''Compton'' (sometimes referred as ''Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre'') is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American hip-hop producer and rapper

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

. It was released on August 7, 2015, on

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

and the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, with the physical editions released on August 21, 2015. It is the follow-up to his second album ''

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

'' (1999) after the cancellation of the long-planned ''Detox''. Production for the album took place with ''Detox'', but the album itself was devised when production of the

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered ...

biographical film ''

Straight Outta Compton ''Straight Outta Compton'' is the debut studio album by rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced b ...

'' gave Dre the idea for a soundtrack, with album specific production taking place in 2013–2015 at several recording studios and was handled by a variety of high-profile record producers, including Dr. Dre himself, Focus...,

Dem Jointz Dwayne Allen Abernathy Jr. (born July 17, 1976), better known by his stage name Dem Jointz, is an American record producer. He has produced tracks for numerous artists including Rihanna, Anderson .Paak, and NCT, among others. He also co-prod ...

, Trevor Lawrence, Jr.,

DJ Dahi Dacoury Dahi Natche (born March 10, 1983), professionally known as DJ Dahi, is an American DJ, songwriter, record producer and singer from Inglewood, California. Dahi is perhaps best known for producing " Money Trees" by American rapper Kendri ...

Cardiak Carl McCormick (born June 26, 1988), professionally known as Cardiak, is an American record producer from Willingboro Township, New Jersey. He began producing music in 2008 and is known for his work with closely associated artists such as Ace Hoo ...

and

Theron Feemster Theron Otis Feemster, commonly known as Theron Feemster, also known by the names Ron Feemster or Neff-U, is a Grammy Award winning American record producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. Life and career Theron "Neff-U" Feemster is a Gr ...

, among others. ''Compton'' features

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other p ...

s from Anderson .Paak,

Marsha Ambrosius Marsha Ambrosius-Billups (born 8 August 1977) is an English singer and songwriter from Liverpool, England. She embarked on her musical career as a member of Floetry. Ambrosius released her debut solo album '' Late Nights & Early Mornings'' in Ma ...

Craig Owens Craigery "Craig" Owens (born August 26, 1984) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist of Chiodos. He has also had an involvement in various projects such as Cinematic Sunrise, The Sound of Animals Fighting, Isles & Glaciers, ...

King Mez Mez formerly known as King Mez (born Morris W. Ricks II) is an American rapper, producer, writer and director. He is perhaps best known for his work with Dr. Dre and on the 2019 rap album ''Revenge of the Dreamers III''. He was born on a milita ...

, Justus,

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his Progressive rap, progressive musical styles and Social consciousness, socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most infl ...

Candice Pillay Candice Pillay (born June 10, 1981) is a South African singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. She is best known for writing songs for artists including Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Calvin Harris, Christina Aguilera, Dr. Dre, Eminem, ScHoolboy Q, ...

Jon Connor Jon Kevin Freeman Jr. (born April 13, 1985), better known by his stage name Jon Connor, is an American rapper and record producer. Connor has released various mixtapes and an album effort during his career including the Jay-Z inspired ''The Blu ...

, Sly Pyper,

, The Game,

Xzibit Alvin Nathaniel Joiner (born September 18, 1974), better known by his stage name Xzibit (pronounced "exhibit"), is an American rapper, actor, television presenter, and radio personality. Xzibit began his musical career after the release of his ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

, and others. The album debuted at number 2 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 295,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s in its first week. Upon its release, ''Compton'' received acclaim from music critics.

Background

Following 11 years of unsuccessful work on his infamous ''Detox'' album, Dre officially canceled the project on August 1, 2015, during an episode of his

Beats 1 Apple Music 1, previously branded as Beats 1, is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. It is accessible through iTunes or the Apple Music app on a computer, smartphone or tablet, smart speaker (such as the Apple HomePod), ...

radio show, ''The Pharmacy with Dr. Dre''. He stated that the album did not meet his standards and had decided to scrap the project as a result. During the same episode, Dre announced that he would be releasing a brand-new album, entitled ''Compton'', on August 7 on iTunes and Apple Music, with a physical release following on August 21. Earlier the same day in an interview with Power 99FM,

Ice Cube An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be produc ...

had preemptively announced the album. The album was inspired by the

biographical film ''

'' and features a number of collaborators from various points in his career, including

, and The Game, among others. "During principal photography of ''

'', I felt myself going to the studio and being so inspired by the movie that I started recording an album," Dre said on his radio show. "I kept it under wraps, and now the album is finished. It's bananas. It's an 'inspired by' album. It's inspired by ''Straight Outta Compton''. We're gonna call the album ''Compton: The Soundtrack''. I'm really proud of this." Dre also described the upcoming release as being his 'grand finale.' This claim has turned out to be false and Dr. Dre hinted at a release of his upcoming fourth album.

Release and reception

''Compton'' was released by

Aftermath Entertainment Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by hip hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Interscope Records. Current acts include Dr. Dre himself, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, An ...

and

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...

on August 7, 2015, to widespread critical acclaim. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 82, based on 36 reviews. Following two weeks of Apple exclusivity, the album was released for other streaming services as well as music stores on August 21. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' critic Jonah Weiner deemed the album "by turns confounding and enthralling" while writing that it "contains some of his most ambitious, idea-stuffed production ever" and that "Dre's rhyming (aided as always by co-writers) is impressive".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

from ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'' was somewhat less enthusiastic, naming "Genocide" and "Animals" as highlights while writing that the record benefitted significantly from Dre's absence from half the songs because of so many guest artists. At the end of the year, ''Compton'' was named the 32nd best album of 2015 by ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', while ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' ranked it 35th.

Commercial performance

Prior to its release, there was heavy anticipation on whether ''Compton'' or

Luke Bryan Thomas Luther "Luke" Bryan (born July 17, 1976) is an American country music, country singer, songwriter, and television personality. He began his music career writing songs for Travis Tritt and Billy Currington before signing with Capitol Reco ...

's '' Kill the Lights'' would debut at the top of the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart. Ultimately, ''Compton'' debuted at number 2 with 295,000

equivalent album units The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditio ...

; it sold 278,558 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

activity and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

sales. ''Compton'' is Dr. Dre's third solo album to debut at number one on the ''Billboard''s

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

. The album remained in the chart's top ten for the next several weeks, and, as of June 2016, the album has sold over 600,000 copies in the United States. ''Compton'' has been certified Gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA). ''Compton'' debuted at number one on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

after selling 45,721 copies (including 2,079 streaming sales), becoming Dr. Dre's first number-one album in the UK. It outsold its nearest competitor,

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981), is an English Punk rock, punk and Folk music, folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primar ...

's '' Positive Songs for Negative People'', by over 28,000 combined chart sales. Additionally, as the physical version of the album was not released until two weeks later, Dr. Dre became the first artist in history to top the UK Albums Chart with a non-physical release. ''Compton'' has been certified Gold by the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...

(BPI). In 2015, ''Compton'' was ranked as the 45th most popular album of the year on the ''Billboard'' 200.

Track listing

The album was mastered by Brian 'Big Bass' Gardner at Bernie Grundman Mastering, LA Notes *"Intro" features additional vocals by

and

. *"Talk About It" features additional vocals by Sly Jordan and

. *"Genocide" features additional vocals by

, Dem Jointz, Candice Pillay and Sly Jordan. *"It's All on Me" features additional vocals by Sly Jordan and King Mez. *"All in a Day's Work" features additional vocals by King Mez, Sly Jordan, Danny Tannenbaum and

Jimmy Iovine James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...

. *"Darkside" features additional vocals by Sly Jordan. *"Gone" features additional vocals by Sly Jordan. *"Loose Cannons" features additional vocals by King Mez, Marsha Ambrosius, Anderson .Paak and Joslynn Brown. *"Issues" features additional vocals by

, King Mez,

, Dem Jointz, Candice Pillay and Joslynn Brown. *"Deep Water" features additional vocals by Wyann Vaughn, King Mez, Cheynne L. Surratt, The Game and Joslynn Brown. *"One Shot One Kill" features additional vocals by

, Dem Jointz, Anderson .Paak,

and Candice Pillay. *"Just Another Day" features additional vocals by Wyann Vaughn. *"For the Love of Money" features additional vocals by Lia Mack. *"Animals" features additional vocals by

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop duo ...

and Eric "Blu2th" Griggs. *"Medicine Man" features additional vocals by Sly Jordan. *"Talking to My Diary" features additional vocals by Slim the Mobster, Anderson .Paak, Sly Jordan,

and Focus…. Sample credits *"Intro" contains narration from the television program, Compton Black City, provided by T3 Media and CBS News. *"Genocide" contains a sample of "

Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" is a song originally performed by The Gap Band in 1980 and written by member Charlie Wilson, Rudy Taylor, and producer Lonnie Simmons. Background The song's lyrics refer to abandonment by a lover. The ...

", written by Charlie Wilson,

Lonnie Simmons Lonnie Simmons (December 12, 1944 - February 6, 2019) was an American record producer from Los Angeles, California. He was founder and president of the now-defunct Total Experience Records. As a composer, he co-wrote several #1 R&B songs for his ...

and Rudy Taylor, performed by

The Gap Band The Gap Band was an American R&B and funk band that rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s. The band consisted of three brothers: Charlie, Ronnie, and Robert Wilson, along with other members; it was named after streets (Greenwood, Archer, an ...

. *"It's All on Me" contains a sample of "The Lord Will Make a Way" performed by the S.C.I. Youth Choir. *"Darkside" contains excerpts of Eazy E from Julio G's Westside Radio. *"Gone" contains a sample of " Spirits of Ancient Egypt", written by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

Linda McCartney Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, animal rights activist, vegetarian cookbook author and advocate, and entrepreneur. She was the keyboardist in th ...

Denny Laine Denny Laine (born Brian Frederick Hines, 29 October 1944) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, known as a founder of two major rock bands: the Moody Blues, with whom he played from 1964 to 1966, and Wings, with whom he played from 1 ...

Jimmy McCulloch James McCulloch (4 June 1953 – 27 September 1979) was a Scottish musician best known for playing lead guitar and bass, as a member of Paul McCartney's band Wings from 1974 to 1977. McCulloch was a member of the Glasgow psychedelic band One i ...

, Joe English and

Geoff Britton Geoffrey Britton (born 1 August 1943) is an English rock drummer known for his work with Wings from August 1974 to January 1975, where he was featured on the '' Venus and Mars'' album. Career Britton was born in Lewisham, South East London). H ...

, performed by

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expresse ...

. *"Loose Cannons" contains a sample of "Underground Session" arranged and performed by Janko Nilovic. *"Issues" contains a sample of "İnce İnce Bir Kar Yağar", originally written by Aşık Mahzuni Şerif and performed by

Selda Bağcan Selda Bağcan (; born December 14, 1948) is a Turkish folk singer-songwriter, guitarist, and music producer. Early life Selda Bağcan was born in 1948 in the western Turkish town of Muğla. Her father was a veterinarian medician of Macedonian ...

. *"One Shot One Kill" contains elements of "Ogni Riferimento A Fatti Accaduti E’ Puramente Casuale", written by Luca Cavina, Tommaso Colliva, Enrico Gabrielli, Massimo Martellotta, Fabio Rondanini, performed by Calibro 35 *"Just Another Day" contains a sample of "Fang Jai Viangjan", written and performed by Thepporn Petchubon. *"For the Love of Money" contains a sample of "

Foe tha Love of $ "Foe tha Love of $" is the second single by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, featuring Eazy-E, from their debut EP, ''Creepin on ah Come Up''. The song was produced by DJ Yella and executive produced by Eazy-E. "Foe tha Love of $" was a huge success for the ...

", written by Anthony Henderson, Bryon McCane, Charles Scruggs, Stanley Howse, Steven Howse and Eric Wright, performed by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony featuring

Eazy-E Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. He is often referred t ...

and elements of "Vendesi Saggezza E Cervello Di Seconda Mano" (Alberto Gaviglio-Michele Conta) arranged and performed by

La Locanda delle Fate Locanda delle Fate (The Fairy Inn) is an Italian progressive rock band from the end of the Italian progressive rock movement. The band formed in 1974 and in 1975 the vocalist Leonardo Sasso entered the group.Enzo Giannelli. "Locanda delle Fate". G ...

, taken from the album " Forse le lucciole non si amano più", 1977 Polydor

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2015 albums Albums produced by Best Kept Secret (production team) Albums produced by Bink (record producer) Albums produced by DJ Dahi Albums produced by DJ Khalil Albums produced by DJ Premier Albums produced by Dr. Dre Albums produced by Focus... Albums produced by Theron Feemster Dr. Dre albums Interscope Records albums Aftermath Entertainment albums West Coast hip hop albums