Chronic-Les: The Original Tracks On Dr. Dre's Classic "The Chronic" CD CD

If there's one thing this collection displays it's that Dr. Dre has fantastic taste. Koch -- with some help from Rhino -- rounds up the sources for all those great Dr. Dre beats on Chronicles. The collection claims to be all about his Chronic album, but it goes beyond that with some tracks that Dre sampled for N.W.A. and others. The man himself has no involvement in the release -- this probably wouldn't have the 2001 rip-off cover if he was -- but the collection isn't disrespectful to him. The liner notes do pretty good at putting all these tunes in a context young Dre might have heard them in, and they point out what tracks these grooves landed on. Even though there's no reason to put everything here except Dre copped a bit, it all hangs because of the high quality, sticky, sticky grooves. Young gangstas might be surprised that the struggle has been going on longer than they thought and Dre wasn't the first great street commentator. Funk gets its due, the mind of Dre is explored, and you get a supremely funky CD in the deal. ~ David Jeffries

Parliament/Isaac Hayes/Meters/ Quincy Jones/Bill Withers/Kay