After the break-up of N.W.A., Dr. Dre, with help from ex-UNLV football muscle, Suge Knight, broke away from Eazy E and Jerry Heller’s Ruthless Records to form what would one day become hip-hop’s most infamous record label of all time, Death Row - and The Chronic was the album that laid its entire blueprint. 

     With N.W.A., Dr. Dre’s production was much more raw, almost acting as the west coast ying to the Bomb Squad’s east coast yang, but with The Chronic, the mighty mighty D.R. reinvented his sound, and virtually the sound of the entire west coast, with his own patented “G-Funk”. While this style, he incorporated many classic funk and soul samples from the likes of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Donnie Hathaway, and Isaac Hayes, but what set his new sound apart from artists like EPMD or Digital Underground, was Dre’s incorporation of keyboards and synthesizers, lending a sticky-icky sound yet unheard in hip-hop and gangsta rap at the time – and one that would soon be abused and brutalized by just about every other rapper with a Raiders hat, (and Hammer, too). 

     Still, while artists like Warren G, DJ Pooh, and Soopafly lent their own perspectives to this new sound through their own respective releases, no one could do it better than the good doctor himself. But besides reinventing the sound of gangsta rap, Dre’s classic also introduced the world not only to the entire dysfunctional Death Row family, but a soon to be superstar, Snoop Doggy Dogg. “Nuthin’ But A G Thing” was perhaps one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) rap songs of all time, defining their laid back Cali gangster lifestyle, much different than the abrasive “Straight Outta Compton” attitude. Equally slamming, but not nearly successful was it’s follow up, “Let Me Ride”, which beautifully illustrated a day of cool-ass “motherfucker I’m” Dre rollin’ in his 6-4 mothership.

       The Chronic pulled no punches – it took what everyone loved about N.W.A., and redefined it. The obligatory dis tracks (“Fuck With Dre Day”, “Bitches Ain’t Shit”) were anthems branded in to the consciousnesses of millions of fans, simultaneously destroying the careers of Eazy-E, Luke, and Tim Dog, and never looking back. But some of the albums most crowning achievements were not the singles, but the meat within the album. Ten years later, “The Day The N****z Took Over”, is perhaps the most accurate, brilliant, and frighteningly realistic portrayal of the mindset of the looters during the Rodney King riots. The Chronic had several incredibly precise depictions of L.A. ghetto and gang life at the time. Who was the man with the master plan? “A N***a Witta (motherfuckin’) Gun.” “Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat”? They’d “never hesitate to put a n***a on his back”. Plain and simple, it was the attitude of the early 90′s L.A. gangsta defined. 

     As detrimental to society as it was, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were fucking roll models. Cats so cool, that you wanted to be them, wheter you’d admit it or not. Despite what C. Delores Tucker & Dionne Warwick preached, they didn’t give a fuck about those; they were gangbanging all the way to the bank. 

     There were only two worthy follow-ups in Death Row’s short and fascinating history, with Snoop’s own Doggystyle and the Dogg Pound’s Dogg Food, both released before Tha Row’s success went up in smoke. And soon come would be 2001, Dre’s unofficial sequel, which was another incredible record, but still not one with the timeless influence of The Chronic. Ironically, for a record so violent, it brought everyone together, as fans of every nationality and class share love for this album. But most of all, it stood the test of time. To this day, The Chronic can still rock any house party, with even ya mama and ya daddy hollarin’ “baaabay.”