'Compton' Isn't the Only New Album Featuring Dr. Dre out Today

This article originally appeared on Noisey UK.

Yes, after a 16-year wait, Dre is back. Of course, we're still on our first few listens, but already it seems like Compton is a vibrant and crowded record, rich with oral histories and deeply personal reflections of a city that has become as synonymous with hip-hop as it has with hard living.

But, perhaps surprisingly, it is not the only new release featuring Dr. Dre this week. In fact, within a day or two of Dre announcing the release of Compton, a label called UMTV (a UK subsidiary of Universal Music) briskly announced the release of Straight Outta Old Skool, the masterpiece you see above.

UMTV is label that tries to capitalize on current music trends by releasing confusingly titled records to a narrow margin of people who are tuned in enough to know that there's a new Dre record out today, but are too stupid to work out how to listen to it on Apple Music.

Just a few months ago UMTV released House Every Weekend. The compilation begins with the summer smash of the same name by David Zowie—a song that is simultaneously so genius and so basic it is being adopted by the Kardashian family—and then just rolls on with any other vaguely dance-sounding records that have come out on Universal labels over the past 20 years. And they're not picky either: Seminal house anthem "Something's Going On" by Todd Terry sits neatly alongside "If I Could Change Your Mind" by Haim, which, you know, uses a drum pad a bit.

The trouble is that these records really do work, business wise. Over on Amazon UK, where Compton isn't available for purchase, Straight Outta Old Skool is currently the best selling hip-hop album, number one in their charts above Kendrick and the 20th Anniversary edition of the actual Straight Outta Compton. Labels love them because they cost absolutely nothing to release but often outperform new music and their artists. All the labels have to do is throw together a playlist.

In fact, they've stopped even bothering to do that because they've released so many of these cobbled together mix CDs over the years that they can just rehash them without anyone noticing. Back in 2013 UMTV, the same label that put out Straight Outta Old Skool, released "Clubland Jump Around: The Ultimate Hip Hop Anthems".

With only a two year gap between these two compilations, you wouldn't expect there to be much overlap. And there isn't. Apart from "Express Yourself" by N.W.A, "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G., "Got Your Money" by Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Regulate" by Warren G, "I Got 5 On It" by Luniz, "99 Problems" by Jay Z, "I Wish" by Skee-Lo, "Jump" by Kris Kross, "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys, "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J, "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect, "You Can Do It" by Ice Cube, "Get Ur Freak On" by Missy Elliott, "In Da Club" by 50 Cent, "Ignition" by R. Kelly, "No Scrubs" by TLC, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve, "Always On Time" by Ja Rule, and "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees. In fact around half of the new record are just tracks rearranged from the old one.

To be fair to UMTV, there have barely been any other hip-hop records released over the last 30 years, so it makes sense they'd need to double up and then fill up the records with the same R&B songs that have only the most tangential connection to hip-hop. So if you find yourself streaming Compton for free on Apple Music and have £9.99 burning a hole in your pocket, why not throw it their way? That incredible cover art isn't going to pay for itself.

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