In November 1999, Dr. Dre released Dr. Dre 2001, the sequel to his influential debut The Chronic, an album that brought gangsta rap to the suburbs of white America. The CD was emblazoned with a chromatic pot leaf, and behind it was a picture of Dre hunched over a studio soundboard inhaling a fat bag of weed. It set off the second-coming of West Coast gangsta rap releases. I bought the album at a Circuit City the day it came out. The next day in middle school, a teacher saw what was on the CD and confiscated it. Regardless, I went back and bought another copy, locking myself in my room, and blaring the album and over again. Even though I was a sheltered kid at the time who lived on the opposite coast and couldn’t relate to most of the shit that was being talked about, I was obsessed.
The album spawned a series of funked-out, sun-baked albums, including a newly West Coast resurgent Snoop Dogg (he had been on No Limit Records until then and was making shitty down south tracks with Master P), Dogg Pound members Daz & Kurupt, Warren G, Xzibit, DJ Quik and Ice Cube. Following the East Coast-West Coast feud between 2Pac and Biggie that ended in their deaths, hip hop fell into a gray area. All we really had then was Puff Daddy dressed up in blown-out gold sparkle jumpsuits.
But then came the West Coast’s return. I’m not including the period when the Game came on the scene, because that came later. In contrast to today’s region-less West Coast come up of Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment, this music was still strictly localized, referencing bouncing six-fours, swap meets and gang banging at Long Beach barbecues. The period I’m talking about, roughly the very end of 1999 through around 2003, had some albums that have been forgotten, or maybe never really remembered in the first place. This included albums like Snoop Dogg’s Top Dogg, Kurupt’s The Streetz iz a Mutha, Xzibit’s Restless and the Dogg Pound’s Dillinger and Young Gotti.
Each of these albums featured iced-out fonts and of course, a parental advisory sticker. They continued what the West Coast was known for: buoyant, Parliament Funkadelic-influenced basslines, police siren-synths, and rappers that basically bragged about how much weed they smoked and how much head they got. But it was awesome. The production holds up especially well today. And if you can get past the dated shout outs to what year it is (19 muthafuckin’ 99), then there is a lot to like about this period What follows is a playlist I made of some songs from this forgotten era. As Snoop would say, “blaze a fat sack to this.”
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