2001 the chronic
Most notably, he created the headphone brand Beats by Dre in 2008, which was later sold to Apple in 2014 for 3 billion dollars. In addition to music, Dre has also worked as an entrepreneur. of which Dre served as a producer, which also looked at his time at Death Row. By 2015, Dre announced he was officially scrapping Detox for good, and instead released Compton, which was inspired by the film Straight Outta Compton, a biopic on N.W.A. Dre would also continue to work with Eminem throughout the 2000s, producing many successful releases for him.įor many years, Dre was working on a new solo album called Detox, though it was constantly delayed to the point of becoming hip hop's equivalent to vaporware. This also included Aftermath signee 50 Cent, whose first 2 albums both went multi-platinum.
Blige to Gwen Stefani rather than releasing solo records. Since then, Dre has been more focused on producing works for other artists ranging from Mary J. Dre also released his second album 2001 on the label, which was also a huge success. It had some difficulties in its first couple of years, releasing poorly received records, but it turned around when Dre signed Eminem, whose debut album The Slim Shady LP proved to be a huge hit. super-duper).Ĭhronic has since broadened outside of hip-hop slang to more mainstream youth slang as a term for “excellent” or “an excellent thing,” perhaps on the notion of having the effect of chronic marijuana or on the model of dope (slang for “marijuana” and “cool”).Dre then formed a new record label called Aftermath Entertainment. Chronic is sometimes playfully referred to as chron-don, formed by the process of rhyming reduplication (cf. Such marijuana is frequently referred to as that chronic (smoking some of that chronic), the demonstrative pronoun serving to intensify the perceived quality of the drug. Several prominent hip-hop artists have also used the term chronic in their music, including The Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube, Chance the Rapper, and Earl Sweatshirt.Īmong cannabis consumers, chronic can be used as slang for marijuana itself, but many users reserve the term for particularly potent strains of the plant (e.g., smoke some chronic or smoke the chronic). The term chronic is referenced throughout his body of work. Dre released a follow up album called 2001, commonly referred to as The Chronic 2001.
Dre’s album title and use of chronic on it popularized the term among hip-hop artists and fans, and then onto youth and cannabis culture more generally. Regardless of its particular origins, Dr. While we hesitate to doubt Snoop Dogg, chronic as cannabis slang may have originally described extremely potent marijuana based on the medical sense of the word as “severe” or “extreme.” It’s worth, noting, though that chronic has been slang for a “habitual drug user” since the late 1940s, viz. Dre’s “Deeez Nuuuts” from his The Chronic album: “It’s back on the track / With big money, big nuts, and a big fat chronic sack.” But, we got so motherfcukkin’ high, niggaas said, ‘hydrochronic.’ And that’s when we started calling it chronic.'” Chronic as a slang term for very strong marijuana does originate around this time, with Green’s Dictionary of Slang first citing lyrics from Dr. As Snoop described it to actor Seth Rogen on his GGN internet show: “White boy came he had some shit called hydroponic. Dre developed the malapropism chronic after smoking hydroponic marijuana for the first time. In cannabis cultivation, hydroponic refers to the process of growing marijuana using irrigation systems. According to rapper Snoop Dogg, who made frequent appearances on the album, chronic was initially a misunderstanding of the word hydroponic. The album’s artwork is a nod to Zig-Zag rolling papers, a brand well-known for its association with cannabis use. It was titled The Chronic, a reference to marijuana. Dre released his first solo album in late 1992. Following a successful stint with hip-hop group N.W.A, Dr.