the chronic

I was digging through my CDs (which apparently are going the way of the 8 track... anybody actually purchased an $18 compact disc lately?) and formed a stack of at least 17 that I can honestly say I will never listen to again.

One which made the pile was Dr. Dre: The Chronic. I got it sometime in 1992 during my freshman year of college, but hadn't given it a spun for about six years. I decided to throw it on while I swept the floor and washed some dishes.

It's suprisingly good. When Dr. Dre didn't have 30 niggaz in the studio recording lame ghetto skits, he produced some beats and MCs that are nothing short of brilliant.

This disc is to gangsta rap what nirvana: nevermind was to mainstream rock.

Consider: the chronic not only transformed the sound of mainstream west coast hip hop from the ashes of N.W.A., but featured the full length debut of snoop doogy dog (heard of him? he's still in show business making a shitload of money).

So I tracked through listening to the standard five or six strong tracks that spawned an entire summer soundtrack, and dug up two buried gems.

Listen here:

lyrical gangbang.mp3

stranded on death row.mp3