Dr. Dre - The Chronic

Look, i mentioned this when we talked about Fugees, but i need to emphasize that The Chronic is a Gangsta Rap album from 1992. Something, possibly 6 or more somethings on this album will strike you as offensive. That doesn't necessarily mean it will offend you personally, but it might. Words that start with N, creative things you can do with genitalia, political happenings of the day (both local and international), the right to keep and bear military grade weaponry, various slang terms for that plant with all that tetrahydracannabinol in it, possibly some homophobic/mysoginistic verbiage for Queen Latifah to rhetorically question, some subtle clues that Dr. Dre and Eazy-E are not exactly getting along at the moment, and interpolating "izzle" into words that probably don't need it. 

Don't take this the wrong way, but the actual rap is not the point. Rap is about expressing what's currently on your mind in a "that's what i'm talking about" display of linguistic acumen. The point of this particular album is Suge Knight laundering all his drug/prostitution/murder money by funding a record label under the leadership of head producer Dr. Dre, who is now working in a new style of Hip-Hop called G-Funk. It's fantastic. There's a reason we got to hear heavily censored versions of a couple tracks last Superbowl Halftime show, and it's because the music is fantastic. Great beats, funky but laid back bass and guitars, and those sweet sweet synth leads. 

The Chronic, whether you like or despise any particular thing on it, is an amazing album and i can tell you exactly why in one sentence. This is an album from inside the LA riots made by gang bangers. Dr. Dre, like Ice Cube, was never himself an actual gang member, but Eazy-E and Snoop were Crips, Suge Knight was a Blood. My reviews are rarely about the songs or the specific musical content, they're about that ephemerally abstract idea we call Album. This is a "hi, we're the new gang who'll be terrorizing this Compton/Long Beach area and we'd like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves" album. It's about the reality where people just kill each other when they're mad. They aren't claiming they're the good guys, they're telling you that this isn't as hyperbolic as you might like it to be. 

And that brings us to the following conclusion. We could analyze it from all sorts of perspectives and dive into specific topics, but the real lesson here is that making music and artistically expressing yourself is the legitimate, respectable, valuable part of whatever life you find yourself living. Wait a minute, that's the same lesson Marty Paich taught us that time. Crazy. Speaking of time, i'll see you at the next one, because the current one involves sleeping and i tend to do that with my eyes closed. Cheers.