
The Gangsta, The Kill and the Dope Dealer
Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC trading verses, from a debut album that reached number two and went platinum.

Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC trading verses, from a debut album that reached number two and went platinum.
Bud'da's beat, Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC in formation, a West Coast declaration that topped the rap chart.

Just Blaze cut it from Supertramp's Crime of the Century, and Fabolous raps it like a man being chased.

50 Cent wrote the chorus, liked it enough to take a verse, and Dre's beat carried Compton nationwide.

Dre put music under Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's a cappella original, and Snoop made the story his.

Sam Sneed and J-Flexx started it as 'The Heist'; Dre and Cube's first record together since N.W.A.

Drums lifted from a 1973 Ripple record, a closing verse in a president's voice, and Office Space did the rest.

3.2 million ringtones sold, a Grammy won, and Play-N-Skillz's beat under a hook about racial profiling.

A Faustian bargain told in the first person, later expanded into an eighteen-minute film Dre co-directed with Fab Five Freddy.
DJ U-Neek's beat, Shatasha Williams on the hook, and the harmonized Cleveland flow Eazy-E had to be talked into releasing.

DJ U-Neek's beat, Cleveland voices harmonizing at double speed, and welfare day reimagined as a neighborhood holiday.

Predator-era Cube with Das EFX in tow; the remix rode the Message beat to number one R&B.
A Stevie Wonder interpolation cleared on condition the profanity went, L.V.'s stacked one-man choir, and 1995's biggest-selling single.

A Mothership Connection sample, RBX writing Dre's verses, and the Grammy win that turned it into a hit.
Ice Cube wrote it for a New York group who walked out; Dre pushed Eazy-E to rap it himself.

Eminem wrote the verses as a reference for Snoop Dogg, by Dre's account, and Dre kept the guide vocal.

Dre and Mel-Man built it on a David McCallum orchestral cut from 1967, arranged by Axelrod, and Nate Dogg closes.

Dre stacked Atomic Dog over Parliament and Funkadelic, and Snoop's debut single walked straight into the top ten.

An Isaac Hayes loop from Tough Guys, three verses by Scarface, and a rap record about fear rather than swagger.
Dr. Dre produced it, George McCrae supplied the sample, and Snoop's unhurried drawl became the West Coast blueprint.

Jay-Z wrote every line of it, Scott Storch played the piano figure, and Dre's seven-year album silence ended.
Structured as a mock trial with Dre presiding, and it drew a warning letter from an FBI assistant director.

Dre and Yella built it in a Torrance studio on almost no money, and Compton stopped being invisible.

Dre built G-funk on a Leon Haywood sample, handed Snoop the mic, and gangsta rap reached number two.