandoned Detox project with a surprisingly vivid soundtrack of frustration inspired by the forthcoming NWA biopic.

The album slips into a febrile combination of reminiscences, boasts and complaints that manages to keep an eye firmly on the present whilst gazing fondly back on former tribulations.

It may spend a lot of its time reflecting on the past. But as an argument for that now famous district in South Los Angeles and its continued importance and centrality to hip-hop, it’s forceful and convincing, and one that ensures those Hollywood-style ‘COMPTON’ letters will continue to loom large--not just over L.A., but over this genre as a whole.

Compton is easily his most introspective album.

Despite its numerous flaws, Compton is still one of the most engaging listening experiences of the year.

Compton crackles with life and spirit.

Like Lamar’s grandstanding To Pimp A Butterfly, the numerous strands of Compton: A Soundtrack take time and effort to fully unravel, but the rewards are manifold.

Compton exists now as a reminder to the current oversaturated pit of modern rap that legends aren't born overnight and there will never be another Dr. Dre. Hip-hop's first billionaire hasn't forgotten where he comes from so let's not forget what he's done to get here.

Regardless of whether or not the album will spawn a generation of imitators like his previous releases, Compton is a proper capstone to Dre’s legendary career.

Nowhere is Dre’s boldness and confidence more apparent than in Compton’s music.

He seems to have found a new and more sincere voice, less bullish than we have heard him before, whilst using a fantastic roster of contributors to push the mood and narrative.

Compton is his third-best album, but that's hardly an insult. His skills have always been about immediacy, the grandiose, a sixth sense for the universal. On Compton, that's still intact.

Musically, it’s ornate and grand-scaled, and somehow also deft.

Dre might have sounded fat and smug at this point. The good news is that, instead, he sounds hungry.

It adds up to an album by turns confounding and enthralling. It's no Detox. It's something realer, and better.

Compton is an exceptional, big-budget rap album up-and-down.... Although fat definitely needed to be trimmed from this animal, it’s humbling to know Dre hasn’t let his ego get the best of him musically.

After three decades in the music business, it's inspiring to see him deliver an excellent album: overseeing it, driving his guests/writers/producers onto greater things and delivering it in an interesting way is no mean feat. His voice has matured.

Compton is a solid reminder of both Dre's skills and the depth of his contacts book. [Nov 2015, p.75]

Despite its vocal flaws, if anything, there is a great amount of care in Compton.

The beats sound like what you should expect from Dr. Dre operating in 2015.

Compton doesn’t need to exist, but it does, and that it’s actually pretty good and fresh in a year brimming with vibrant, relevant young voices, says something.

Eminem’s cameo on ‘Medicine Man’ is technically superb, but the content somehow comes over both hateful and boring.... But it's hard to deny Compton is brilliantly constructed, a masterclass in 21st century hip-hop.