'Some of it was uncomfortable': Jimmy Iovine explores relationship with Dr Dre in new Netflix documentary The Defiant Ones

Hip hop legacy: Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine star in The Defiant Ones
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Jennifer Ruby27 March 2018
The Weekender

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Interscope Records founder Jimmy Iovine said revisiting the history of his partnership with Dr Dre in a new Netflix and HBO documentary was “uncomfortable” at times.

The music mogul, who released Dre’s classic album The Chronic in 1992, explores their lifelong collaborative process in new four-parter, The Defiant Ones.

His partnership with Dr Dre saw him sign some of Hip Hop’s biggest names to his record label.

The documentary charts the development of the pair’s business partnership including the creation of the company Beats - which they sold to Apple for $3bn in 2014- and development of Apple Music.

“I wanted to tell the story of a white guy and a black guy from two racially challenged neighbourhoods who come together after 20 years of their career and work together and have to overcome those things they’ve learnt in the past; Fear, trust all that stuff,” Iovine told the Standard.

The film delves into the dramatic feud between Dre and his former rap group NWA, whom he left to sign with Iovine’s label in the early 1990s.

The parting of ways was played out in the press and in a series of digs on their respective records, causing a public rift between the musicians and labels.

Music mogul: Jimmy Iovine with wife Liberty Ross
PA

“I was nervous because there was a lot of stuff that went on. Some of it was uncomfortable, some of it was hard, it was always hard,” Iovine said.

“There are certain things I would have done differently but as a whole I worked very hard, my intentions were good and I’m always willing to talk about when I screwed up.”

Iovine said he felt the same way when he first met Dre as he did when he worked with John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen in the 1970s.

“I wouldn’t have known what music was credible and not credible without those people,” he said.

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“That’s where I learned my feel for what I do. So when I met Dre I was like ‘This is one of those guys’, and when I met Eminem I thought, ‘This is one of those guys.’”

Eminem, P Diddy, Stevie Nicks and Snoop Dogg all feature in the series, as does the late Tom Petty.

Iovine, who married British model Liberty Ross in 2016, said that revisiting his past has made reconsider what he wants in the future.

“On a personal level it made me realise that I’m heading in the right direction, which right now, is wanting to do some interesting work in different areas, in art and music and help Apple,” he said.

“But I’m also looking for peace. It’s a hard thing to find but I’m really looking for it and I’m doing things. It’s happening, I can feel it.”

The Defiant Ones premieres on Netflix from 23 March.

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