Dr. Dre's Perfectionist Tendencies Spark Comparisons to Steve Jobs

MacRumors · Jun 6, 2014

Dr. Dre, aka Andre Young, who will join Apple following the finalization of its acquisition of Beats Electronics, has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal in a piece that gives a look at his work philosophy, his character, and the role he will play at Apple.

An accomplished rapper, the co-founder of Death Row Records, and co-founder of Beats Electronics, Dre is expected to bring not only his music expertise to Apple, but also the "cool" factor that's made Beats hardware so popular with the younger generation.

The music mogul is said to have a "perfectionist impulse," a penchant for being short with words, and a disregard for artificial deadlines, which could cause friction at Apple. "I'm not feeling that," he'll say when he doesn't like an idea presented to him. The Wall Street Journal compares his attitude to that of Steve Jobs.

Dr. Dre's perfectionist impulse, coupled with his disregard for artificial deadlines, have meant that "he doesn't put out a lot of material," despite being a workaholic, said Paul Rosenberg, a lawyer and manager of one of Dr. Dre's protégés, rapper Eminem.

That could portend friction at his new employer, Apple, which agreed to buy Beats for $3 billion last month. But like Dr. Dre, Apple has also boasted about not doing market research. The company's late founder, Steve Jobs, made no secret of his belief that consumers don't really know what they want until someone else shows it to them. Colleagues predict that at Apple Dr. Dre could also cede some decision-making power and become more accommodating.

Dre, who is joining the company along with Jimmy Iovine, will not have a specific title at Apple. As noted by Iovine, the duo will be known as just "Jimmy and Dre" on campus, but according to Tim Cook, Dre will work with both the hardware and music divisions, being supervised by Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue.

Article Link: Dr. Dre's Perfectionist Tendencies Spark Comparisons to Steve Jobs

WilliamG · Jun 6, 2014

Comparing Dr. Dre to Steve Jobs? Seriously?

amirite · Jun 6, 2014

Steve Jobs actually released products

nickpro · Jun 6, 2014

Dre is a PRODUCER first, a rapper second. A lot of people fail to see realize this/understand the significance.

ayale99 · Jun 6, 2014

It's annoying when people constantly bash Macrumors for their posts... but this one takes the cake. Maybe worst post ever.

There's an extremely tiny list of human beings that you could compare to Steve Jobs. Dr Dre isn't even in the same universe.

ManifoldSky · Jun 6, 2014

nickpro said:
Dre is a PRODUCER first, a rapper second. A lot of people fail to see realize this/understand the significance.

He also, apparently, has no concept of good sound, because his headphones are horrible. Hardly better than the el cheap KOSS knockoffs you can get at Walgreens.

Jakexb · Jun 6, 2014

I'd love to see an article going into the personalities that make up Beats. How involved were Iovine and Dr. Dre in product development? Apparently Trent Reznor was some also sort of creative director, since departed???

pgiguere1 · Jun 6, 2014

If you start comparing people on what they don't do/don't like rather than what they do/like, of course you can draw tons of parallels. That's totally meaningless.

kwikdeth · Jun 6, 2014

ManifoldSky said:
He also, apparently, has no concept of good sound, because his headphones are horrible. Hardly better than the el cheap KOSS knockoffs you can get at Walgreens.

there's a difference between knowing what good sound is, and knowing what will sell to kids.

losthorse · Jun 6, 2014

MacRumors said:
Dr. Dre, aka Andre Young

I think that this should read, "Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre" as I'm sure his mother did not name him Dr. Dre.

I also find it ridiculous that people call him Dr. as he has not earned the title of Dr. of anything.

Furthermore, Andre is no Steve Jobs... comparing the two implies they are in the same ballpark. In the words of Mr. Jackson, "they are not in the same ballpark, they are not even playing the same sport..."

FieldingMellish · Jun 6, 2014

Hes such a perfectionist, how come Beats sound is excoriated as much as Bose is in the world of high-end portable listening forums at Headfi.org ?

Northgrove · Jun 6, 2014

No. Please stop. And I'm not talking about Dr Dre, but Steve Jobs. Let's move on.

nagromme · Jun 6, 2014

ManifoldSky said:
He also, apparently, has no concept of good sound, because his headphones are horrible. Hardly better than the el cheap KOSS knockoffs you can get at Walgreens.

Or he knows that SOME people WANT all heavy bass instead of accurate sound. Is he being a perfectionist about sound waveforms (obscure audiophile forums might look at nothing else) or about various other things? (Like delivering sound modified for certain goals?)

I want accurate sound. It boggles my mind that some don't. But it's still true, many don't--and neither Dr. Dre nor myself are stupid for knowing that

69Mustang · Jun 6, 2014

ayale99 said:
It's annoying when people constantly bash Macrumors for their posts... but this one takes the cake. Maybe worst post ever.

There's an extremely tiny list of human beings that you could compare to Steve Jobs. Dr Dre isn't even in the same universe.

I disagree. Both are, or as in Steve's case, were, successful, hard driven perfectionists. Which is what the OP is comparing. Whether or not someone likes Dre doesn't make the comparison any less valid.

JGowan · Jun 6, 2014

This is absolutely ridiculous. This is one of those cases where someone at the Wall Street Journal wants to make it sound like Dr. Dre won't be a good fit for Apple and this is the only thing they can come up with in order to sell that stupid idea. People will do anything these days to find a story even if they have to come up with a dumb idea to begin with, shoe-horning the deformed foot into the nice slender shoe.

Second of all, Steve Jobs cannot be duplicated. There was one of him and those that want to try and say he has a replacement for something wishing. He can't be compared to Henry Ford he can't be compared to Einstein or to JFK. He was one-of-a-kind and he can never be replaced, no matter how much people want it to be so or in this case, don't want it to be so.

It's not a bad story for MacRumors.com, though... Wall Street Journal is a very relative newspaper/news entity and they were the ones that brought the story to the public. I would be more surprised MacRumors.com had decided not to publish the story.

I just think it's a stupid story to begin with.

wilhoitm · Jun 6, 2014

FieldingMellish said:
He’s such a perfectionist, how come Beat’s sound is excoriated as much as Bose is in the world of high-end portable listening forums at Headfi.org ?

Because the Beats headphones are made for Hip Hop, with an emphasis on deep bass, which incidentally makes up about 80 percent of the music industry right now!

Those headphones are not made for those that listen to Lawrence Welk or classical music!

ayale99 · Jun 6, 2014

MH01 said:
Seriously MR mods, we get it Apple bought Beats, but running an article comparing Dre to Jobs.... are you really stooping to these levels??

You do after all get to choose the stories that make the front page!!!!!

I'm listening to a Podcast with Mark Cuban right now. He calls this stuff "Headline Porn."

stuffradio · Jun 6, 2014

losthorse said:
I think that this should read, "Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre" as I'm sure his mother did not name him Dr. Dre.

I also find it ridiculous that people call him Dr. as he has not earned the title of Dr. of anything.

Furthermore, Andre is no Steve Jobs... comparing the two implies they are in the same ballpark. In the words of Mr. Jackson, "they are not in the same ballpark, they are not even playing the same sport..."

Practice? We talkin' 'bout Practice?

czeano · Jun 6, 2014

Right. Like the time Steve Jobs beat a reporter bloody in front of witnesses for giving news coverage to the wrong faction.

Er, wait, no, I guess that wasn't BOTH of them.

69Mustang · Jun 6, 2014

FieldingMellish said:
Hes such a perfectionist, how come Beats sound is excoriated as much as Bose is in the world of high-end portable listening forums at Headfi.org ?

Maybe because he perfected a sound for mass market bass heavy consumer taste. He understands what his targeted markets wants and gives it to them. I see nothing wrong with that. Matter of fact, it's smart business. The group at Headfi doesn't use Beats so why should Dre care what they think. I use Senn's but that doesn't mean I hate Beats. I don't understand all the anger.

nfl46 · Jun 6, 2014

Haha! Good jobs, MacRumors. You know how to piss people off and get a lot of comments. I'm sure you guys are sitting back laughing at these people lose their mind over Steve Jobs comparisons...so am I. You know that's a "sensitive" subject for them.

bradl · Jun 6, 2014

losthorse said:
I think that this should read, "Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre" as I'm sure his mother did not name him Dr. Dre.

I also find it ridiculous that people call him Dr. as he has not earned the title of Dr. of anything.

Furthermore, Andre is no Steve Jobs... comparing the two implies they are in the same ballpark. In the words of Mr. Jackson, "they are not in the same ballpark, they are not even playing the same sport..."

Apparently you don't understand the concept of the Stage Name.

Do you think the late "The Rev" from Avenged Sevenfold is an ordained minister? Or is Wil Smith royalty (the Fresh Prince)?

Really, I'm no real fan of Dr. Dre, but I respect his ability to produce and how he pulled his pants up to get out of the life he had in Compton to where he is now. And to pick this out is rather petty.

BL.

wilhoitm · Jun 6, 2014

69Mustang said:
I disagree. Both are, or as in Steve's case, were, successful, hard driven perfectionists. Which is what the OP is comparing. Whether or not someone likes Dre doesn't make the comparison any less valid.

I love it! If you want to piss off either Samsung or Google then send Dre to represent Apple at the meeting! I can see it now! Dre telling Google or Samsung, "I'm not feeling that!" :apple:

I bet Google or Samsung have no one like Dre to back them up!

Yojimbo007 · Jun 6, 2014

ayale99 said:
It's annoying when people constantly bash Macrumors for their posts... but this one takes the cake. Maybe worst post ever.

There's an extremely tiny list of human beings that you could compare to Steve Jobs. Dr Dre isn't even in the same universe.

Well .. Not to take away from credit where credit is due.. But Steve's biggest genius was marketing! And that included marketing himself and taking credit for everyones work! And he succeeded! Hardly fair to all others at apple who had and have some of the biggest visions and ideas!
Steve did a major harm to apple by serving his ego! One of his biggest mistakes !

TallManNY · Jun 6, 2014

Compensation

So Apple bought Beats for $3 billion. But that is buying shares in a company. Has anyone heard any info on actual salary and stock option compensation? Are these guys really going to be coming into the office? Are the signed up with non-compete clauses that keep them from quitting and starting another company?

Because maybe when Dre was bragging about being a billionaire, he was also thinking about the stock options he was about to get as a C-level suite employee.

Dr. Dre's Perfectionist Tendencies Spark Comparisons to Steve Jobs

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