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Greatness Hip-Hop Rap

Compton to Long Beach: The Ultimate Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg Mixtape

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Technically speaking, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg have never made an album together.

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Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “Christmas on Death Row”

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Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Christmas on Death Row (1996)

By December of 1996, the once formidable Death Row Records was crumbling. Over the course of just a few months, Dr. Dre had defected, 2Pac had been killed, Suge Knight was sent to prison, and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s highly anticipated second album was a major disappointment.

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Week in Review

Week in Review (October 23, 2015)

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I’m going into Manhattan for a close friend’s birthday party tomorrow night. I’ve lived here for over a year and I’m only a half-hour train ride from Penn Station, but I still have only gone into NYC a handful of times. It’s weird.

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Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “Tha Doggfather”

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This is the first entry of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I will examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. I’ve done this sort of thing before – regarding The Firm album back in 2012 as well as a book defending a few artists and projects that I feel were overlooked, but these projects will all be new territory for me.

This week: Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Tha Doggfather (1996)

It’s clear that Dr. Dre saw what was coming. He left Death Row Records, the label he co-founded, with no equipment, no masters, no artists, nothing. That was the price he paid to be allowed to leave his own company. And he did it willingly.

Among the people he left behind was his star protégé, Snoop Doggy Dogg, who had just been acquitted of murder and was prepping his long-awaited and highly-anticipated second album.