I felt a lot of folks had kind of written Dre off after "No Vaseline" and the fact that while it sold and had some great singles, EFIL4ZAGGIN wasn't quite as good as it would have been with Ice Cube still in the group. Clearly his absence was felt.

"Deep Cover" and the surprise performance from Snoop piqued interest in Dre again, and when "G Thang" came out, I think the hype was properly built for this album.

Without Snoop, I don't think that happens. Dre was now without Eazy, who was undoubtedly the most popular member of NWA now that Cube was gone, without Ren... and Snoop was a virtual unknown who had stolen the show on both songs.

It dropped in the middle of a 1970s revival and I can't help but think that the rise of G-Funk also gave way to the reissuing of a lot of Parliament/Funkadelic albums on CD that had been left to the annals of the 8-track for years. For that, I'm super glad The Chronic hit like it did.