December 15, 1992, the date that many hip-hop fans around the world hold in high esteem. Dr. Dre had released his debut solo album, The Chronic, and changed the rap music game forever by selling over eight million copies and ushering in a new wave of music as West Coast hip-hop rose to prominence. national spotlight. The Chronic had become an anthem for the harsh streets of South Central Los Angeles, where poverty, crime and drugs had become the norm amid the ongoing riots in Los Angeles. While becoming the emblem of Los Angeles helped The Chronic gain popularity, it is Snoop Dogg's smooth flow vocals and Dr. Dre's production genius that make this album still hold the level of respect it has today as it did when it was. it first came out twenty-two years ago. Both Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg had grown up on the streets of Los Angeles and were no strangers to the gangsta lifestyle. Their upbringings in Compton and Long Beach respectively were filled with gang violence, leading Dr. Dre to join the famous hip-hop group NWA and Snoop Dogg to deal drugs. However, when Dr. Dre left NWA to start his own record label, Death Row Records, and Snoop Dogg was called in to audition, The Chronic was on its way to becoming a masterpiece. Dr. Dre's debut album set the bar in many ways, and as Kanye West tells it, “The Chronic is still the hip-hop equivalent of Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. It's the benchmark against which you measure your album if you're serious. The Chronic is one of the most innovative rap albums of all time that revolutionized hip-hop culture by redefining the West Coast sound, popularizing hidden underground talent, and making gangsta rap mainstream. Racist cops, Rodney King, everyone... .middle of paper...p-hop that was not influenced in any way by Dre and his patented G-funk.” The Chronic made G-Funk the most popular rap. It was through this influence that the West Coast sound was redefined and influenced future artists to possess a strong West Coast influence. Few producers can say they invented a sound that caused the transformation of hip-hop and led to all the changes that followed. Dr. Dre's G-Funk production on The Chronic ushered in a whole new era of rap and subsequently changed the game forever. However, even though the album possessed evolutionary sounds, it was the smooth flow and vocal style of Snoop Dogg and the astonishing talent of many other then-unknown rappers that helped make The Chronic the consequential album it is today. Without the voices of these incredible artists, this album would not be what it is today.