The All-TIME 100 Albums: The Chronic by Dr. Dre

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The All-TIME 100 Albums

21 of 101

By Josh Tyrangiel Published: November 13, 2006

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ALBUM: The Chronic

YEAR RELEASED: 1992 LABEL: Death Row/Interscope ARTIST: Dr. Dre

TIME 100 ALBUMS PODCASTS

PODCAST: Welcome to the All-TIME 100 Albums - the musical compilations of the last half-century that need no introduction. That said, listen in below as music critics Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light introduce the list and talk about the top albums of the 1950s and '60s.

PODCAST: We know. Twenty-nine of the 100 greatest albums of all time come in the 1970s, and Pink Floyd isn't there. Play this podcast to learn why we picked the titles we did, and if you have something to say, tell us about it using the talkback link below.

PODCAST: Maybe it's a Sign O' The Times that you're listening to critics' audio recordings about great music, but this podcast about how we chose the best albums of the 1980s really is a Thriller. Give it a listen below.

PODCAST: Here's music even the younger set will know by heart. Listen to selected clips from the 1990s through present day as music critic Josh Tyrangiel discusses his picks.

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The disgust Dre packed into the word 'bitch' is terribly embarassing in retrospect, both for him—he's age 41 now and well past gangsta caricature—and for listeners who may have mimicked him without a second thought. But what's kept The Chronic so potent is 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, so that "Let Me Ride" and "Nuthin' But a G Thang" feel like dusk on a wide-open L.A. boulevard, full of possibility and menace. The Chronic also introduced the world to Snoop Doggy Dogg, and 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.