Marcel Young
Not only is Dr. Dre a prolific record producer and rapper worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the former Death Row Records president, who shot to fame with his 1992 album “The Chronic”, is a father of nine, who has been known to publicly feud with his kids and their mothers. Marcel Young is Dre’s seventh child and one of the most discreet, born on 6th February 1991, the product of a volatile relationship between the rap mogul and R&B singer Michel’le.
Michel’le and Dre met when she was just 16 years old, and provided vocals for “Turn Off the Lights”, a 1987 single which reached No. 54 on the Billboard Charts. Months after their first meeting, the artists began dating – at the time, Dre was 22 and already had six children. Eventually they became engaged and welcomed Marcel – but despite how serious their relationship was at that point, things were far from idyllic.
Drinking, infidelity, and erratic behavior on Dre’s part – as well as alleged abusive behavior that led to Michel’le suffering a broken nose, cracked rib, and several black eyes – eventually led to the couple breaking up. However, it would be a long time before that happened. In an interview with “The Breakfast Club”, Michel’le recalled a particularly harrowing incident in which Dre shot at her, missing her by inches. Despite being stuck in a hellish relationship and self-medicating with alcohol and prescription pills, Michel’le stayed with Dre until she learned that he was engaged to another woman.
When Michel’le’s relationship with Dre was at its lowest point, Suge Knight – the co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records – sent her to rehab to help her get clean; we can assume that son Marcel was raised by family members during that time, given that Dre was constantly traveling for work. Somehow, the relationship between the singer and Suge became romantic, as they married in 1999 when he was in prison.
When Michel’le filed for divorce in 2005, she discovered that her marriage to Suge was invalid, because he’d never officially divorced his ex-wife. By then, they had a three-year-old daughter named Bailei, but the relationship between Suge and Michel’le was also abusive, and he reportedly dislocated her jaw during a particularly heated argument.
All in all, Marcel had a pretty traumatized childhood, and most probably witnessed things that a child of his age shouldn’t have to see. Despite having enough stories to write a book, however, the Californian refuses to give interviews or have anything to do with the entertainment industry, perhaps after seeing the toll it took on his mother. In fact, Marcel doesn’t even have social media, which makes it challenging to discover where he studied, what he does for a living, and his current relationship status.
However, we can surmise that Marcel and his famous father share a good relationship, despite Dre’s problems with Michel’le. In 2015, Dre issued a public apology to the women he had wronged, after his murky history of physical abuse was brought to light; although Michel’le didn’t believe the apology was sincere, it’s evident that she has never denied Dre the chance to have a relationship with Marcel, as there are several photos of the father-son duo online.
Siblings
As mentioned, Dre has many children, and is clearly not on good terms with all of them. His firstborn, Curtis Young, was born in December 1981, when the future record executive was just 16 years old. His mother, Cassandra Joy Greene, was Dre’s girlfriend at the time; however, something clearly went wrong between them, as Curtis didn’t meet his father until he was 20 years old. Even so, Curtis followed in his father’s footsteps by releasing mixtapes and albums under the moniker Hood Surgeon; in 2021, he revealed that he would be starring in his first movie role in the urban movie “Charge It to the Game”. Curtis is currently married and has two children.
Next up is LaTanya Young, who was born in 1983 and is one of three daughters of Dre and his ex-girlfriend Lisa Johnson. In December 2020, LaTanya made news after claiming that she hadn’t seen her father in almost two decades, and that he’d never met any of her children. Months later, she criticized the Death Row Records star for living large while she worked for Uber and DoorDash to make ends meet.
Although the public was at first sympathetic to LaTanya, she later revealed that he stopped helping her financially in January 2020 when she spoke to the press about him. In an interview with the Daily Mail, she claimed that the only way she could contact her father was through his attorney. As LaTanya was almost 40 years old at the time – and allegedly living out of a car while her children stayed with friends – people no longer blamed Dre for going no-contact after she shared details of his life to the press.
Tyra Young, Dre and Lisa’s second daughter, was born in May 1984. With no social media accounts, Tyra is even more low-key than her younger brother Marcel. Meanwhile, Dre and Lisa’s third daughter, LaToya was reportedly born in September 1984 – which would be biologically impossible – and is one of the couple’s two “secret daughters”. In 2010, Lisa said that in time, the public would learn why Dre only recognized LaTanya as his daughter, while ignoring Tyra and LaToya’s existence.
During the interview, Lisa sensationally claimed that Dre had a fourth daughter named Ashley Young. Dre is known to be famously tight-lipped when it comes to discussing how many children he has, with some news outlets claiming that he has 11, not nine, and as he has never confirmed Ashley’s existence, it’s hard to know if Lisa was telling the truth or not.
Meanwhile, Andre Young Jr. was born in 1988 to Dre and Juanita Porter, one of his many romantic partners. Andre Jr. tragically died at just 20 years old after overdosing on morphine and heroine, and was found unresponsive in bed by his mother. At the time, a spokesperson for the rapper asked the public and media to respect his privacy while he mourned Andre Jr’s loss.
Ironically, Truice and Truly Young are mini-celebrities in their own right due to their mother Nicole’s highly publicized relationship with Dre. Nicole and Dre married in 1996, but went through an acrimonious divorce in 2021; the hip-hop legend was forced to part with $100 million of his fortune, and suffered a brain aneurism during the proceedings.
Truice and Truly were born in 1997 and 2001 respectively, and raised in Los Angeles. Truice graduated from the University of South Carolina, and now works in the music industry. Meanwhile, Truly is currently studying at the University of Southern California, and has an active social media presence, with over 100,000 followers.
Despite Dre reportedly becoming the first billionaire in rap after selling his Beats headphones to Apple for $3 billion, his net worth was estimated to be $500 million as of July 2023. As such, Marcel could be worth over $50 million, depending on how his famous dad’s estate is divided in the future.
