I know I didn't! thought the beats were cool enough, but I thought the rapping sucked. then I wasn't interested in the beats anymore; they were kinda bland. "still DRE" was everywhere and I was over it. then "forgot about dre" came out as a single and I hated it even more!

but then summer rolled around and I saw the up in smoke tour, and I saw how these songs BANGED in arenas, and I started to come around. especially "the next episode," which was the summer single. shit just overpowered all the nerdy stuff I was listening to at the time ("nia," the J5 album, even the MMLP).

I was amazed at how these sparse songs could have so much power. "Xxplosive" was like what, only 4 different sounds?? "Ackrite" same thing.

and finally digesting albums like "fantastic vol 2"--with simple-sounding (but not simple at all!) beats and rhymes more concerned with vibe than complex acrobatics--made me fully appreciate 2001. dre stripped off all the g-funk samples and hooks from his sound, moved away from the dramatic mike dean-sounding live instrument/synth thing (e.g. "nas is coming"), and went into the millennium with his stripped-down, clean, and LOUD version of boom bap.

now I think it's a classic. probably up there with "the chronic" in terms of quality and creativity.

SOOO...I'm gonna give "compton" some time to marinate before I fully judge it. I suspect i'll warm to it just like I did 2001. whereas 2001 was a back-to-basics kinda record, "compton" is striking me as HUGE pop effort, in the spirit of an MJ album. can't be mad at that.