Throughout his 30-plus-year career, Dr. Dre is one of the Rap superstars who has openly used other songwriters. Throughout the years, Eminem, Jay Z, Ice Cube, The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, and others have written verses for Andre Young, which contributed to a legendary catalog with at least three storied labels. As a result, while D-R-E is revered as one of music’s greatest, most enduring producers, his rapping is often treated with less acclaim than his contemporaries. One of Dre’s closest comrades (who was also one of his writers) reveals that Dre is no slouch with the pen, and has even penned uncredited, memorable verses for others.

MC Ren sat on his couch with Unique Access for a conversation about Dr. Dre the songwriter. The founding N.W.A. member remarks about why that Eazy-E and Dr. Dre have never been majorly criticized for outsourcing verses, especially during the skills-focused 1980s. “[Eazy-E] did it so good, it sounded like he wrote it. He had that distinct voice. The beats was tight,” he says around 3:00. “Nobody really tripped off [the fact]…and they knew he didn’t write [his raps], but they still didn’t trip off of it. But nowadays…if you don’t write your rhymes, you get tore up. You get criticized. Even back then [too], but for some reason, they didn’t criticize him or Dre.”

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Host Soren Baker brings up Eazy’s deft rhyme delivery on 1988 solo single “Eazy-Er Said Than Dunn” (posted below). MC Ren responds, “What’s crazy about that song too, is…Dre had a lot of people write [for him], but Dre wrote that record…all the lyrics on that song.” On the record, Eazy was credited with the writing of the song.

Baker asks Ren to describe the difference between Dre to producer and the MC. “With the music, he’s like a beast, man. He’s like so serious when he’s doing the music, doing the tracks and all of that. When he writing…he would have other people write for him, and then some times he’d just pick up the pen and write. He wouldn’t be as serious as he would doing the tracks. [Making music], he gonna be serious as hell…like he’s sinking into the music. Writing, he’d rarely do that. He rarely would write back in the day. Either I’d write his stuff, [Ice] Cube would write some, or [The D.O.C.] would write some. He rarely picked up the pen and wrote.”

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While Ren and Dre made appearances together for the Straight Outta Compton film and N.W.A. Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction, the men most recently released collaboration was 2000’s “Hello,” which also featured Cube (who included it on his War & Peace Vol. 2 album).

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Ren released the single “Burn Radio Burn” in 2014.