A Very Front Loaded Album
Still D.R.E. = One of the best songs in the genre. It's gangsta, has a great melody, a catchy hook, it works on the radio, and I'm not sure who on Earth could refuse it (even if some of the lyrics could be less simplistic - ("Still, I stay close to the heat/And even when I was close to defeat, I rose to my feet/My life's like a soundtrack I wrote to the beat/Treat rap like Cali' weed, I smoke 'til I sleep/Wake up in the a.m., compose a beat")-ehhh). And surrounding 'Still D.R.E.' are great songs with iconic beats.
However, like 'The Chronic' is, this album is also inconsistent. After 'The Next Episode', it completely falls away. There is nothing great from 'Let's Get High' to 'Ackrite' before the improving 'Bang Bang' and 'The Message'. And add in the skits, and it just makes it feel more bloated than it needed to be.
There are enough great tunes here including, as mentioned, one of my ultimate favourite rap songs, and 'The Watcher' also features one of my favourite beats that Jay-Z reused years later on on 'BP2', but the quality wavers. Dre ain't a great rapper, but he has a strong presence and a good handful of these beats are the reason why he is heralded as one of the best producers in hip-hop. It is definitely held up too highly though by many. For such an apparent perfectionist, I'm not sure why the best songs, that are mostly within the first 11 tracks, weren't scattered around the weaker songs, or why a few of them even made the cut.
Beats: ★★★★
Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆
Hooks: ★★★★
Best Tracks: The Watcher, Fuck You, Still D.R.E., Xxplosive, What's the Difference, Forgot About Dre, The Next Episode, Bang Bang
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