Dr. Dre - 2001

Seven years passed between The Chronic and 2001, long enough for West Coast rap to be declared finished more than once. Dre came back in November 1999 with a record that sounded like it had been built in a laboratory: every kick drum placed with surgical care, every string line arranged rather than sampled, every guest voice given exactly the space it needed and no more.

"Still D.R.E." opens with that Scott Storch piano figure and a Jay-Z-ghostwritten verse, and it has functioned as Dre's theme music ever since. "Forgot About Dre" gave Eminem the platform to detonate, "The Next Episode" turned Nate Dogg's closing four bars into one of rap's most quoted moments, and "Xxplosive" supplied a drum break that producers are still lifting twenty-five years later. Mel-Man co-produced throughout, Mike Elizondo played most of the bass, and Camara Kambon and Storch handled keys.

What makes the album hold is the density of the supporting cast. Hittman is on nearly half of it, Kurupt, Xzibit, Snoop, Mary J. Blige and King Tee all get real room, and the sequencing threads skits through the tracklist so the whole thing plays like a broadcast rather than a playlist.

The definitive G-funk statement.