I (as I suspect a fair few people have) had forgotten about Dre until I heard I Need A Doctor. It's his first single since the late '90s. And it's totally formulaic.
It's ironic that the student has now become the master - Eminem has undoubtedly taken over as the King of rap. His influence is clear on this record - not least because it's essentially an Eminem track featuring one verse by Dre. It's also decisively in the Love The Way You Lie mold. It follows an identical structure, is in the same key and similarly features a catchy female vocal for the chorus, undoubtedly the highlight of the track. However, the reason Love The Way You Lie was last year's biggest selling single is because of its contextual resonance with both Rihanna and Eminem's personal lives.
By contrast, I Need A Doctor is just an old rapper struggling to stay relevant. But nothing comes out when he moves his lips, just a bunch of jibberish. Plus there's an overblown music video with too much posturing from a man clearly addicted to protein shakes. And that car is far too sexy to crash. Perhaps if he got his head out of his own ass and concentrated on the music rather than the accompanying film, this record would be more successful.
Sorry Dre, but you're better off forgotten.
1/5
