Dr. Dre Says He Will Go "Off the Grid" for a Year or Two

By Miles Carter, November 10, 2026

Dr. Dre is planning the first real break of his career. On the debut episode of Ice Cube and Mike Epps' Listen and Laugh podcast, posted to the show's YouTube channel on Nov 6, 2026, the producer said he intends to "go away" and "get off the grid" for a year or two, iHeartRadio reported.

Why he is stepping back

Dre framed the break as a search for what comes next. "What if there's something else waiting for me that could give me the same exact feeling when I discovered music?" he said, according to iHeartRadio. He also said he was excited about discovering "the man I'm going to be next," per the same report.

He described himself as constantly tied to music, even when he is not in the studio, iHeartRadio reported. The break, as he described it, is about clearing that space rather than retiring.

Not yet

The pause is not immediate. Dre said he plans to finish two projects before stepping away, one of them with a Houston rapper, iHeartRadio reported. The report described the plan as a search for personal growth, not a goodbye.

The context

Dre has worked without a long break since he started out with the World Class Wreckin' Cru in 1984, iHeartRadio noted. Over that stretch he co-founded Beats, which Apple bought for $3 billion in 2014, and headlined a Super Bowl halftime show, according to the same report.

The full conversation runs about 82 minutes on the show's YouTube channel, which lists it as "Dr. Dre On How It All Started."