Dr. Dre

Born Andre Romelle Young in Compton in 1965. A founding member of N.W.A and one of the most influential producers in the history of hip-hop. The 2015 album Compton was a love letter back to the city that raised him.

Dre's name is on records other people are famous for, which is exactly the point. The Chronic in 1992 did not just sell, it retuned what the West Coast sounded like, and the sound it invented is still audible in music made by people who were not born when it came out. Then he did it again, in a different decade, with a different roster.

Aftermath Entertainment is the part of the story to study. A producer with a good ear gets hits. A producer who owns the label gets a catalog, a roster and a say. He signed and developed Eminem, then 50 Cent, then Kendrick Lamar, and Beats Electronics turned an accessory into an asset. The same instinct that made Ray Charles ask for his masters in 1959 runs through every one of those moves.

He named the 2015 album Compton. Not a metaphor, not a mood, the city, and he has put money into it, most visibly the performing arts complex at Compton High School. Music & Movement follows the thread from Eazy-E's Ruthless Records through Dre's boards and out to the Pulitzer.

The lesson young producers should take is not the sound. It is that he kept building the room the sound got made in.