Dr. Dre
The Chronic
Even with all the imitators and adorers, corners of The Chronic still remain untouched by the biters. I’m speaking, of course, about the banging ass flute loop on “Little Ghetto Boy.” Dre is such a gangsta, dude even makes the instrument last heard on Jethro Tull albums sound like a hydraulic bounce whoomp conniption fit. “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” is the song that invented the car window, made it possible to break into homes using nothing but music. Hell, Dre might be in your living room now. The guy is everywhere, he’s all things to all people. No album has ever—ever!—sounded as clear and vibrant as The Chronic. The highs. The lows. The squeals. The growls. And say what you will about Dre as an MC, but he has one skill that no other rapper has ever—ever!—possessed: He knows when to shut the fuck up. He sticks to the points like an attorney making a closing argument, and the point is usually this: Here’s Snoop D-O-double-G. At the beginning of “Dre Day,” Dre says, “Yeah.” Then he says, “Hell Yeah.” Then, in case we missed the gist, he asks, just to be sure, “Know what I’m sayin’?” We know exactly what he’s saying. We hear him loud and clear.
-Marty Brown, 2006
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