Dr. Dre Announces Third Album ‘Compton A Soundtrack,’ Says It Will Be His “Grand Finale”

Dr. Dre announced his third album Compton A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre this weekend on his radio show The Pharmacy on Apple Music’s radio Beats 1. Sixteen years after his last album 2001, and after approximately ten years of waiting for his much-delayed album Detox, Dre’s fans will be able to download this new record exclusively from iTunes on Aug. 7.

The album shows up as the N.W.A movie Straight Outta Compton will hit the theaters on Aug. 14. But this isn’t its soundtrack. “It’s inspired by Straight Outta Compton,” said Dre on Beats 1. “I was leaving the set, coming to the studio, and I felt myself just being so inspired by the movie that I started recording an album. And I kept it under wraps. And the album is finished.” It might be the last time Dre makes such a surprising announcement though. The rapper, producer and businessman told Beats 1’s listeners about the making of the album. “All my friends came in, and we all came together to build this thing,” he said. “It’s going to be my grand finale.”

Compton A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre includes 16 songs, that we hope reflect Dre’s usual touch. It features a lot of his friends and long-time collaborators, such as Kendrick Lamar, Xzibit, Ice Cube (who had announced this surprise a few days before Dre himself), Snoop Dogg, Jill Scott and, obviously, Eminem. Full tracklist available on iTunes.

Dre also had a little talk about Detox on his show. He deflated his fans’ expectations by saying Detox would never see the light of day. “I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good,” he said. “The record, it just wasn’t good. … I worked my ass off on it, and I don’t think I did a good enough job.” Many consider Eminem’s 2009 album Relapse as a replacement for Detox though — others will take Compton as the long-awaited album.

Listen to the full The Pharmacy show here.