Dr. Dre took 16 years to release a new album – but was 'Compton' worth the wait?

The last time Dr. Dre released an album, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were still a couple, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' was still on air, girls were wearing low-rise jeans with their thongs on show, Skechers were still a thing and the most famous Kim was Eminem’s ex-wife (and muse).

Yep, it was that long ago. Dr. Dre’s 2001 album was hot, and he spent the next decade promising us a follow up titled Detox, which never materialized. 16 years later, Dre is finally back. Announced only last week, Comptonhas been released exclusively on Apple Music, the streaming service Dre has a stake in (sorry, TIDAL).

The album is the soundtrack to the upcoming, highly anticipated biopic Straight Outta Compton. The film documents the rise of N.W.A, the legendary Gangsta Rap pioneers Dr. Dre was a member of. Compton, for those who don’t know, is a city in California which has become synonymous with crime, has been the setting of black gangster movies and gave birth to Gangsta Rap. The city has also produced some of the world’s most celebrated artists (Kendrick Lamar, The Game) and athletes (the Williams sisters).

With Compton, Dre pays homage to the city he’s never lost touch with and love for (he’s donating his royalties from the album towards the funding of its new arts centre).

But the question remains: does Compton live up to the hype after making people wait over a decade? If Twitter is anything to go by, the answer to that is a resounding hell yes.

The 16-track album starts off with a fake news report giving a summarised history of Compton: how it became the city where the African-American dream was realised, but slowly turned into something of a nightmare plagued by high crime rates and drug abuse.

That sets the tone beautifully for the album, which explores the highs and lows of living in a dangerous city, fame, money, violence and death. The themes are nothing new: they were documented quite heavily by 90s West Coast rap, and more recently rappers like The Game have explored similar themes in their music. Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, M.A.A.D City album was practically the score to a nonexistent film about Compton.

That doesn’t mean this album is redundant or unnecessary. The huge list of collaborators (Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott, Ice Cube, BJ the Chicago Kid, Lamar), the lyrics and most importantly the production breathe new life into old subject matter.

The opening track Talk About It is loud, it’s a banger, a thoroughly modern rap song, but not in a no substance YouTube rap kind of way. It gets better from there. The two tracks featuring Lamar – Genocide and Deep Water – are the album highlights. The former has the kind of dope beat new school rappers like Kendrick and Schoolboy Q would kill for, and the hook is just dripping in G-Funk West Coast dopeness. Deep Water is intimidating, it’s raw and it’s so good.

Other highlights include For The Love of Money, Satisfiction (yes, "fiction" not "faction"), Animals and Medicine Man. There are two songs that feel forced, though: Loose Cannons and Issues, which both sound like a bunch of old guys trying to act hard. "Look at us, we can still rap about shooting people". It's tired.

The final track Talking To My Diary is beautiful, and it’s a deeply personal track where Dre stands on his own, reminding us that he doesn’t need a gang of famous names to make a relevant – and very good – album. Dre has nothing to prove to anybody, he knows it and we know it.

He’s not trying to relive his glory days. He didn’t need to release Compton, but he did it anyway. He’s reminding us that he’s still got it and that he can take on any rapper young enough to be his son and come out tops. This is Dre’s final solo album. What a way to bid us farewell.