Knight, who had famously hung rapper Vanilla Ice over a balcony to get him to sign over the rights to his hit song “Ice Ice Baby,” demanded Eazy-E release Dre, D.O.C., and several others from their Ruthless contracts. (Heller, who died in 2016, disputed these claims.) Desperately wanting to start a new label, he enlisted the help of Suge Knight, a former UNLV defensive end and the bodyguard of Dre’s confidant the D.O.C. But he wanted out, badly: His royalty payouts were too low, and he felt N.W.A founder Eazy-E and manager Jerry Heller were taking advantage of him. Seven of the eight albums he’d produced for Ruthless Records between 19 had gone platinum, including his group N.W.A’s most recent opus, Efil4zaggin, which hit no. Dre found himself at a crossroads in 1992. Dre, Rolling Stone, 1993īorn Andre Romelle Young in Compton, California, Dr. If I had to go back home living with my mom, that wasn’t going to happen.” -Dr.
I didn’t receive one fuckin’ quarter in the year of ’92, because Ruthless spent the year trying to figure out ways not to pay me so that I’d come back on my hands and knees. I just knew that I was hearing something unlike anything I had heard before. But at the time, I didn’t know any of that.
The Chronic also sparked debates over misogyny and homophobia in rap music and served as the first step in Dre’s attempts to rewrite a troubling personal history that includes several high-profile incidents of violence against women. It made the former N.W.A producer a household name and a larger-than-life myth while launching the stratospheric career of a lanky, unknown MC named Snoop Dogg. The Chronic, which is finally available on all major music streaming platforms as of Monday (4/20, of course), was the rap album that conquered the suburbs and codified the dominant sound of an entire coast. It would seem no one told me that “Dre Day” becomes “Fuck Wit Dre Day” when you don’t have to worry about FCC violations.
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