Docuseries on musically ‘Defiant Ones’

By Frazier Moore

Assocated Press

NEW YORK

“The Defiant Ones,” a new HBO docuseries about two giants in the entertainment world, takes its title from a 1958 film classic about two prison escapees, one black and one white, who are shackled together as they make a break for freedom.

Airing Sunday through Wednesday at 9 p.m., the docuseries tracks the lives of Dr. Dre, whose upbringing in Compton, Calif., inspired him to become a pioneer of gangsta rap, and Jimmy Iovine, a working-class kid from Brooklyn, N.Y., who made his bones as a record producer working with John Lennon, Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen.

This four-part portrait differs markedly from the original “Defiant Ones,” whose fictional heroes are literally stuck with each other. The unlikely kindred spirits Dre and Iovine are bonded not by chains but by a mutual passion that cemented their relationship with Iovine’s Interscope Records, which soon after its 1990 launch was swept up in armed warfare between rap rivals, not to mention political and corporate assault.

“I hate to use the word ‘scary,’ but it got really weird,” he says before posing a rhetorical question: “Why did these two guys stay together under the most difficult circumstances in the history of entertainment?”

With remarkable finesse, the film laces back and forth between their wildly different origins, then follows their implausible association culminating in their 2014 sale of Beats Electronics to Apple for more than $3 billion.

“The biggest challenge was to blend these men, these cultures, these genres,” said Allen Hughes, who directed “The Defiant Ones.”

Hughes said his film is meant to speak to all audiences and musical tastes. With a bounty of archival footage and scores of new interviews, it was several years in the making.

“I kept saying, ‘This thing won’t go away,’” Iovine laughs. “I didn’t think it would be four episodes, man! I kept saying, ‘ONE!’”

Along with recalling his triumphs, was there anything that made him squeamish to revisit in the film?

“All of it,” Iovine says, as if by reflex. “It was so painful, man. Even having hit records is painful, ‘cause you think you can’t do it again.

“I never celebrated a success,” he added. “There are no victory laps. There’s no rearview mirror. I’m always moving forward.” That’s the lesson he wants viewers to take from the film. “The most important thing I ever learned: No matter how ugly it gets, keep moving.”