SPOT LIGHT: Dr. Dre the business mogul and technology influencer

Published Aug 19, 2017

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WASHINGTON -  Andre Romelle Young known as  Dr. Dre was born on February 18, 1965. A music fan from the start, Dre started working as a DJ in his early teenage years.

His first major success came with the rap group N.W.A. ( Niggaz with Attitudes), which can be seen in the movie called Straight Outta Compton, You can watch the N.W.A’s historic rise to fame featuring Compton's very own Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr Dre. 

Moving Foward, In 1991 he later co-founded Death Row Records. In 1992, his first solo album, The Chronic, became a huge hit. In 1996, Dre started up Aftermath Entertainment and two of his biggest success stories signed to his label were Eminem and 50 Cent. 

In 2008, Dre expanded his hip-hop brand when he founded Beats Electronics with record producer Jimmy Iovine, according to Business Insider. Jimmy Iovine mentioned approaching Doug Morris, then the CEO of Universal Music Group, about his desire to move onto something hardware-related. He was close friends with Dr.Dre and they both agreed that starting Beats by Dre would be a great idea. 

He debuted the company's audio line with Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones, which became popular worldwide, and were followed by more successful products endorsed by pop and hip-hop artists. The online music streaming service Beats Music was also launched in January 2014. 

In May 2014, Apple announced the purchase of Beats for $3 billion. The deal increased Dre's net worth to approximately $800 million, making him the richest rap star, according to  Forbes

According to Hype Magazine, the two partners have also funded The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. The USC Iovine and Young Academy is an academy designed to teach critical thinking and nurture creativity in these areas: art and design; engineering and computer science; and business and venture management.

Recently, Three students of the school managed to start its first full-fledged start-up.The students are behind Mira, which unveiled its first product known as Prism. It resembles a face that holds up a smartphone in front of your face. Images from the smartphone are projected onto the shield’s lenses, making it feel as if computer-generated, 3-D objects are floating before you.

Ben Taft, Matt Stern and Montana Reed say the design-centric approach to hardware development instilled in them by USC instructors will help their augmented reality device stand apart from competition. 

“We’re still constrained to a 2-D world as big as our screens,” Stern said. “The ultimate dream is to create a ubiquitous universe, so you don’t have to be limited by the physical constraints of devices.”

Dr. Dre continues to give back to his community, recently Dr. Dre gave $10 million to help build a performing arts center at the new Compton High School in his hometown neighborhood. Compton High School students and members of the community will have access to the performing arts center and it will feature state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for digital media production and a 1,200-seat theater.

- BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE

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