After getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier in the day, Dr. Dre, 59, visited Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night (March 19) to talk legacy and drop a little news about his upcoming projects. The legendary producer was joined on the couch by longtime proteges Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, and while the fourth leg of his gold-plated hip-hop table, Eminem, may not have been in the studio, he still managed to grab the headlines.
“Let me tell you something, let me explain something to you right now: Eminem is working on his own album which is coming out this year,” Dre said to cheers from the studio audience during his first late night appearance in 30 years. “And I actually talked to him and he said it okay for me to make that announcement right here on this show. So he has an album coming out, I’ve got songs on it and it’s fire. I’m actually gonna hear the entire album for the first time for tomorrow.”
Slim Shady’s as-yet-untitled 12th studio album will be the follow up to 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By, which surprise dropped in January of that year and featured guest spots from Ed Sheeran, Juice WRLD, Q-Tip, Anderson .Paak and many more.
While he didn’t offer any additional information on what fans can expect from the reclusive MC, Dre said even he doesn’t always know what Eminem has in store, since he “holds his music close to his chest so I haven’t heard everything. I haven’t even heard everything complete that I’ve done, but I’m gonna hear it, and he’s putting out an album this year.” Dre said while he’s always very “hands on” with his music, he confessed that “there’s things that I have to mix that I’ve done, but I get the chance to hear the album in its entirety.”
The three-segment hang began with Dre talking about the honor of getting his Walk of Fame star and telling Kimmel that while he’s open to working with artists from any genre — revealing “I love Dolly Parton!” and that “Jolene” is one of his favorite songs — he prefers to stay in his beloved hip-hop lane. “Absolutely I could do that [work with Parton], but hip-hop is my love,” Dre said.
He was soon joined by longtime friend and collaborator Snoop Dogg, with the old pals discussing their work on Dre’s iconic 1992 The Chronic album and Dre revealing that he’s “never” found an artist from being handed a demo tape, except for Snoop and Eminem. While Dre and Snoop got into a playful argument about how they came up with the Chronic album title — which included Dre describing his first time smoking weed — the pair also said they’re almost done with Snoop’s upcoming Missionary album, the sequel to the only other full-length LP Dre has produced for the Doggfather since working on Snoop’s 1993 debut, Doggystyle. Snoop said that Dre is slated to start mixing Missionary in “mid-April.”
The long hang ended with 50 Cent dropping by to talk about Dre working on his debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and to joke about how unpleasant it was to hang upside down for his iconic appearance during the 2002 Super Bowl halftime show. “I was like 30 pounds heavier at that point, I was not ready for that,” 50 laughed, noting he’d gained a bunch of weight for a TV role and “really didn’t think that out.” 50 also doubled-down on his earlier announcement that he’s practicing celibacy this year, saying he’s two months into his vow of abstinence and things are going great so far.
“I’m focused right now,” 50 said. “My life is better, things are a little clearer… I’m trying to make it to Lent.” For the record, Dre and Snoop do not believe 50 is holding his fire.
Watch Dre, Snoop and 50 on Kimmel below.
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