Intro

Album: Compton (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • The opening track of Compton, this features a documentary-styled narrator explaining how the Californian city of Compton was once the American dream. However, it turned into a nightmare for the inhabitants who had to live in a city plagued by crime and gang wars.
  • Compton is the companion soundtrack to the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton. Speaking during a live YouTube chat about the movie, Dre explained that the record's creation was an off-the-cuff decision. "You know what, I was on the set [of Straight Outta Compton], I was leaving the set every day and I just felt so inspired," he said. "I decided one night on the way home I was going to roll up my sleeves and start working on this album."

    "I got to maybe a third song and I said, 'You know what? This is starting to sound great," Dre continued. "I should go on and complete this.' And it snowballed from there. And it came out exactly the way I wanted."
  • Dre donated his artist royalties from Compton to the construction of a community center for kids in his hometown. "I reached out to the Compton mayor's office, got in touch with the mayor, Aja Brown, and I've decided to donate all of my artist royalties from the sale of this album to help fund a new performing arts and entertainment facility for the kids in Compton," he told Zane Lowe during the DJ's radio show on Apple Music's Beats 1.

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