Dr. Dre is acknowledging how social media may burden the artists of today.
Many new-age artists, especially in hip-hop, can thank the Internet for their success. Cardi B leveraged her popular social media personality to draw attention to her rapping talent. Artists like Lil Nas X, meanwhile, have viral TikTok challenges to thank for their sudden popularity.
“I think what’s happened is, ‘great’ was never behind fame as much as it is now,” Dre said in a recent interview. “Fame is what the currency is. Likes or whatever the stuff is… that’s why people put music out every day. That’s marketing.”
There’s a certain mystique that came along with music that was entertaining to wait to see what was about to happen.-Dr. Dre
“There’s a certain mystique that gets destroyed. I like the mystique. I like waiting. I don’t need anybody to know where I am every minute or what I’m doing. Or what I’m about to do,” he continued. “I probably would’ve hated social media when I was coming up.”
Dre credits the fast-moving nature of the social media age for impeding genuine anticipation.
