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Released: Dec. 15, 1992

Rating: 4.418 (average of 11 ratings)

Genre: rap

Quotable: “one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time” – Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Album Tracks:

  1. The Chronic (intro) (with Snoop Dogg)
  2. Fuck Wit Dre Day (And Everybody’s Celebratin’) (with Snoop Dogg, RBX, & Jewell)
  3. Let Me Ride (with Ruben & Jewell)
  4. The Day the Niggaz Took Over (with RBX & Snoop Dogg)
  5. Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang (with Snoop Dogg)
  6. Deeez Nuuuts (with That Nigga Daz & Snoop Dogg)
  7. Lil’ Ghetto Boy (with Snoop Dogg)
  8. A Nigga Witta Gun (with Snoop Dogg)
  9. Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat (with Snoop Dogg & RBX)
  10. The $20 Sack Pyramid (with Big Tittie Nickie, D.O.C., & Samara)
  11. Lyrical Gangbang (with Rage, Kurupt, & RBX)
  12. High Powered (with RBX, That Nigga Daz, & Rage)
  13. The Doctor’s Office (with Jewell & Rage)
  14. Stranded on Death Row (with Bushwick Bill, Kurupt, & RBX)
  15. The Roach (with RBX, That Nigga Daz, Rage, & Emmage)
  16. Bitches Ain’t Shit (with Snoop Dogg, That Nigga Daz, & Kurupt)

Sales (in millions):

sales in U.S. only 4.5
sales in U.K. only - estimated 0.06
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated 6.0

Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 3
peak on U.K. album chart --

Singles/Hit Songs:

  • Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang (1/23/93) #2 US, #31 UK, #1 RB, sales: 1 million
  • Dre Day (5/15/93) #8 US, #59 UK, #6 RB. sales: 0.5 million
  • Let Me Ride (9/25/93) #34 US, #34 RB

Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more. One of Blender’s 100 Greatest American Albums Q Magazine’s Top 100 Albums Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/NARM’s Definitive Albums Spin Magazine’s 100 Greatest Albums One of Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Albums.

The Chronic
Dr. Dre
Review:
“After helping write the book on gangsta rap with N.W.A, Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young started a smokin’ new chapter with his… solo debut.” BL “With its stylish, sonically detailed production,” SH “The Chronic managed to be both dangerous and addictive at once;” BL it effectively “transformed the entire sound of West Coast rap.” SH On this album, we experience “Dre’s invention, not quite from scratch, of a sound that defined early ‘90s urban L.A. in the same way that Motown defined ‘60s Detroit. Over grooves built from liberally sampled pieces of the Funkadelic catalog, Dre delivers his verses with hypnotically intimidating ease.” TL We also get “soulful backing vocals, and live instruments in the rolling basslines and whiny synths.” SH

“What’s impressive is that Dre crafts tighter singles than his inspiration George Clinton – he’s just as effortlessly funky, and he has a better feel for a hook, a knack that improbably landed gangsta rap on the pop charts” SH with hits like “Let Me Ride and Nuthin’ But a G Thang [which] feel like dusk on a wide-open L.A. boulevard, full of possibility and menace.” TL

“But none of The Chronic’s legions of imitators were as rich in personality, and that’s due in large part to Dre's monumental discovery, Snoop Doggy Dogg” SH “as his vocal foil.” BL “While it's debatable whether this was a net positive for the world, Snoop’s drawled-out Mississippi-ness (he was rap’s first country cousin) was just one more original element.” TL

“Snoop livens up every track he touches, sometimes just by joining in the chorus – and if The Chronic has a flaw, it’s that his relative absence from the second half slows the momentum. There was nothing in rap quite like Snoop’s singsong, lazy drawl (as it’s invariably described), and since Dre’s true forte is the producer’s chair, Snoop is the signature voice. He sounds utterly unaffected by anything, no matter how extreme, which sets the tone for the album’s misogyny, homophobia, and violence. The Rodney King riots are unequivocally celebrated, but the war wasn’t just on the streets; Dre enlists his numerous guests in feuds with rivals and ex-bandmates.” SH

“Yet The Chronic is first and foremost a party album, rooted not only in ‘70s funk and soul, but also that era’s blue party comedy, particularly Dolemite. Its comic song intros and skits became prerequisites for rap albums seeking to duplicate its cinematic flow; plus, Snoop and Dre’s terrific chemistry ensures that even their foulest insults are cleverly turned.” SH

“That framework makes The Chronic both unreal and all too real, a cartoon and a snapshot. No matter how controversial, it remains one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums of all time.” SH

Review Source(s):

  • BL Blender Magazine’s 100 Greatest American Albums (10/08)
  • SH Steve Huey, All Music Guide
  • TL Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light, Time Magazine’s “All-TIME 100 Albums” (11/13/06)

Last updated March 20, 2010.