March 27, 2006 @ 10:00 am

Dre

Casey Woods

Fresh off a friendly sit-down with Jay-Z in the wraparound penthouse upstairs, Dre—aka Andre Christopher Lyon—squints as he strides through the luminous courtyard of the Setai, arguably Miami’s most extravagant hotel. But it’s not the sun glittering in his eyes—it’s opportunity. “We gonna make some music together,” he says of Jay-Z, one of the many industry giants eager to work with the Cool & Dre production team that’s already responsible for tracks such as the Game’s “Hate It or Love It” and Ja Rule’s “New York.” “It’s inspiring enough to see what these people do,” says Dre, “but it’s another thing when you’re interacting with them, and they respect what you do as well.” It’s clear that Dre, 28, already has respect as a producer, but as a solo artist, he’s only beginning to earn his stripes. Expectations come with his background, a truth Dre carries in his heart as he polishes tracks on his forthcoming debut, The Trunk. “I can’t come in and be wack, because everybody is going to talk about it,” he says, leaning his lanky 6’7” frame over the hotel’s mother-of-pearl lobby bar. From the pulsing swagger of “Naomi,” an ode to a wicked feminine strut, to the hip hop slow-jam hybrid “Rock Bottom,” the album is an irreverent mix from a man who waxes poetic about ’80s music and is unafraid to admit he’s not a thug. Dre got his start alongside partner Cool, aka Marcello Valenzano, in the North Miami Senior High School chorus ensemble, wearing a tuxedo that was two sizes too small and doing choreographed dance moves to Christmas carol medleys. They later had hip hop shows on pirate radio, started an R&B group, and made a living by selling beats to independent labels across the South. “We’d hook the laptop up to the car and burn CDs in there,” Cool says. “That was our studio.” They’d open the trunk and blast new beats so loud prospective buyers could hear them out of the back of the car—hence the name of the album. “I was raised in Miami, and people do a lot of work out the trunk, legal and illegal,” Dre says. “So now as an artist, I’m putting my album in the trunk and taking it to everyone.” Spoken like a true hustler.

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Article tags: Dre Of Cool And Dre, Dre Solo Album, Dre Miami, DJ Khaled Cosigns On Dre 

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