For the better part of the last decade, hearing an actual, concrete piece of music from Detox would have been cause for spontaneous street-based revelry. And then “Under Pressure” leaked, and it was extremely underwhelming, and the whole mass-anticipation thing deflated almost instantly. Dre tried to play it off, saying the track wasn’t finished, and that he didn’t like it either in its current state, but that didn’t help much. Tacked on to the endless delays, there was one obvious conclusion to draw: Dre had lost the Midas touch, and he was now spending endless hours in the studio either trying to get it back or stalling until everyone forgot about Detox and left him alone. Well, it turns out, that isn’t at all what was actually happening! Not only is Dre on the cover of XXL’s next issue plugging Detox, he’s finally let an official, sanctioned Detox single go. It’s called “Kush,” it features Snoop and Akon, and it’s more or less what they’ve been waiting for: a throwback, West Coast, slow-burn speaker-rattler, presumably best blasting out a convertible that’s carrying a scantily clad woman down a sunny California street, but also effective via iPod earbuds. So if everyone had actually listened to Dre and waited, there wouldn’t have been any cause for consternation? Well, now we just feel bad.
