[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Chronic (Dr. Dre, December 15, 1992)"]
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The Chronic, number 137 on the RS150, is Dr. Dre's debut solo album after leaving N.W.A. and Eazy-E's 'Ruthless Records' due to financial disputes.
Released in December of 1992, The Chronic was met with (mostly) critical-acclaim and is often hailed as one of the best hip-hop recordings of all time. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog teamed up on this album - Snoop Dogg makes appearances on most of the tracks, if not all.
Track Listing
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The Chronic, number 137 on the RS150, is Dr. Dre's debut solo album after leaving N.W.A. and Eazy-E's 'Ruthless Records' due to financial disputes.
Released in December of 1992, The Chronic was met with (mostly) critical-acclaim and is often hailed as one of the best hip-hop recordings of all time. Dre and Snoop Dogg- The Chronic (Intro)
- Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Chelebratin')
- Let Me Ride
- The Day the Niggaz Took Over
- Nuthin' but a "G" Thang
- Deeez Nuuuts
- Lil' Ghetto Boy
- A Nigga Witta Gun
- Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat
- The $20 Sack Pyramid
- Lyrical Gangbang
- High Powered
- The Doctor's Office
- Stranded on Death Row
- The Roach [The Chronic Outro]
- Bitches Ain't Shit
First off, if you didn't know, 'chronic' is a name for high-quality marijuana, which the album clearly salutes with the name, and also the album art (which is based on the Zig-Zag rolling papers packaging - thanks Wikipedia). The entire album is laced with insults to Eazy-E, Ruthless Records, and a positive outlook for Dre and his new record label - and of course, a lot of sex and guns too.
The first track, 'The Chronic (Intro)' introduces Dre's Death Row Records label and also slams Eazy-E and his label ("P.S. Fuck Mr. Warkentatoo/a.k.a. Jerry and Eazy") makes a clear point of dissociating from them. And off and on that continues throughout the entire album.
This album has a really distinct sound to it, which is what stands out the most. There are funky, synth bass lines mixed with guitar riffs or simple synth chords on the high end that drone a melody over Dre and Snoop's lyrics. And apparently, this combination of the funky bass line and the high-end synths are known as G-Funk, which is a break out from gangsta rap. This album definitely has a different funky element to it than N.W.A. had on Straight Outta Compton, and its cool to hear such a difference.
Then there's a track like "The Doctor's Office", which is literally one minute long and its just the audio track of Dre and another woman going at it in the doctor's office. It's not actually a song, but its just kind of hilarious to me that this kind of stuff makes it onto albums. But I guess not, considering that gangsta rap and the subsequent G-Funk is heavily influenced by street life, which includes sex and guns.
At the end of the day, the beats that Dre created for this album are good. Really good. They are funky, crisp, and balanced with Snoop Dogg's laid back delivery of the sometimes-violent lyrics.
Funny, I don't really know what else to say about this album. I'm not great at analyzing albums like this, so its hard to say much more. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you give this a listen though! Its definitely got a clear and distinctly different, advanced sound from Dre's last projects with N.W.A. Check it out!
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