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Tracy Curry’s life narrative, commonly known as The D.O.C. since the 1980s, is a story that lends itself well to hypothetical scenarios. What if he hadn’t been involved in that vehicle accident in 1989, only a short while after releasing his Dr. Dre-produced debut No One Can Do It Better? Since then, he has only truly played once, at a gig in 2015 at the former Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum. He lost his voice as a result. What could they have done after that as a team, him and Dre? And if not Snoop Dogg, who would he be? If a fully functional D.O.C. had been in charge, where might rap music have gone?
These are all good questions, and there are undoubtedly others. But the hypotheticals take away from what Doc, as everyone refers to him, actually accomplished. He supported Dre in writing The Chronic and encouraged him to do it behind the scenes. Keep in mind that as the 1990s began, rap and hip-hop were still primarily seen as fads. Rap music was expected to eventually give way to another genre of music. However, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg became rock stars thanks to The Chronic, and rap started to gain popularity. Doc was in the heart of it all. Without him, Death Row and Chronic would not exist, and without those two things, the following 30 years would be very different.
Doc is well-known to rap fans, but in general society, he is merely a footnote. Even though he co-wrote some of N.W.A. and Eazy-most E’s popular songs, Straight Outta Compton demoted him to the status of a glorified extra. However, when The DOC is widely released later this year, it will contribute to changing that. Erykah Badu and Snoop both serve as executive producers, and my article of Doc from our September “Music Issue” aims to share his narrative as well. Today, it is accessible online.
