The Defiant Ones

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Factual: Life Stories

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Music: Rock & Indie

Music: Hip Hop, RnB & Dancehall: Hip Hop

Documentary mini-series about the partnership between Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

Documentary mini-series about the partnership between Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, co-founders of Beats Electronics.

BBC Scotland

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A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland

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Dr. Dre

Jimmy Iovine

Allen Hughes

The Defiant Ones: Series 1: Episode 1

Episode 1

Series 1

BBC Four - The Defiant Ones, Series 1, Episode 1

How Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine's music careers began with no more than a little ambition.

Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine sold their Beats headphones company to Apple Inc for $3 billion. But when they started out, they had nothing other than a little ambition.

Years before they brokered one of the biggest deals in music history – the 2015 sale of Beats Electronics to Apple for $3 billion – Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine navigated very different environments towards destinies that would, ultimately and improbably, bring them together.

In this first episode, their stories are explored. Dr Dre’s began in Compton, where his fascination with dance music, DJ innovations and sound brought him into contact with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, DJ Yella and MC Ren. Together, they would become the core of the 1980s gangsta-rap supergroup NWA.

A native of Red Hook, Brooklyn, Jimmy Iovine talks about gravitating to music following an indifferent academic career, always determined to avoid continuing in the family business as a longshoreman. Jimmy discusses getting a job answering phones in recording studios, and through a combination of hard work and old-fashioned luck, connecting with artists like John Lennon, Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen.


The Defiant Ones: Series 1

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