On top of that, neither he nor Suge had much of a business acumen, and they were hemorrhaging cash.ĭeath Row was ostensibly up and running with a master architect at the helm, but the young label needed a big victory upon which to build its empire. He was accused of a savage, public assault by journalist Dee Barnes and another assault on a police officer during a 50-person brawl he allegedly started. Five of the eight albums Dre produced for Ruthless from 1987 to 1991 went platinum, but he was a volatile figure prone to violence. Plagued by legal battles and beset with a number of open court cases, nobody would touch him. Dre was the biggest producer in hip-hop music, a pioneer drawing comparisons to Quincy Jones and Phil Spector he was also its most unemployable one. Eventually, Suge got his way: Dre was no longer a Ruthless artist, and Death Row Records was born. The documents weren’t deemed legally binding, but the wheels were in motion. He told Eazy he had N.W.A.’s manager Jerry Heller tied up in a van before offering a final warning: “We know where your mother lives.” With that, Eazy signed. Suge delivered contract releases for several Ruthless artists and planned to squeeze Eazy into signing them so he could poach the artists for the fledgling label he was starting. On April 23, 1991, Eazy-E went up to the studios at Solar Records where he was greeted by Suge and a small entourage of men with pipes and Louisville sluggers. All that was standing in his and Suge’s way was Eazy. album, 1991’s Niggaz4Life, and he wanted out so he could finish work on his solo material. Dre was already done mastering the final N.W.A. With an eye on becoming a music mogul, Suge saw Dre as his meal ticket. He’d been hanging around Ruthless as the D.O.C.’s bodyguard and had grown close to Dre during his conflict with the label. The Chronic has been widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s and regarded by many fans and peers to be one of the most well-produced Hip Hop albums of all time.Pro football prospect turned hulking enforcer, Marion Knight, Jr., nicknamed Suge for the sweet sugar bear he was as a child, had a reputation for intimidation that was the stuff of industry myth: punching a guy through a closed door and dangling Vanilla Ice off a balcony. Dre’s production has been noted for founding and popularizing the G-funk subgenre within gangsta rap. Dre becoming one of the top ten best-selling American performing artists of 1993. Dr. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and had been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America with sales of 5.7 million copies in the United States, which led to Dr. Upon its release, The Chronic received generally positive reviews from music critics and earned considerable commercial success. Although a solo album, it features many appearances by Snoop Dogg, who used the album as a launch pad for his own solo career. On The Chronic, he included both subtle and direct insults at Ruthless and its owner, former N.W.A member Eazy-E. and its label Ruthless Records over a financial dispute. Dre’s first solo album after he had departed from N.W.A. The album is named after a slang term for high-grade cannabis, and its cover is a homage to Zig-Zag rolling papers. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1992 at Death Row Studios in Los Angeles and at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. The Chronic was released by Dr Dre’s own record label Death Row Records and distributed by Priority Records.