The DJ who insists that ‘The Chronic’ shouldn’t be a traditional album

Dr Dre’s 1992 debut album, The Chronic, was a culture-shifting, genre-advancing masterpiece and has been archived within the USA’s Library of Congress as a culturally important recording. Its launch shook hip-hop and created a wholly new subgenre that swept the globe. 

Though many improbable albums have been launched on Dr Dre’s watch, such because the Marshall Mathers LP and Get Wealthy Or Die Tryin’, in a sit-down interview, Brooklyn DJ Clark Kent as soon as insisted that Dr Dre’s debut venture shouldn’t be a traditional. 

Throughout a dialog with Angie Martinez for Warner Music Group’s Iconic Data podcast collection, Kent spoke about traditional hip-hop initiatives and, following Biggie Smalls’ 1994 venture Prepared To Die, listed varied names but not The Chronic.

Elaborating on why he didn’t embrace the 1992 physique of labor in his checklist, the DJ acknowledged, “If you look at every album that you think is a classic album, like the real classics, the NWA’s, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg first album, A Tribe Called Quest joint, Slick Rick’s album… TheChronic. I can’t even put The Chronic before I put Snoop Dogg’s [first] album. Snoop Dogg’s album is better than The Chronic. It definitely is. That’s not even a question.”

Kent continued, “What I’m saying is, if you take a second and listen to all of those albums, Reasonable Doubt, Life After Death, Ready To Die, they’re the same album. All of these albums do the same thing. They begin, they hold you in the middle, they hug you, and then they end. That’s what classic albums do.”

Though the DJ confirmed a whole lot of bias in the direction of Brooklyn artists, he admitted that one figuring out issue makes The Chronic, not a traditional, unveiling, “You gotta have great songs that make that thing happen. If you don’t…. you’ll get one song that doesn’t hit properly. You done took yourself out of the classic thing because if you can skip, you ain’t got a classic. That’s why I won’t say The Chronic is a classic. Because I can skip [‘High Powered’ featuring] RBX.”

DJ Clark Kent revealed that probably the most traditional album, in his opinion, is Life After Dying by Biggie Smalls. He additionally disclosed that he’s a fan of Doggystyle however can’t deliver himself to place The Chronic on his checklist of classics. You may take heed to Kent’s interview with Martinez beneath.