Dr. Dre’s late 2021 takeover continues. He closes a year of serious health concerns and personal life events out with his medicine—music. Approaching next year’s headlining Super Bowl Halftime Show performance alongside Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige, Dre has used December to release more music than he has since 2015. This week’s Grand Theft Auto Online: The Contract game has included new Dre songs with Em and The D.O.C. (“Gospel”), a collaboration (“Diamond Mind”) between Dre, Nipsey Hussle, and Ty Dolla Sign (co-produced by Dre, Alchemist, and Mike & Keyz), and more. However, the video game news broke with a snippet from “ETA,” featuring Snoop Dogg, Anderson .Paak, and Busta Rhymes.

Both Dre and Paak appear in the game, and this song raised eyebrows—especially as Dre sat out from the boards on Paak’s Ventura. After reports that he was at the helm for Busta’s touted comeback album, Dre was not credited with a hand in B.R.’s acclaimed Extinction Level Event 2: Wrath Of God album. Meanwhile, Dre has not produced Snoop songs since Compton.

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The GTA track has elements of nostalgia. Dre and Paak use the same kind of conversational interplay that Em and the doctor did on “Guilty Conscience.” “Big shot, been the bomb, make me reminisce upon / I rеmember me and Dogg, swap meet, Dickiеs on / When was that? In ’93? You probably wasn’t even born / Dre, I think you need to the trade Range for the ‘6-4 / Sh*t, I’ve been going back and forth, Chevy or Aventador / Took a walk in the park, ni**a, that’s your backyard / Say, Dre, where you get them shrooms with the chocolate? / Sh*t, the same place that I saw them gods out in Panama.” Snoop lets people know at the chorus that he is a man of peace who is still on guard. “Weave through the weeds, smoke trees where my seeds grow / Let ’em try to press, get shot like a free throw / Aw, ni**as want beef ’til they get they fucking teeth broke / I just want peace; they don’t want me to be peaceful.”

The second verse features more looking back. Dre and Busta Bus’ recall the era that inspired songs like Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood”—crack cocaine and Reaganomics. This time, Snoop and Busta join the fold with the interplay. The beat, co-produced by Dre, features lush instrumentation that channels ’70s Soul.

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In 2021, Snoop Dogg was hired as an executive by Def Jam Records. In addition to signing Griselda’s Benny The Butcher to a major label solo deal, Snoop was at the helm for The Algorithm, a compilation featuring Redman, Method Man, and others. The Grammys notably snubbed Busta’s late 2020 album for nominations in next month’s awards show. However, Anderson is competing for “Record Of The Year,” “Song Of The Year,” and “Best R&B Song” alongside Bruno Mars in their Silk Sonic outfit. “Leave The Door Open” is the hit Aftermath Entertainment single in the nominations for each category.

Hopefully, “ETA” and the rest of this GTA music are only a small taste of what these four legends have in store for 2022.

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#BonusBeat: A recent Ambrosia For Heads What’s The Headline podcast about Dr. Dre’s 2021 comeback, including an upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show: