Marsha Ambrosius is gearing up to release her new Dr. Dre-produced album Casablanco – which she’s said was made out of their “trauma bond” as they both were going through personal things during its creation.
The pair held a listening session for the project on Wednesday (February 2) in Los Angeles, and both took time to say some words about the process.
“End of 2020, Dre and myself were going back and forth, shooting each other ideas,” the Floetry singer began. “And January 2021 happens and I’m pretty sure everyone got the text alert. Sorry to bring up your personal but we all saw it. It was Dr. Dre’s brain aneurysm and I remember my heart stopped and I’m calling everyone.”
She continued: “I’m like, ‘Yo fool, what happened?’ [They’re like] ‘Everything is okay. Relax, calm down. Dre is okay.’ I get a call from Dre and by February 2021, I was out working with him. So his rehab, his rehabilitation and resurgence back into wanting to make music to make people feel good was what I needed. Ultimately, what he needed. And this album was kind of our trauma bond in some way.”
Dre revealed that their sessions were initially birthed out of a plan to make music for him, but it turned into something totally different.
“And the way it started out was she actually flew down to work on some songs for me,” Dre said. “And all of a sudden I’m like okay let’s work on some songs for you. Let’s work on three or four songs and all of a sudden that turned into an entire album over a two-week period.”
Dre and Marsha first announced the project just over a year ago in December 2021.
“I just finished recording an album with Marsha Ambrosius,” Dr. Dre wrote while sharing a selfie with a room full of musicians. “Casablanco I had a blast!! This is some of my best work!!”
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Violist Eric Gorfain shared more details about the album on his Instagram Stories, revealing recording sessions took place over the summer.
“The cat is out the bag,” he wrote. “I spent this summer arranging strings for this entire album, reuniting with @drdre and @marshaambrosius. Casablanco is seriously good. Marsha is ridiculously good. Dre is The Greatest.”
Dr. Dre previously teamed up with Marsha Ambrosius on four songs off his Compton album 2015, including “Genocide,” “All in a Day’s Work,” “Darkside/Gone” and “Satisfaction.” In 2014, Dre also featured on “Stronger” off the UK artist’s Friends & Lovers album.
Other collaborations between the pair include The Game’s “Start from Scratch” and Nas’ “Hustlers,” along with Busta Rhymes’ “Cocaina” and “Get You Some.”