The argument can be made that Dr. Dre’s solo debut album,

The Chronic

, is not only one of the best, but also one of the most influential Rap albums ever made. A groundbreaking project for one of hip-hop’s prominent figures,

The Chronic

symbolized a new-era in the Gangsta Rap wave of the late 80’s and early 90’s: G-Funk. The intoxicating and distinguishable synth layers featured by Dre sound so ahead of their time, as they provide an elegant but hard-hitting backdrop to equally eloquent and masterful flows and rhymes.

In addition to

The Chronic’

s sonic value, a key element to the album’s legend is the collection rapping performances on the songs. Future superstar Snoop Dogg (Snoop Doggy Dogg at the time) got his break by being featured on a few songs, including “F*** Wit Dre Day” and “Nuthin’ But a G Thang”.

The album gained significant fame as well as notoriety for its stance on police relations with urban communities. The album was released around the time of the L.A. Riots, and with Dr. Dre being an L.A.-based artist, the album gained much attention from the news media as detrimental to the community. Despite this negative attention,

The Chronic

still transcended all the animosity and has been regarded by the likes of Kanye West as “the Hip-Hop equivalent to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Songs in the Key of Life’”, and by Jeff Weiss of the Washington Post as “[comparable to] Frank Gehry constructing the Guggenheim, the '96 Chicago Bulls, the soundtrack to infinite kickbacks and stickups, beloved equally in the streets and suburbs, West Coast to East.”