"It's an audio document, with a lot of creativity and art and entertainment going along with it. And nobody - nobody - appreciated it."īut McDaniel says The Chronic is still worth listening to, even 20 years later. My family, I was the youngest out of six. "People's parents," he says, "like, 'Don't listen to that!' For one reason or another, racial reasons, cultural, the differences in generations. But, filmmaker McDaniel says, back in 1993, not everybody was happy about rap's growing popularity. It was arguably the first rap album to reach well beyond the rap audience. The hard-edged album made millions for Dre, his label and the record stores that sold it. He wound up using pieces of McDaniel's footage from the riots in not one but two songs: " Lil' Ghetto Boy" and " The Day the N-az Took Over."
It's gonna better my life and my family's life."ĭre wanted to make an album that people would like enough to buy. Some people involve it in politics or what have you, but for me - I love doing it. "The music talks about crime, violence and drugs because it exists," Dr. Dre wasn't interested in speaking to NPR, but in 1997 he did give an interview to the makers of a documentary called Rhythm and Rhyme. Anybody, you could just get Dre's number, call him up, he'd pick up the phone, 'Hello.' " "At that point in time," he says, "you could just call Dr. A month after the riots, a promoter named Doug Young told him Dr. He called Ice Cube's office and played him the 12 minutes he'd recorded in front of the First AME Church. McDaniel says he knew he had powerful tape. If I have to die today for this little African right here to have a future, I'm a dead motherf-er." While he's speaking, he lifts a toddler onto his shoulders: "I'm gonna tell you right now. "I think he represented a million people that day," he says.Īnd there was another man. McDaniel never got that man's name, but he says he listened to the clip over and over again. Music Microphone Check: Hip-Hop From NPR Music Dre's solo debut, released mid-December, 1992. Anger at the verdict had not cooled, and you could hear it in the music on the radio, in songs like " Nuthin' but a G Thang" and "Dre Day," singles off Dr. It hadn't been a year since the acquittal of four police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.
In January 1993, there were still burned-out buildings in South Central Los Angeles.
#Back of dr dre chronic album series
Our series about rap's greatest year begins with the album that started it all by drawing directly on the riots: Dr. The flowering had roots in the cultural and social upheaval sparked by the Los Angeles riots the year before. Over the 12 months of 1993, the Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Queen Latifah, A Tribe Called Quest, Salt-N-Pepa and more than 20 other rap groups released albums that helped change the sound of America. This year marks the 20th anniversary of a remarkable year in music. Here they pose after a 1993 performance in Chicago.Īdvisory: The videos on this page contain profanity.
Dre (right) with Snoop Dogg, who played a starring role on Dre's The Chronic.