Dr. Dre’s The Chronic is revered as one of the greatest rap albums of all time, and it appears Michael Eisner, the former CEO of Disney, agreed.
According to Dre’s attorney Peter Paterno, the Mouse Housewanted to sign the rapper to a $4 million deal after his solo debut’s release.
“We’d have these music meetings every week with Michael Eisner at Disney, and Michael Eisner came by and he sees the record’s at No. 1 and he goes, ‘I thought you had a relationship with this guy?’” Paterno said at the 30:08 mark of the video above. “I said, ‘I do.’ He said, ‘How come we don’t have this record?’ I go, ‘Well, Michael, let me just read you some of the lyrics… Muthafucka, muthafucka. And you know what this is on the cover? That’s a marijuana leaf.’ The deal was $4 million. He goes, ‘We can’t do that!’ I go, ‘That’s why he’s not on the label.’”
Paterno went on to tell Samson Shulman on his Connection is Magic podcast that he didn’t even try to get the deal to go through with Disney. Granted, $4 million is now just a drop in the bucket of the massive wealth Dre has amassed over his several decades in the music business. When he was inducted into the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, Dre thanked Paterno among his fellow NWA peers for helping him reach success.
“I definitely want to thank these guys standing behind me. Ice Cube, MC Ren, DJ Yella,” he said. “Got to thank my brothers for a lifetime of great memories. I’d like to thank my legal team — where are you? Howard King, Peter Paterno, thank you for keeping the snakes off my back. Ashley Palmer, thank you.”
Watch Paterno’s entire interview on Connection is Magic up top.
