Dr. Dre gifted Compton High School $10 million out of his massive fortune to help build a new campus.
The rapper made the sizable donation to Compton High School to assist its effort at building a new $200-million campus. The school recently broke ground to announce the beginning of the project, which will see its new performing arts center being named after the hip hop legend.
According to Fox L.A, the center will be called the “Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young Performing Arts Center.”
The rapper said that investment is to help foster youth talent from within the high school based on his own personal experience as a high schooler.
“I was an artistic kid in school with no outlet for it,” Dr. Dre said during remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony held on Saturday. “I knew I had something special to offer to the world, but with nothing to support my gift, schools left me feeling unseen.”
The Beats co-founder also spoke about his life after dropping out of Fremont High School and whether, looking back, his life might have been on a far more successful trajectory.
“I’ve always wondered how much further ahead I might have been had the resources I needed in school were available,” he said. “If I had learned more about the business industry, I would have saved myself [an] extreme amount of time, money and most importantly, [made] a lot of friendships,” he said.
Compton High School has 1,800 students who will all benefit from the new academic building along with a new sports facilities, fitted with a new gym, an aquatics center, a football stadium, and a track for track and field training. The academic and fitness facility is expected to be completed in 2025.
Dr. Dre also announced a partnership with his friend and Beats By Dre co-founder Jimmy Iovine to open a magnet public school in South Los Angeles. He also recently donated $70 million to USC to create a new academy, noting that Compton is a special city with young minds who are special.
