10 Reasons why Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' is the best hip hop album of all time.

Last week, Dr Dre’s iconic album, The Chronic, turned 22 years old. Since it’s release in 1992, The Chronic has only grown in importance, now celebrated as perhaps the greatest rap album of all time, the birth of modern hip hop, and the collaboration that changed the game. But 22 years ago, when the nation watched the horrors of the Rodney King beating and LA riots on their TV sets, we had no idea the debut solo album by a young LA rapper would become larger than life.

1. The Chronic became the best selling debut album of all time. However, it didn’t hit number one on the charts in 1993, but peaked at number three. But it did go certified triple platinum in 1993, selling over three million copies. By 2001, it was sextuplet platinum (six million sales!) in the U.S.

2. In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Chronic as the 138th best album of all time, and the 6th best hip hop album of all time.

3. The Chronic established a new sub-genre of rap, the G-Funk era, which was defined by 1970’s and 1980’s funk mixed with disco keyboards and smoked-out, smooth street preaching that brought the raw truth about ghetto living to mainstream America. It included many live instruments (a trend at the time that was seen with Digable Planets and others), and soulful female singers. G Funk changed rap forever and its influence is still evident today.

4. Dre is considered one of the best musical managers of all time and that was evidenced on The Chronic, which is considered among the conversation for best-produced albums ever. Dre preferred to use samples sparsely, but the Chronic’s samples or influences include music from N.W.A. rerecorded with live instruments, Leon Haywood’s ‘I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You’, a Led Zeppelin drum sample from ‘When The Levee Breaks’, and others like Gil Scott-Heron, Bill Withers, James Brown and Malcolm McLaren.

5. Although it was a solo album, it prominently featured many guest rappers from Dre’s circle and launched some meteoric careers. In fact, The Chronic was directly responsible for launching the career of a young G’d out pot head named Snoop Doggy Dogg, as well as Daz Dillinger, Kurupt, Nate Dogg, and Warren G, who is Dr. Dre’s stepbrother.

6. Even 22 years later it’s still a benchmark for hip hop success. Kanye West is one superstar modern rapper, among many, who strives to reach The Chronic’s musical accomplishment in his own music. Said Kanye, “The Chronic is still the hip-hop equivalent to Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. It’s the benchmark you measure your album against if you’re serious.”

7. Three singles were released from The Chronic – “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang”, “Fuck wit Dre Day” and “Let Me Ride”. “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” was first, released January 19, 1993 and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and Hot Rap Singles, and sold over a million copies by March 24 of that year. “Fuck wit Dre Day” was released as the second single on May 20, 1993 and likewise was a hit. “Let Me Ride” was released last, as a cassette single on September 13, 1993.

8. Dr. Dre won a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rap Performance in 1994 for the song “Let Me Ride” and numerous awards as time went on.

9. The Chronic launched Death Row Records as a mega force in hip hop and G Funk eras. Dre had formed the record company along with Marion “Suge” Knight in 1991. Together, they worked on Snoop Dogg’s debut album, Doggstyle in 1993 and Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez on Me in 1996, two more of the best hip hop albums of all time that wouldn’t be possible without The Chronic.

10. The Chronic also received worldwide acclaim, selling more than 8 million records to date and topping many foreign charts. As late as 2004 it peaked at number 43 on the UK album charts and was prominent on Ireland’s charts.