On April 23, 1991, Eazy-E, a member of the N.W.A. and the owner of Dr. Dre, received an "invitation" from Suge Knight, a notorious figure in the history of hip-hop, to go to the solar recording studio, where he was greeted by Suge and a group of retinues with long guns and short guns.
Yes, Suge, who has always admired violence, decided to use her old ways to achieve her goals. Dre was dissatisfied with ruthless label owner Eazy-E and N.W.A agent Jerry Heller's oppression and deception of him, and was eager to leave Ruthless for his new owner.
Suge, who wanted to set up a record company, would never let Dre go of the big fish. He told Eazy that he had kidnapped his manager Jerry Heller, coerced Eazy into signing a contract that had no legal effect at the time, and got a .C from Dr. Dre and N.W.A.'s strong lyric writer The D.O. and founded the legendary West Coast label Death Row Records.
Although Death Row Records got such a tough guy, Dre was plagued by various legal disputes due to violence, and the boss Suge lost a lot of money to the company because of his lack of business acumen.
The young "death row prisoners" desperately need a victory to build the Death Row Empire, and The Chronic became the most effective weapon of the Death Row Empire, helping Death Row out of its predicament.
<h1 style="text-align: left;"" > the pioneering work of G-Funk</h1>
Dre's production style on "The Chronic" is definitely the biggest attraction of this album, although in the N.W.A period, Dre has been experimenting with melodious Funk sampling and majestic effects, but in "The Chronic" he has been able to master this production style, his arrangement is more layered, the structure of the album and arrangement is more reasonable, a new style - G-Funk (Gangsta Funk) appeared.
Songs such as "Let Me Ride" and "Nuthin' But A Gang Thang" in "The Chronic" have become G-Funk's masterpieces. Compared to the restraint in the production of Dre's other classic album, 2001, people are more excited and excited about the emergence of "The Chronic", which is a new sound for most people. Vocal sampling, basslines, and icy sound effects from "The Day The N***** Took Over" and "A N**** With Gun" give the album a spooky and grotesque texture. We can also get a glimpse into the private lives of these singers from "The $20 Sack Pyramid" on the album and "The Doctor's Office", which has been removed from the shelves in China. (The D.O.C's broken voice in "The $20 Sack Pyramid" is really heart-wrenching.
The Death Row lineup after the album's release
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > this is not a one-man victory</h1>
At N.W.A., Dre teamed up with Ice Cube, the best lyricist of the time, and after leaving, a tall skinny guy from Long Beach, California, filled the cube, and his languid flow and voice became the most common feature on Dre's album, and he was Snoop Dogg, another legendary rapper on the West Coast.
He and the D.O.C whose vocal cords were damaged by a car accident, helped Dre, who was not good at lyrics, complete the album, and the lyrics for the entire album were basically completed by them. Later, the story is known to everyone, and Snoop's first album "Doggy Style", which was produced by Dre himself, was released, and Snoop has since become a super-first-line rapper. In addition, Dre's stepbrother Warren G, Snoop's cousin Dax Dillinger, RBX, and female rapper Lady Of Rage and rapper Kurupt. Melodically, R&B vocalist Jewell and Nate Dogg, the king of West Coast choruses who were still very young at the time, were also involved. They recorded and wrote lyrics at Dre's home and in Solar Studios, exchanging ideas and ideas.
For Death Row, which was very difficult to operate at the time, "The Chronic" can be said to be a turnaround battle, so everyone on the album has a very high enthusiasm in front of the microphone, eager to put their best paragraphs into this album, Dre even in the second half of the "Stranded On Death Row", the microphone is completely handed over to the cameo MC, and he himself returns to the producer position. I was impressed by Dre's lax but fierce flow of Snoop in the first half of the album, and I was even more amazed by the intense and explosive performance of the MCs in the second half. It was they who brought the album to its perfect state, a state of rap and production in balance.
It's not just Dre who succeeded because of this album, and it's not just Because of Dre that album.
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > relentless attack on old friends</h1>
In the album's intro, Snoop and Dre express their dislike for Eazy-E and Jerry Heller. Snoop sings more bluntly in intro: "I don't love Eazy, I don't love Jerry, I don't love Ruthless Records." In one of the album's classics, "F***With Dre Day," Dre talks about the change in relationship with Eazy-E:
Used to be my homey, used to be my ace,
Used to be my brother my comrade-in-arms
NowI wanna slap the taste out yo mouth,
But all I want now is to beat you to the point where you don't even have a sense of taste
Makeyou bow down to the row,
Make you fall to your knees under Seath Row
F****nme, now I'm f****n you, little ho.
I used to want to count me out, now I'm going to you, little **
In the song, Dre says Eazy-E has lost respect on the streets and among friends, and also attacks East Coast rapper Tim Dog. The scene in the song's MV where Eazy dances funny with people on the street, is chased by gangs, and is called go boy by Jerry also alludes to the fact that Eazy is just a funny clown who sees people and deceives people.
Eazy-E then released a whole EP in response, including "Real Muthaphuckkin G's", which is really a very informative Diss Track, if you want to understand the origins of the two people must listen to it.
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > unchanging street themes and spirit of defiance</h1>
Both during the N.W.A period and on this album, the dislike of the police and the advocacy of violence have always been the constant themes of music, and the song "The Day The N***** Took Over" refers to the riots in Los Angeles in April 1992, when the black driver Rodney King was beaten by four white police officers on March 2, 1991 and found innocent, and the song begins with a sample of the voices of the riot-era street people, including Snoop I was impressed by the verse of my cousin Daz Dilligner:
Theywonder why me violent and don't really understand,
Outsiders can't understand why we're so violent
Thereason why they take me life and me hand,
Why should I rebel with my life and my hands
Menot out for peace and me not Rodney King,
I'm not Rodney King, and what I want is not peace
Megun goes click, me gun goes bang.
I'll pull the trigger, I'll shoot.
To outsiders, the anger and frequent riots of black society always seem incomprehensible, but for African Americans and other minorities in the United States, this is the only way for people to hear their voices, and although Rodney King has called for people to stop rioting, people will not care about anything and peace when they cannot do justice.
"Lil Ghetto Boy" is a narrative-based song inspired by American musician Donny Hathaway's 1972 song of the same name, Snoop and Dre tell their own experiences with the little gangsters on the street, expressing the helplessness of street life, danny's vocal samples and soul-destroying flutes interspersed throughout the song. Snoop Dogg laments the helplessness of gang life from a prison fight:
I'm only eighteen, so I'm a young buck
I was only eighteen years old, a young gang leader
It's a riot, if I don't scrap, I'm getting stuck
It's a struggle, and if I don't resist, I'll be hurt (prison fight)
It's a fight, and if I don't resist, I'm going to be in trouble (gang life)
But that's the life of a G, I guess
Maybe that's what gang life puts
Eses way deep, shanked two in the chest
The wound was so deep that two knives were inserted into (mine)'s chest
Best run 'cause brothers is dropping quicker
It is better to run quickly, because the brother is about to fall
Uh, too late, damn, down goes another nigga
Gan, it was too late, and another brother fell
Dre also sang a very graphic verse, Dre because of his arrogance and recklessness, robbed a young man with his OG body but was unexpectedly killed, and Dre in the song realized this before he died.
Straight sitting behind his back
I sat straight behind him
I grabbed his pockets and then I heard six caps
Grabbed his bag, and then I heard six gunshots (the other side resisted)
I fell to the ground with blood on my hands
I fell to the ground and watched as my hands were stained with blood
I didn't understand
I don't understand
How a n**** so young could bust a cap
A brother so young would shoot (don't be afraid of me)
I used to be the same way back
I used to be like this
I guess that's what I get (For what?)
I thought about what I got out of it
For trying to jack the little homies for they grip
Just to rob a little brother with a pistol?
Both expressed the helplessness and pain of gang life.
As the godfather of rap on the West Coast, Dre's influence naturally goes without saying, and the influence of "The Chronic" naturally goes without saying, it is the time and place that have created this classic album. The album brought Death Row to life and began its epic operations, and although the label disbanded in 1996, it still left a mark on the history of hip-hop.
It's a G-Funk carnival that belongs to the West Coast, and it's a carnival that belongs only to Death Row.
Whether you like Dre or not, you can't deny the fact that Dre is one of the legendary and powerful producers and rappers in the history of hip-hop. Although he had only released three albums in thirty years, and despite numerous conspiracy theories about him, Dre and this album were a booster to West Coast rap at the time.
Today's West Coast rappers like The Game, YG, Kendrick Lamar, Vince Staples, and even Roddy Ricch have been more or less influenced by Dre's music, maybe we are getting harder and harder to hear G-Funk's shadow in music now, but maybe we can recall the album at some point in the process of listening to the song, remembering a group of poor "death row prisoners" writing songs in the recording studio thirty years ago. Recording, the blueprints of West Coast rap also quietly spread out under their feet.
CREDITS：
Article author: $PEEDBOAT
Edit: Mkuag
Reference: P4K & Genius
The pictures are from the Internet