How This SHOCKING 1991 Album Destroyed N.W.A. As A Group

[Az]

Some of the best production Dr. Dre has ever done is on this album and the EP.  Breakbeats, hard hitting drums and snares, brash vocal samples and you can hear him getting into the G-funk territory too.  Extremely hard-hitting album and an offensive listen, but you can't help but like it.

Not an album I'd play around anyone else anymore because of subject matter, but listen to it yourself and play it loud for the best experience.

I'd rank Approach to Danger as one of Dre's very BEST productions! Incredible album and more replay value than Straight Outta Compton

[Krull2025]

HipHopDX
The Source Magazine (Early 90's) Part 1: The Greatest Story Never Told
Reginald C. Dennis interview

Now I can talk your ears off about how, in terms of musical innovation and sheer cultural audacity, I believe that NWA‘s Niggaz4Life was Dr. Dre‘s true quantum leap. The Chronic is dope and deserves every accolade it has ever received, but the sudden jump between Straight Outta Compton and Niggaz4Life is a heart stopper. Yeah, by that point we’d all been following the evolution of Dre‘s sound with the likes of The DOC and Above The Law and the 100 Miles and Runnin’ EP, but those first three songs on Niggaz4Life were unlike anything we had ever heard before. Just startling. And as masterful as The Chronic was, nothing on it � with the possible exception of Bitches Ain’t Shit – ever hit me in quite the same way.
https://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.406/title.part-1-the-greatest-story-never-told

The whole part about The Chronic

HipHopDX
The Source Magazine (Early 90's) Part 1: The Greatest Story Never Told
Reginald C. Dennis interview

DX: Any albums you regret not giving the coveted 5 mic rating?

RD: Ok, we need a bit of context before I jump into this one. Awarding records 5 mics � classic status � has always been, on some levels, troubling to me. I mean, we are not only saying that a particular piece of music is superior to everything that is out now, but it will be better than most things released in the future as well. So we are being asked to be predictors of the future. But let me give you a little more context before I get too deep into it.

The Source started rolling in 1988, well after all the rules and sensibilities determining what was good and bad in hip-hop had already been established. I’d have to check my magazines to be sure, but if I recall correctly, The Source didn’t start really reviewing records until 1989 and those early reviews were not governed by any kind of rating system. You just read the review of, I dunno, Steady B, and either agreed or disagreed with it. By 1990 there was a five point rating system in place (but instead of mics, the governing icon was a series of exploding records). Art director Erik Council changed all that and so we began to rate with mics, and our five-point rating system mirrored what was seen in Rolling Stone and other places with a “1” being garbage and a “5” being a classic. So, from 1990 on we had things under control as far as the ratings went. But the problems was – and it didn’t seem like a problem early on – was what to do with all of the influential albums that had come out before the mic system had been conceived? I’m talking about the records that we compared all others to; the stuff that was never officially reviewed in the context of The Source‘s 5 mic system, but nevertheless became our cultural gold standard. And it’s a pretty long list when you come to think about it. Let’s take a look at but a small sample of records not rated by The Source. (And yeah, I know that the magazine has practiced some revisionist history of late, but it’s easier to call those shots 20 years after the fact.) Raising Hell, Paidin Full, Criminal Minded, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, Critical Beatdown, It Takes a Nation of Millions, Straight Outta Compton, Long Live The Kane, Three Feet High And Rising� Without these records there probably wouldn’t have ever been a need for Hip Hop journalism and there certainly would never have been a Sourcehad it not been for them, so to give records like Brand Nubian and A Tribe Called Quest five mics without ever having rated many of what I consider to be some of the greatest records of all time always made me feel a bit uneasy. But in 1991 it was obvious to anyone reading The Source or making records or writing reviews that everything was being compared to and judged by a standard that was felt and acknowledged by all but documented by none.

Now, with that bit of back-story out of the way, I’ll answer your question about record albums I regret not giving 5 mics. The answer is both yes and no. See, when I took over as music editor, one of the first things I did was put a moratorium on awarding albums 5 mics. My reasons were the following: I believed then � as I do now – that a piece of art can only achieve classic status in retrospect. How can you expect someone to receive an advance cassette of an album on a Thursday, listen to it and complete the review by the following Monday and be 100% confident that this particular record is not only better than everything out now, but will have a cultural impact that will loom over everything to come in the future? I mean that’s what we are really asking. And back in the day you were lucky if you had three days to make that kind of determination (Nowadays I think you are only allowed to listen to albums a few times in a label conference room while you busily scribble notes about what you are feeling. So the process seems to have gotten noticeably worse).

And what about records that are amazingly dope, but will probably not have any sort of enduring cultural resonance? Do you give them 5 mics? I mean, I like TI but I’m not prepared to put him up there with Eric B & Rakim, y’know. Scarface had a record out a few years ago that damn near had me doing back flips, but can’t even remember the album’s title today or recite any song lyrics. I think that record got 5 mics, but was it a situation of that record being the best thing out in a watered down, mediocre field, or did they truly believe that this was a record that folks would still be talking about 20 years from now? That’s the dilemma: temporary dopeness versus enduring dopeness. And a lot of people, in the initial excitement of being one of the first people on the planet to hear a dope record, get caught up in the moment and lose sight of what they are supposed to be doing.

In 1992 we gave Dr. Dre‘s The Chronic 4.5 mics. Had I the opportunity to press reset, I would have given it a 5. Here’s the story:

We got the advance of the album in October of 1992 and it immediately became an office favorite. And our version was a little better than the one everyone else got to hear because we had the joint that was sequenced differently, had different song arrangements and in some instances, different lyrics. It was all good. In fact it was too good – and I didn’t want to let the album out of my sight, so I decided that it would be reviewed totally in house, meaning that a fellow Sourceeditor would handle the task (I didn’t want to risk the tape coming up missing, which was always a concern if you were mailing things out of state for review or dealing with Hip Hop writers who, due to their weed habits, tended to misplace things or drop the critical ball from time to time).

So my man Matty C, fellow editor and the king of Unsigned Hype, did the do, and he gave it 4.5 – he thought “Lil’ Ghetto Boy” was the weak link in the chain – and that was that. I was firm on my “no 5’s” rule and that was also that. If you check the actual review, you’ll see that the byline is attributed to “TMS” (The Mind Squad) – which, for those that don’t know, was how we handled things that were done by group effort or committee. I can’t remember why we didn’t use Matt‘s name, but it couldn’t have been because of anything too serious.

Anyway, no one could have predicted the seismic shift that this album would produce. And it wasn’t like there was anyone on staff jumping up and demanding that this record be a 5. We sent the review off to the printer around the time “Nuthin But A G Thang” started to catch fire and we could all tell that the landscape was about to change. By the time the magazine went on sale the streets had declared that this album � an album that many folks had still yet to hear � (remember: one of the reasons why folks read The Sourcewas because were getting the music first and regularly reviewing important albums two months before they hit the racks) � was going to be a classic. And to tell you the truth, we all knew it as well.

I remember going to the video shoot for Naughty By Nature‘s “Hip Hop Hooray.” It was being filmed in a studio just off Astor Place in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. I had the advance of The Chronic in my pocket the whole day. (I didn’t let that tape out of my sight for a second.) I watched Treach and Spike Lee do their thing for most of the afternoon, and if you’ll remember the video, much of it included footage of huge crowd scenes, which were being filmed that afternoon. So there were a lot of people around, maybe a couple of thousand all total; both inside the venue where the video was being shot and outside milling in the street and blocking traffic. You’ll also recall that that the video featured many Hip Hop guest stars, like Eazy-E and Run-D.M.C, who were also hanging out for their cameos. And because Naughty was so popular and because Spike was a celebrity director the video set became a news event and word began to spread that this was the place to be. It wasn’t long before The Sourcevan arrived on the scene. And when I spotted it I came down stairs kicked it with my peeps. Well, since I had the Dre tape on me, and since the van had a ridiculous sound system, and since we had a huge crowd to play to� I put the tape in the deck and turned shit up full blast to get everyone’s attention and drown out the endless loop of Naughty‘s constant “heeeeey, hooooo” chant. Well, the whole block literally stopped whatever they were doing and converged on the van in order to get a better listen. People were astonished by what they were hearing and began to pepper us with endless questions about the album. It was quite a moment. And when Nate Dogg came in with the “You picked the wrong mutha-fuckin’ dayeeeee�” part, I thought I was going to see people’s heads explode. Fab 5 Freddy actually climbed in the van and damn near put his head on the speakers. It was unreal. So yeah we knew early on that this was going to be the shit. The streets had spoken.

But I was trying to close the barn door after the horse had already escaped, and didn’t allow any flexibility for the possibility that we would encounter something that could be considered an instant classic. I set the ceiling at 4.5; it happened on my watch and I take full responsibility for the error.

Not giving The Chronic 5 mics did two things. One, it increased the level of background talk that The Source was biased against the West Coast. And two, it made getting 5 mics in The Sourceall the more desirable. In 1992, The Sourcewas still the law of the land and people tended to go along with it. So, if The Chronic wasn’t worthy of 5 mics, then what was? It also elevated the historic status and overall value of the half dozen or so records that had received 5s in the past. By not getting 5 mics, The Chronic did more to elevate the status of the 5 mic club than any record that had previously received the award. It was the event that cemented the mics as Hip Hop’s governing standard.

Now I can talk your ears off about how, in terms of musical innovation and sheer cultural audacity, I believe that NWA‘s Niggaz4Life was Dr. Dre‘s true quantum leap. The Chronic is dope and deserves every accolade it has ever received, but the sudden jump between Straight Outta Compton and Niggaz4Life is a heart stopper. Yeah, by that point we’d all been following the evolution of Dre‘s sound with the likes of The DOC and Above The Law and the 100 Miles and Runnin’ EP, but those first three songs on Niggaz4Life were unlike anything we had ever heard before. Just startling. And as masterful as The Chronic was, nothing on it � with the possible exception of Bitches Ain’t Shit – ever hit me in quite the same way.

https://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.406/title.part-1-the-greatest-story-never-told

[Krull2025]

production on this album is a 10/10

the highlight of the rapping imo was MC Ren's flow

lyrically it was pretty embarrassing though...that's where they really missed Cube

Cube was the best lyricist in the group...but I get what you are saying

I always preferred Ren, I thought his flow was crazy

Was MC REN Just As NICE As ICE CUBE?


-0.00 - Niggaz4life production.
-3.30 - MC Ren VS Ice Cube.
-6.55 - Steele says that he has heard a unreleased MC Ren album produced by Bobcat featuring a track with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.

[h2k4]

Some of the best production Dr. Dre has ever done is on this album and the EP.  Breakbeats, hard hitting drums and snares, brash vocal samples and you can hear him getting into the G-funk territory too.  Extremely hard-hitting album and an offensive listen, but you can't help but like it.

Not an album I'd play around anyone else anymore because of subject matter, but listen to it yourself and play it loud for the best experience.

This album, to me, surpasses Straight Outta Compton. Prob rank it as a top 3 or top 5 album from Dre.