'Dr Dre Started Burning Man': Bizarre Rumor Involves Tupac

by Jordan Yerman | February 11, 2011 at 04:15 pm

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Dr. Dre Did Not Start Burning Man

A Tumblr blog called drdrestartedburningman is making a bold claim: that Dr. Dre, the man behind Aftermath Records and those overpriced Beats headphones, started the art party-a-thon known as Burning Man. According to a letter on the site, Dr. Dre got the idea for monetizing Burning Man as he and Hype Williams scouted the Nevada desert for the "California Love" video shoot. "California Love" was Tupac Shakur's big comeback single after his jail stint, and the video featured George Clinton as a post-apocalyptic supervillian.

Of course, it's a troll. Dr. Dre did not start Burning Man. That said, the post below is a must-read. Also, the Dre/Wicker Man superimposition would make a good album cover.

The Big Secret:

Dr. Dre is financially behind the Burning man Festival. Since 1995 he has paid the permit fees to the Nevada Bureau of Land Management and thus he collects the money from ticket sales sans some costs that go with the organization of the event itself.

Well, we can see from the Black Rock City LLC entity details that Andre Young, known to the rest of us as Dr. Dre (or "that motherfuckin' D-R-E), is not listed here.

But wait! There's supposedly a letter, written by Dre, in which he muses on how to make money off the "crazy naked motherfuckers" in the desert, who were organizing the Burning Man venue in 1995. A few problems with this: Burning Man does not take place in February, when it would be waaaaay too cold to party with art cars. Burning Man takes place over the Labor Day holiday, and began at Baker Beach in San Francisco back in 1986.

The Burning Man blog got wind of the rumor, and also wants to put it to rest:

For us, really, it’s all Been There Done That…we figure

it’ll all come out in The Wash, but we are sure of one thing:

Burning Man will be as Xplosive as ever in 2011.

(found via Boing Boing)