DR DRE "2001" ALBUM LYRICS

DR DRE "2001" ALBUM INFO:
Dr dre released his 6th solo album, 2001, on November 16th 1999. The album is sometimes referred to by fans as Chronic 2001 or Dr. Dre 2001. The album boasts an impressive roster of featuring guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, Hittman, Eminem, Xzibit, and others. Originally Dre intended to title this album "The Chronic 2000" but this title had to be changed because of litigation with Dr. Dre's former label Death Row Records. The "2001" album was a long-awaited follow-up to Dr. Dre's classic 1992 release The Chronic. The album not only managed to bring the West Coast hip hop scene back into the spotlight after years of obscurity, but showed that Dr. Dre could still make hits, and furtherestablished the career of Eminem, who went on to eventually become one of the best-selling rappers of all time. 2001 debuted at number two on the Billboard charts and was eventually certified 6x platinum by the RIAA, with total worldwide sales of 10 million.

The album was well-received by most critics on quite the same level as Dr. Dre's classic debut The Chronic. Although some complained that several of the rappers who featured prominently on the album (such as Hittman and Ms. Roq) were not particularly talented and crowded out Dr. Dre himself. In fact, Hittman was featured so prominently on the album that besides Dr. Dre he had the only solo song on the album in the form of "Ackrite". Incidentally, none of these "lower-level" rappers have been able to turn their efforts on the album into successful careers. Critics generally considered the album's production top-notch and innovative, in places even faultless, and praised Snoop Dogg and Eminem's contributions to the album.

Fellow rap artist Royce Da 5'9" also did extensive ghostwriting for Dr. Dre on the album, but when that information was leaked to the media by Royce's then-manager, Royce was from then on officially disassociated with Dr Dre. As a result the track "Xxplosive" was even retouched because the original version had featured Royce's vocals, but Dre now wanted these removed. Royce also wrote the song "The Message", whih was also the only song from the album not produced by Dr. Dre, instead it was produced by Lord Finesse. Dr. Dre dedicated the song to his late brother Tyrece, who was killed in a gangfight. All tracks are produced by Dr. Dre and Mel-Man except for the aforementioned "The Message". A different version of "Housewife", entitled "Ho's a Housewife", is included on Kurupt's 1999 album 'Tha Streetz Iz a Mutha'.

2001 also marked the beginning of Dr. Dre's collaboration with keyboardist Scott Storch, who had previously worked with The Roots and is creditted as a co-writer on several of 2001's tracks, including the hit single "Still D.R.E.". Storch would later go on to become a successful producer in his own right, and has been creditted as a co-producer with Dr. Dre on some of his productions since.

The album was released 3 forms primarily, the most poular of which is the uncut version, but the album was also released in a censored version which blanked out every hint of profanity, drug content, and violence. In fact it was one of the most censored versions of an album in the whole of the '90s, a time when most editors would commonly leave in drug related or violent content, which was the case with DMX's first two albums, It's Dark And Hell Is Hot, and Flesh Of My Flesh Blood Of My Blood, as well as It Was Written by Nas. The other version of the album is an instrumental version. Although this version does not feature tracks #14 and #16, most likely because those are skit tracks with minor or no beats at all.

But it wasn't all success stories for Dre and this album. Dr Dre faced a couple of legal battles as a result of the album's content. One of which saw George Lucas sue Dre over the use of the "THX Deep Note" in the album's intro. Then a London-based music publisher Minder Music Ltd. was awarded $1.5 million in a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against the Dr Dre, after successfully claiming the bassline for "Let's Get High" was stolen from a 1980 tune called "Backstrokin'".

The Source Magazine, viewed by many as Hip-Hop's greatest magazine, awarded Dr Dre's 2001 with the Source Awards Album of the Year in the year 2000. In the following year the album then picked up the "Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Album of the Year". Most recently, 2001 has re-entered in the UK Top 40 R&B albums peaking at #21 in March 2006.

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