Dr. Dre's "2001": Classic or Dud?

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Is it worth buying?

― Grand (grand), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

Classic

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

2001, sometimes referred to as Chronic 2001 or even Dr. Dre 2001, is a 1999 hip hop album by famed rapper and producer Dr. Dre, featuring guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, Hittman, Eminem, Xzibit, and others. Originally intended to be called The Chronic 2001 (the name was changed because of litigation with Dr. Dre's former label Death Row Records), the album is the long-awaited follow-up to Dr. Dre's classic 1992 album The Chronic. It brought the West Coast hip hop scene back to the spotlight after years of obscurity, showed that Dr. Dre could still make hits, and further established the career of Eminem, who went on to eventually become one of the best-selling rappers of all time. 2001 debuted at #2 on the Billboard Charts and was eventually certified 6x platinum by the RIAA.

The album was well-received by most critics, if not on quite the same level as Dre's revolutionary debut The Chronic. Some complained that several of the rappers who featured prominently on the album (such as Hittman and Ms. Roq) were not particularly talented and crowded out Dre himself. Critics generally considered the album's production top-notch and innovative, though, and praised Snoop Dogg and Eminem's contributions to the album.

― Confounded (Confounded), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

Excellent first half.

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

Like, NECESSARY classic. This was my favorite time for Eminem, when he was still just a hilarious weirdo, before all the Trials and Tribulations of Marshall Mathers whateverness.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

Who did the review that claimed it was something like widescreen gangsta noir? There are parts that are so ridiculous, with Snoop sounding one note off of a complete caricature but still relevant. Eminem still at the beginning of his fame, half of Dre's lines written by Jay-Z, Snoop along for the ride, a couple passable posse cuts and beats that got recycled in every promo and movie for several years (remember Training Day?). Part of the launchpad for Scott Storch and Mike Elizondo's production careers. The misogyny and gun posing still make me wince but not enough to overlook everything else.

― mike h. (mike h.), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

Absolute classic, esp. the first half. "Still D.R.E." might be the most bad-ass beat of all time. "Xxplosive" is ridiculously misogynistic and impossible not to listen to because the beat is so good.

― max (maxreax), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

still D.R.E. is also some of jay's best writing ever. classic record.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― ddb (ddb), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 16:05 (nineteen years ago)

My favorite part of this entire album is that part in Forgot About Dre where Dre goes "cause I'm from the streets of" and then that sample jumps in, "C-C-COMPTON!"

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― youth problem (YouthProblem), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

CLASSIC!! Still D.R.E

― Jimmmy (Jimmmy), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

Forgot About Dre was a personal favorite back in middle school. The Next Episode was great too. The little pornographic interludes kinda freaked me out though.

― musically (musically), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

the skits are godawful, and there are too many really poor tracks :(

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

Such as?

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

are you saying that you can't find at least a handful of annoying tracks on this album

― Chris Bee (Cee Bee), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

Very Classic. "Fuck You" my personal favourite.

― Shadow of the Waxwing (noodle vague), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

How much of the "Scott Storch ghost produced this and Jay-Z ghost wrote Dre's lines" is true? Not that we can really know I suppose, but the production part especially interests me. I mean I can accept that maybe Dre didn't write his lines because his legend will always be his production, but something about him potentially not even producing much of 2001 bugs me.

― matt2 (matt2), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

s.carter is on the writing credits for Still D.R.E. if memory serves....if you listen to that verse, it's totally jay-z too....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I don't have the album to actually look at the credits. Does it credit Scott Storch and others for production?

― matt2 (matt2), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 18:44 (nineteen years ago)

Storch has credits for 'keyboards' and shit like that, he may have even made a beat or two on the lp but for my money its clearly a Dre production, if only because none of the beats are as shitty as generic storch beats.
Also Mel Man wrote some big missive once on how Dre does his own shit that was biased but convincing.

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

Which is kind of entertaining since Mel-Man is credited a coproducer on 2001 according to what appears to be the liner notes online. Still, I'd buy it since every interview I've seen mentions that in-house musicians had strong influences on different songs. I don't think Dr. Dre has ever claimed that he writes his own material. If you look at the "written by" credits he's conspicuously absent.

― mike h. (mike h.), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

Classic.

I'm with deej re: production, because none of this stuff sounds like the generic orchestra-stab mishmash that I've heard Scott Storch do in the last few years.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

There is NO WAY IN HELL that Dre was clever enough to write the groceries verse in "Forgot About Dre."

The singles on this album = classic
The allmusic guide review of this album = classicer

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

Eminem wrote Dre's lyrics to "Forgot About Dre", "The Watcher" and probably some others, but at least those two.

― Marmot 4-Tay (marmotwolof), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wow, that review is dumb.

The second half of this is kinda meh, but the second half could be by Vanilla Ice and this would still be classic.

expost

― It's Rodney, pimp! (R. J. Greene), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

That allmusic guide review blows. Yeah, 'second rate' rappers like Devin the Dude and Kurupt. Never mind the 'don't pay attention to the lyrics' bullshit, or the retarded final line "it's hard not to shake the feeling that this is cheap, not lasting, fun."

― deej.. (deej..), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

TS: AMG's review of 2001 VS AMG's review of The Pretty Toney Album

― It's Rodney, pimp! (R. J. Greene), Tuesday, 13 June 2006 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

wow, i haven't listened to this album since 2000, and it is Dr. Dre so I don't want to say dud, but if I feel like listening to Dre, this is not the album I'll grab. I'll go find it though

― pinder (pinder), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 04:41 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, I've always felt that 2001 totally owns Chronic. 'Fuck you' is also my fave.

― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 07:12 (nineteen years ago)

Pretty good, but nowhere near as good as The Chronic.

This thread has reminded me though of that epically dumb The Game song with a line like "it was back in 2001/ 'bout the same time that dre dropped 2001". So besides the egregious rhyming of the same word in consecutive lines, he didn't even 'drop' it in 2001 anyway!

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 12:04 (nineteen years ago)

Classic. This record blew me away the first time I heard it. Such an amazing sound. To me it always more of a musical statement than anything. It really put Scott Storch and Mike Elizondo out there. I like it better than the first Chronic.

― Orange Pimp (Orange Pimp), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

Obviously the Game's fact-checkers screwed up that one!

― musically (musically), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

The Game's short- to medium-term memory can't really be up to much either... though that's beside the 2001 point!

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

"You can give me some head/ but fuck the breakfast in bed.
I'd rather spend my morning diggin' through some records instead."

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Thursday, 15 June 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

er yeah, great.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Thursday, 15 June 2006 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

ten months pass...

fuck dre he's a fucking never be. he was real back then but now he just a BIIIAAAATTTTCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

― def., Tuesday, 17 April 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

you never him.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 09:39 (eighteen years ago)

ten years pass...

Dr. Dre rocking out to Nirvana in the new HBO doc was A+

― Paisley Window Pane (Ross), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 03:24 (eight years ago)

There's some great tracks on this, but The Chronic is the superior album.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 18 July 2017 03:35 (eight years ago)

two years pass...

fuck dre he's a fucking never be. he was real back then but now he just a BIIIAAAATTTTCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
― def., Tuesday, April 17, 2007 5:33 AM bookmarkflaglink

you never him.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, April 17, 2007 5:39 AM bookmarkflaglink

― genital giant (Neanderthal), Sunday, 10 May 2020 16:20 (five years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JljhLfOVfBE

― the burrito that defined a generation, Sunday, 10 May 2020 20:08 (five years ago)

Ha, weren't those the days. Back then it was smoke weed every day. Nowadays, it's more like "smoke weed every year," am I right fellow old peoples?

― the burrito that defined a generation, Sunday, 10 May 2020 20:13 (five years ago)

What about bbqs everyday and driving fancy cars ? Those were the days...

― AlXTC from Paris, Sunday, 10 May 2020 21:43 (five years ago)

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