Tony Yayo is peeling back the curtain on how particular Dr. Dre can be in the studio, recalling moments when the legendary producer scrapped entire collaborations because they didn't meet his impossibly high standards.
During his recent appearance on Club Shay Shay, the G-Unit veteran explained that The Diplomats once recorded music with Dr. Dre that never saw the light of day.
"Dr. Dre is just a real picky motherfucker [...] He did records with Dipset and that shit ain't never come out," said Yayo. "He did records with certain people and they never coming out. But he's like a real particular n***a. I remember he used to tell 50 to do one line over and over again. 'Do it over, say it like this.' And I understood sometimes it's not what you say, it's how you say it. Dre is a fucking perfectionist. That was an experience."
Yayo's revelation connects back to comments Jim Jones made in 2010, when the Harlem rapper told MTV that Dipset had indeed worked with the Aftermath boss during their comeback run. At the time, Jones called the encounter “the most incredible experience” of his career.
“Dr. Dre came to our studio, which was even more incredible,” Jones said. “That was dope. We got to do a few songs with him. He coached me a bit.”
According to Jones, Dre’s visit was made possible through their mutual ties to Jimmy Iovine, fueling speculation at the time that Dipset might sign with Interscope Records. That deal never materialized, and as Yayo noted, neither did the songs.
The revelation adds to a long-running theme in Dre’s career: some of his most legendary projects never see the light of day. The most famous example is Detox, the long-teased follow-up to 2001. First announced in the early 2000s and hyped for over a decade, the project was rumored to feature artists like Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg.
Dre eventually shelved Detox in 2015, admitting that he "didn't like it. It wasn't good. The record, it just wasn't good." That perfectionist streak has also left fans without official releases of collaborations Dre has with J. Cole and more.