Cool & Dre's Dre Talks Debut, Love Affair With Christina Milian
For most of the hip-hop community, Miami's Andre Lyon is best known as Dre, one half of production duo Cool & Dre, but now he's stepping into the vocal booth gearing up to release a rap album this fall.
Dre recently talked exclusively about his forthcoming album The Trunk; "Chevy Ridin High," his current single with Rick Ross, and his relationship with Christina Milian.
"The album is called The Trunk," Dre said. "It's dropping late September, [and] I'm really excited. I got Timbaland, Scott Storch, DJ Khaled, LV, Keyshia Cole and Anthony Hamilton on the album."
For Dre the album's title had a deeper significance than people might realize.
"It symbolizes the hustle," he says. "I come from a city where people are reminded how broke they are. For people who live in Iowa or wherever who are broke, they might see the cribs and rides and all the fancy things on television but people who are broke in Miami go out on South Beach and the people living the fabulous life with their fancy cars and cribs are right there in front of their faces. There are so few opportunities that sometimes people have to work out of their trunk to feed the kids. They pack the trunk up with drugs and go on that drive to hustle and most of the time they don't come back.
"Cool and I used to work out of the trunk too," added the producer-turned-MC. "But it was a legal hustle, selling our music and making beats, so The Trunk just symbolizes that hustle and grind of desperation to make something of yourself."
With so much success in production, many fans are wondering what motivated Dre to do a rap album.
"I always did it, sang and rapped growing up," Dre explained. "My family is Jamaican but I'm light-skinned with curly hair, as a kid white kids didn't accept me because I'm not white and to black kids I wasn't black enough. Someone like Special Ed coming out made me cool, made me fit in like I belong. I've been rapping since then. It gave me an identity and changed my life. Me and Cool started out making beats for our R&B group. It didn't work out but we got comfortable making beats and I got to live my dreams vicariously but my peers have been pushing me to do an album."
The Trunk will be released through Cool & Dre's label Epidemic Music and Jive Records.
"Part of the motivation for doing the album is to brand the imprint and make things easier for the artists signed to us, like Dirtbag," Dre said. "We just finished doing a record we feel is going to be his single. Within the next two months you should be hearing it. I'm proud of the accomplishments me and Cool have done. We just finished Young Jeezy's new first single and the second single for Rick Ross. I'm proud of Christina Milian's So Amazin' album, 10 out of 11 songs we wrote and produced. We're blessed dudes right now."
In addition to working with Ms. Milian, Dre also confirmed that the two are indeed an item.
"Yeah, that's definitely wifey right there," he said. "A real man isn't ashamed to claim what's his. I could never disrespect by not claiming my girl. No matter how 'G' you wanna keep it on the industry tip, you don't want to do that to somebody especially if it's genuine. We've been together for a little bit now."
Dre's current single, "Chevy Riding High," is already building a buzz for the album. The song, which features fellow Miami native Ricky Ross, was quickly embraced by underground audiences which led to it being released earlier than planned.
"I was in L.A. and my [first single] 'Naomi' record was slowing down, I flew back to do a record with Rick Ross," Dre explained. "We've done records together before, 'Chevy Ridin High' was not the first one. He's been around for awhile, everybody doesn't know that but he's been doing his thing for a minute. We just did it for Miami and the shit blew up. I was going to go with the Keyshia Cole song first but I was like, 'Lemme do "Chevy Ridin High."' For the video, [director] Jessy Terrero basically redid the concept of stuntin. You can go to myspace.com/officialcoolanddre to see the video."
Dre and Rick Ross are among a number of Miami artists currently dropping projects. DJ Khaled's Listennn...The Album! was recently released, and Smitty and Pitbull also have upcoming new releases. Cool & Dre are also among good production company with Timbaland, Scott Storch and Lil Jon also working in the Miami area.
"I wanna say we planned it, but I don't want to sound pompous," admitted Dre. "We always talked about, 'Yo, we need to make a run.' It's good. A lot of them look up to me and Cool because we help with bringing the spotlight down to Miami. As far as the music is concerned we're in a position where we can kick the doors down and get the money like Atlanta did. It's a great positive movement. When your basketball team is going to the finals and in January the Superbowl is going down in your city you know things are happening."
Once The Trunk is released in September Dre is convinced his audience will realize that he's more than just a producer.
"I'm going to make a believer one person at a time," Dre said. "I appreciate everyone's support over the last 5 or 6 years. Also, keep a look out for my next single 'Be Somebody,' featuring Keyshia Cole. It's a very positive song."
Dre recently talked exclusively about his forthcoming album The Trunk; "Chevy Ridin High," his current single with Rick Ross, and his relationship with Christina Milian.
"The album is called The Trunk," Dre said. "It's dropping late September, [and] I'm really excited. I got Timbaland, Scott Storch, DJ Khaled, LV, Keyshia Cole and Anthony Hamilton on the album."
For Dre the album's title had a deeper significance than people might realize.
"It symbolizes the hustle," he says. "I come from a city where people are reminded how broke they are. For people who live in Iowa or wherever who are broke, they might see the cribs and rides and all the fancy things on television but people who are broke in Miami go out on South Beach and the people living the fabulous life with their fancy cars and cribs are right there in front of their faces. There are so few opportunities that sometimes people have to work out of their trunk to feed the kids. They pack the trunk up with drugs and go on that drive to hustle and most of the time they don't come back.
"Cool and I used to work out of the trunk too," added the producer-turned-MC. "But it was a legal hustle, selling our music and making beats, so The Trunk just symbolizes that hustle and grind of desperation to make something of yourself."
With so much success in production, many fans are wondering what motivated Dre to do a rap album.
"I always did it, sang and rapped growing up," Dre explained. "My family is Jamaican but I'm light-skinned with curly hair, as a kid white kids didn't accept me because I'm not white and to black kids I wasn't black enough. Someone like Special Ed coming out made me cool, made me fit in like I belong. I've been rapping since then. It gave me an identity and changed my life. Me and Cool started out making beats for our R&B group. It didn't work out but we got comfortable making beats and I got to live my dreams vicariously but my peers have been pushing me to do an album."
The Trunk will be released through Cool & Dre's label Epidemic Music and Jive Records.
"Part of the motivation for doing the album is to brand the imprint and make things easier for the artists signed to us, like Dirtbag," Dre said. "We just finished doing a record we feel is going to be his single. Within the next two months you should be hearing it. I'm proud of the accomplishments me and Cool have done. We just finished Young Jeezy's new first single and the second single for Rick Ross. I'm proud of Christina Milian's So Amazin' album, 10 out of 11 songs we wrote and produced. We're blessed dudes right now."
In addition to working with Ms. Milian, Dre also confirmed that the two are indeed an item.
"Yeah, that's definitely wifey right there," he said. "A real man isn't ashamed to claim what's his. I could never disrespect by not claiming my girl. No matter how 'G' you wanna keep it on the industry tip, you don't want to do that to somebody especially if it's genuine. We've been together for a little bit now."
Dre's current single, "Chevy Riding High," is already building a buzz for the album. The song, which features fellow Miami native Ricky Ross, was quickly embraced by underground audiences which led to it being released earlier than planned.
"I was in L.A. and my [first single] 'Naomi' record was slowing down, I flew back to do a record with Rick Ross," Dre explained. "We've done records together before, 'Chevy Ridin High' was not the first one. He's been around for awhile, everybody doesn't know that but he's been doing his thing for a minute. We just did it for Miami and the shit blew up. I was going to go with the Keyshia Cole song first but I was like, 'Lemme do "Chevy Ridin High."' For the video, [director] Jessy Terrero basically redid the concept of stuntin. You can go to myspace.com/officialcoolanddre to see the video."
Dre and Rick Ross are among a number of Miami artists currently dropping projects. DJ Khaled's Listennn...The Album! was recently released, and Smitty and Pitbull also have upcoming new releases. Cool & Dre are also among good production company with Timbaland, Scott Storch and Lil Jon also working in the Miami area.
"I wanna say we planned it, but I don't want to sound pompous," admitted Dre. "We always talked about, 'Yo, we need to make a run.' It's good. A lot of them look up to me and Cool because we help with bringing the spotlight down to Miami. As far as the music is concerned we're in a position where we can kick the doors down and get the money like Atlanta did. It's a great positive movement. When your basketball team is going to the finals and in January the Superbowl is going down in your city you know things are happening."
Once The Trunk is released in September Dre is convinced his audience will realize that he's more than just a producer.
"I'm going to make a believer one person at a time," Dre said. "I appreciate everyone's support over the last 5 or 6 years. Also, keep a look out for my next single 'Be Somebody,' featuring Keyshia Cole. It's a very positive song."
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