The Chronic is the solo debut album of American hip hop artist Dr. Dre, released December 15, 1992, on his own record label Death Row Records, and distributed by Priority Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1992 at Death Row Studios in Los Angeles and at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. The album is named after a slang term for high-grade marijuana, and its cover is an homage to Zig-Zag rolling papers. It was recorded by Dr. Dre following his departure from hip hop group N.W.A and its label Ruthless Records over a financial dispute, and consequently features both subtle and direct insults at Ruthless and its owner, former N.W.A-member Eazy-E. Although a solo album, it features many appearances by Snoop Dogg, who used the album as a launch pad for his own solo career.
Upon its release, The Chronic received positive reviews from most music critics and earned considerable sales success. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies, which led to Dr. Dre becoming one of the top ten best-selling American performing artists of 1993. Dr. Dre's production has been noted for founding and popularizing the G-funk sub-genre within gangsta rap. The Chronic has been widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s and regarded by many fans and peers to be one of the most well-produced hip hop albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 137 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The production on The Chronic was seen as innovative and ground-breaking, and received universal acclaim from critics. Allmusic commented on Dr. Dre's efforts, "Here, Dre established his patented G-funk sound: fat, blunted Parliament-Funkadelic beats, soulful backing vocals, and live instruments in the rolling basslines and whiny synths" and that "For the next four years, it was virtually impossible to hear mainstream hip-hop that wasn't affected in some way by Dre and his patented G-funk." Unlike other hip hop acts (such as The Bomb Squad) that sampled heavily, Dr. Dre only utilized one or few samples per song. In Rolling Stone's The Immortals - The Greatest Artists of All Time, where Dr. Dre was listed at number 54, Kanye West wrote on the album's production quality: "The Chronic is still the hip-hop equivalent to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. It's the benchmark you measure your album against if you're serious."
Jon Pareles of The New York Times described the production, writing "The bottom register is swampy synthesizer bass lines that openly emulate Parliament-Funkadelic; the upper end is often a lone keyboard line, whistling or blipping incessantly. In between are wide-open spaces that hold just a rhythm guitar, sparse keyboard chords." Pareles observed that the songs "were smoother and simpler than East Coast rap, and [Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg] decisively expanded the hip-hop audience into the suburbs." Until this point, mainstream hip hop had been primarily party music (for example, Beastie Boys) or angry and politically charged (for example, Public Enemy or X-Clan), and had consisted almost entirely of samples and breakbeats. Dr. Dre ushered in a new musical style and lyrics for hip hop. The beats were slower and mellower, borrowing from late 1970s and early 1980s funk music. By mixing these early influences with original live instrumentation, he created a distinctive genre known as G-funk.The Chronic is the solo debut album of American hip hop artist Dr. Dre, released December 15, 1992, on his own record label Death Row Records, and distributed by Priority Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1992 at Death Row Studios in Los Angeles and at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. The album is named after a slang term for high-grade marijuana, and its cover is an homage to Zig-Zag rolling papers. It was recorded by Dr. Dre following his departure from hip hop group N.W.A and its label Ruthless Records over a financial dispute, and consequently features both subtle and direct insults at Ruthless and its owner, former N.W.A-member Eazy-E. Although a solo album, it features many appearances by Snoop Dogg, who used the album as a launch pad for his own solo career.
Upon its release, The Chronic received positive reviews from most music critics and earned considerable sales success. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies, which led to Dr. Dre becoming one of the top ten best-selling American performing artists of 1993. Dr. Dre's production has been noted for founding and popularizing the G-funk sub-genre within gangsta rap. The Chronic has been widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s and regarded by many fans and peers to be one of the most well-produced hip hop albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 137 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The production on The Chronic was seen as innovative and ground-breaking, and received universal acclaim from critics. Allmusic commented on Dr. Dre's efforts, "Here, Dre established his patented G-funk sound: fat, blunted Parliament-Funkadelic beats, soulful backing vocals, and live instruments in the rolling basslines and whiny synths" and that "For the next four years, it was virtually impossible to hear mainstream hip-hop that wasn't affected in some way by Dre and his patented G-funk." Unlike other hip hop acts (such as The Bomb Squad) that sampled heavily, Dr. Dre only utilized one or few samples per song. In Rolling Stone's The Immortals - The Greatest Artists of All Time, where Dr. Dre was listed at number 54, Kanye West wrote on the album's production quality: "The Chronic is still the hip-hop equivalent to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. It's the benchmark you measure your album against if you're serious."
Jon Pareles of The New York Times described the production, writing "The bottom register is swampy synthesizer bass lines that openly emulate Parliament-Funkadelic; the upper end is often a lone keyboard line, whistling or blipping incessantly. In between are wide-open spaces that hold just a rhythm guitar, sparse keyboard chords." Pareles observed that the songs "were smoother and simpler than East Coast rap, and [Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg] decisively expanded the hip-hop audience into the suburbs." Until this point, mainstream hip hop had been primarily party music (for example, Beastie Boys) or angry and politically charged (for example, Public Enemy or X-Clan), and had consisted almost entirely of samples and breakbeats. Dr. Dre ushered in a new musical style and lyrics for hip hop. The beats were slower and mellower, borrowing from late 1970s and early 1980s funk music. By mixing these early influences with original live instrumentation, he created a distinctive genre known as G-funk.false2022-10-22 09:47:20The Chronic8.219921992-12-151992-12-1563G-FunkGangsta RapHip HopWest Coast Hip Hop1114302112184924a0c96-6967-4452-9d27-f04987b55b695f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203ad444843-7160-33d7-b0c9-fc99f2c14a99/media/data/media5/Music/Dr. Dre/The Chronic (1992)/folder.jpgDr. DreAlbumArtist/config/metadata/People/D/Dr. Dre/folder.jpgDr. DreArtist/config/metadata/People/D/Dr. Dre/folder.jpgDr. DreDr. DreAndre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and was the president of Death Row Records. Dr. Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru in 1985 and later found fame with the gangsta rap group N.W.A. The group popularized explicit lyrics in hip hop to detail the violence of street life. During the early 1990s, Dre was credited as a key figure in the crafting and popularization of West Coast G-funk, a subgenre of hip hop characterized by a synthesizer foundation and slow, heavy beats.
Dre's solo debut studio album The Chronic (1992), released under Death Row Records, made him one of the best-selling American music artists of 1993. It earned him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance for the single "Let Me Ride", as well as several accolades for the single "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang". That year, he produced Death Row labelmate Snoop Doggy Dogg's debut album Doggystyle and mentored producers such as his stepbrother Warren G (leading to the multi-platinum debut Regulate...G Funk Era in 1994) and Snoop Dogg's cousin Daz Dillinger (leading to the double-platinum debut Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound in 1995), as well as mentor to upcoming producers Sam Sneed and Mel-Man. In 1996, Dr. Dre left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. He produced a compilation album, Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath, in 1996, and released a solo album, 2001, in 1999.
During the 2000s, Dre focused on producing other artists, occasionally contributing vocals. He signed Eminem in 1998 and 50 Cent in 2002, and co-produced their albums. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many other rappers, including the D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Knoc-turn'al, the Game, Kendrick Lamar, and Anderson .Paak. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, The Wash, and Training Day. He has won six Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Rolling Stone ranked him number 56 on the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He was the second-richest figure in hip hop as of 2018 with an estimated net worth of $800 million.
Accusations of Dre's violence against women have been widely publicized. Following his assault of television host Dee Barnes, he was fined $2,500, given two years' probation, ordered to perform 240 hours of community service, and given a spot on an anti-violence public service announcement. A civil suit was settled out of court. In 2015, Michel'le, the mother of one of his children, accused him of domestic violence during their time together as a couple. Their abusive relationship is portrayed in her 2016 biopic Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le. Lisa Johnson, the mother of three of Dr. Dre's children, stated that he beat her many times, including while she was pregnant. She was granted a restraining order against him. Former labelmate Tairrie B claimed that Dre assaulted her at a party in 1990, in response to her track "Ruthless Bitch". Two weeks following the release of his third album, Compton in August 2015, he issued an apology to the women "I've hurt".