10 Perfect Albums From The Golden Age Of Hip Hop
1. The Chronic - Dr. Dre (1992)
One of the most important West Coast hip hop albums, is undoubtedly the debut from Dr. Dre. After the tumultuous split from N.W.A, the individual members were off doing their own things. Both Eazy-E and Ice Cube had released their own solo projects, and it was time for Dre to do the same.
E had supposedly swindled the rest of the group out of a portion of their publishing rights, as well as taking the lion's share of the group's royalties. Dr. Dre pulled no punches when it came to making his opinions known about the situation. The opening number, F**k Wit Dre Day, consisted of almost five minutes of Dre laying into his former group mate. It's important to acknowledge an unfortunate and uncomfortable tendency of diss tracks from this era; If you wanted to question a man's honour, you hit him with a litany of homophobic insults, and this track is full of them...
But the record isn't all outdated posturing. If you can move past some of the more troubling lyrics, the beats created are some of the best in the game. Tracks like Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang, preempted the sound of Snoop Dogg's debut that came out a year later. Although this track was Dre's definitive moment as a producer, it was Snoop Dogg's moment on the mic.