ASCAP to Salute Dr. Dre With Hip-Hop Icon Award

Dr. Dre, the trailblazing hip-hop hitmaker, will blaze a new trail at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, where he will receive the very first ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award.

Announced today (June 20), Dre will be honored at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards Celebration of 50 Years of Hip-Hop, set to take place in his hometown, Los Angeles on Thursday, June 22.

“Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking early work laid a foundation for hip-hop as we know it today. As a champion for some of today’s biggest artists and a successful entrepreneur, he changed the culture around hip-hop,” comments ASCAP chairman of the board and president Paul Williams.

The award is presented to ASCAP members whose musical contributions have made an indelible impact on the art and culture of hip-hop. Currently, ASCAP’s membership includes 920,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.

Dre “continues to be a pivotal figure in the music industry,” adds Williams, “and we are thrilled to recognize him with the inaugural ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award as we mark 50 years of hip-hop.”

In the electrifying world of hip-hop, which this year celebrates its half-century and is now recognized as the U.S. market share leader, Dre has done it all.

A founding member of Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees N.W.A, Dre is recognized as one of the genre’s pre-eminent producers, as well as a rapper and songwriter who has worked with some of the most iconic R&B and hip-hop artists of all time, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 2Pac, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.

After changing the game with seminal gangsta rap outfit N.W.A in the 1980s, Dre released his first solo album, The Chronic, in 1992, a classic that’s regarded as one of hip-hop’s finest and a beacon for the West Coast G-Funk movement.

His three studio albums, which include 2001 and Compton, have amassed some 20 million album consumption units.

Dre also established Aftermath Entertainment, his own imprint through Interscope, through which he would sign Eminem, 50 Cent, Lamar and Anderson .Paak, among others.

In 2006, Dre co-founded Beats Electronics alongside Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine. Later, in 2014, the business evolved with a streaming service, Beats Audio, and was subsequently acquired by Apple for upwards of $3 billion, turning Dre into hip-hop’s first billionaire.

N.W.A was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2016, a year after the Straight Outta Compton biopic hit theaters around the globe. In February 2022, another career highlight when Dre teamed up with Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent  for the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show.

Grammy Award-winner DJ Kid Capri will provide the music on ASCAP’s big night, organizers say. Visit ASCAP for more.