Congratulations are in order for award-winning producer Dr. Dre, who will be honored ahead of the 2020 Grammys for his production legacy in hip-hop.
The President and CEO of the Recording Academy, Deborah Dugan, announced on Friday, Nov. 1, that Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, will be paid homage to by the Producers & Engineers Wing during 2020 Grammys Week.
“Dr. Dre is an influential force in music,” Dugan said in a press release. “Dre breaks boundaries and inspires music creators across every genre. His evolution as a producer solidifies him as a leader of the pack within our industry, and we watch in amazement as he continues to shape the future of music.”
The Producers & Engineers Wing’s celebration of Dr. Dre will take place on Jan. 22 at the Village studios in West Los Angeles and will kick off Grammys Week. The 62nd annual Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020 and will air live on CBS at 8 p.m.
Dr. Dre, 54, who’s a six-time Grammy-winning producer, has worked with some of hip-hop’s most talented artists, including Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J, Xzibit, Kendrick Lamar, and many more.
The 2018 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee began his music career in the 1980s as a DJ and eventually became a member of the iconic West Coast rap group N.W.A aka “Niggaz wit Attitudes.” He also co-founded Death Row Records with Suge Knight in 1991, but decided to part ways with the label in 1996 due to their apparent disagreement over the creative direction of the company.
In 2008, Dr. Dre partnered with Monster Audio to launch his own line of headphones, Beats by Dre. Beats Electronic was acquired by Apple for $2.6 billion in 2014, a deal that some thought at the time had made the pioneering music producer hip-hop’s first billionaire ahead of Jay-Z.
Dre’s most recent album “Compton,” was released in 2015. Last year, he revealed to the Guardian, he was working on new material for his long-awaited third solo “LP Detox.” He has yet to release any music since.
