Dr. Dre - The Chronic

Time to put these bizzalls in your jizzaws

1992 was chokkas (:tight:) with big and interesting album releases. Releases from well established bands like R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, Faith No More’s Angel Dust, and Sonic Youth’s Dirty all topped year-end album charts. Whitney Houston set the world ablaze with her cover of “I Will Always Love You" on The Bodyguard OST. Huge debut releases by Rage Against the Machine (Rage Against the Machine) and Pavement (Slanted & Enchanted) changed the music scene for decades to come. In the metal space, Pantera punched faces with Vulgar Display of Power, Dream Theater progressively pulled people under with Images and Words, Incantation paved the way for cavernous death metal with Onward to Golgotha, and death-doom surged forward with Paradise Lost’s Shades of God and My Dying Bride’s As the Flower Withers. Any one of these albums could have been chosen for this project, but we’ve all heard them before. They’ve been part of different projects, lists, or even mainstays in the reliquary. Therein lies the problem with picking an album from 1992 for this project – all of the interesting ones are interesting for a reason and thus very well known.

So I took a slightly different approach, which boiled down to picking something that is a bit out of most people in this shithole’s standard listening circles. I came up with two albums. First, I’ll discuss the album I didn’t pick. 1992 saw the release of Insane Clown Posse’s debut album Carnival of Carnage. The Detroit duo found underground success in the horrorcore genre, inspiring a massive cult following of “Juggalos”. Juggalos were consistently linked to violent crimes in Seppoland, including being considered an influence on the shooters behind the Columbine High School massacre. If this kind of controversy doesn’t qualify as “interesting”, then I don’t know what does. However, there is one major problem with Carnival of Carnage – it is absolute dogshit. Much like anything Kid Rock has any involvement in, honestly. So, I have spared you all the pain of having to listen to 66 minutes of Insane Clown Posse.

Instead, I will give you The Chronic.

You knew which album I was choosing, it’s in the title of the article and it was announced on the server. I might as well stop wasting your time and just tell you why I chose it. Before Dr. Dre became famous for discovering m&ms and inventing headphones, he was in a little known hip-hop group called N.W.A. That group went straight outta Compton and straight into internal feuds and royalty issues, whilst still managing to bring about a golden age of gangsta rap. After leaving N.W.A, the good doctor formed Death Row Records with a few other big players in the scene and started hurling insults at Eazy-E. Then, alongside the (at the time) relatively unknown Snoop Dogg, better known as Martha Stewart’s future best friend, cemented G-funk as a genre with The Chronic.

The Chronic is a production masterclass full of banger songs and earworms. The beats are unfuckwithable, the bars are on point, the flow is groovy, and overall the album is actually pretty funny. Memorable lines like “bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay”, future catch-phrase of everyone’s favourite rapper Lil Bow Wow, “1, 2, 3, and to the 4”, Snoop Dogg’s audition lines from Sesame Street, and “The name is Dre Eastwood when I’m packing a gun”, a clever and subtle reference to Dr. Dre wishing he was from the east coast hip-hop scene, are scattered throughout the album.

However, there are a few flaws. First, and most obviously, the album suffers from being bloated (like all hip-hop albums). This problem is especially prevalent through the middle, where a few skits, the second flaw with this (and all hip-hop albums), could have been left out altogether. Thirdly (and also a flaw with a lot of hip hop) is the misogynistic themes, which detracts from the listening experience for me, personally. As stated, these flaws are just part and parcel with hip-hop, so to any fan of the genre they likely aren’t an issue. I’m clearly not the intended audience for this album, but regardless, it is an iconic album that everyone should hear at least once.

Definitely interesting. Definitely good.

For more information, read Wikipedia or the plethora of reviews that exist elsewhere on the web for this album. Enjoy the listen and remember:

If you have nuts under your chin, they aren’t chin-nuts. Bitch, you have a dick in your mouth.