

At this point, Priority decided not to honor the original agreement and threatened to sue Dre if the Chronic trademark were to be used in any capacity. Shortly after, Interscope began a big budget promotional campaign for Chronic 2001. Dre’s album would now be named Chronic 2001. According to his lawyer Howard King, “both sides agreed that we’d allow the other to use the title, and then let the public decide which one they preferred”.Īfter the release of Chronic 2000, they announced that Dr. When Aftermath found out that Priority and Death Row planned to use the same name for their album, Dre sought legal action. Dre’s album since notification of the trademark use was required by his label Aftermath Records. Knight was tipped off about the name of Dr. Death Row owned the trademark for The Chronic as did Interscope Records who previously distributed Death Row. The album was initially titled Chronic 2000 until Priority Records, who had become Death Row Records‘ new distributor decided, in conjunction with Death Row’s founder and then-CEO Suge Knight, to call their compilation album Chronic 2000. 2001 received generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the music although some found the lyrics objectionable. It produced 3 singles that attained chart success and has been certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America ( RIAA) and as of August 2015 the album has sold 7,800,000 copies in the United States. Billboard 200 chart, selling 516,000 copies in its first week. The album debuted at number 2 on the U.S. Dre and Mel-Man, as well as Lord Finesse, and features several guest contributions from fellow U.S. rappers such as The D.O.C., Hittman, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Xzibit, Eminem, and Nate Dogg.Ģ001 exhibits an expansion on Dre’s debut G-funk sound and contains gangsta rap themes such as violence, promiscuity, drug use, street gangs, sex and crime.

It was released on November 16, 1999, by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records as the follow-up to his 1992 debut album, The Chronic. Dre is one of the most successful artists in Hip-Hop, with a net worth of around $800 million, although the number is likely to change after his divorce from estranged wife Nicole Young is finalized.2001 (sometimes called The Chronic 2001) is the second studio album by rapper and hip hop producer Dr. I got the drums much cleaner on this one, and the way I have everything panning and the sounds coming out is cool.

I wanted people to feel the same vibe they did when they heard the first one, but with some 2001 futuristic sh*t going on. “Well, I definitely wanted a different sound. Dre’s motivation to create 2001 came from his desire to reinvent himself and create a new sound. Now what do you people have to say?” It was important for him to change up his soundĪ large part of Dr. People were saying that I didn’t have it anymore and that I hadn’t made a good record in years. I’m just responding to the shit I was hearing. “There’s only a couple of songs where I’m defensive. Dre spoke in more detail about 2001 in a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone, where he stated that the album was created to silence everyone who’d said his career was over. It’s almost like a shot at them, they called it 2000, and I said, ‘Yeah, that’d be great, 2001.’” He felt like he had to make ‘2001’ because people were saying he was washed upĭr. “I thought the music was great, I thought that everything we were doing was fantastic and I just said, ‘Ok, f*ck it, what’s in the title? Let’s just call it 2001. He felt like naming it 2001 would be a clever way of getting back at his peers.

Dre didn’t put much effort into finding another name. And it was actually Jimmy Iovine’s idea to call the album 2001.”īecause he was more focused on the quality of the music than the album’s promotion or packaging, Dr. “And my previous partners from Death Row, I heard that they were doing an album called The Chronic 2000. “I think at that time, I wanted to call the album The Chronic 2000, right?” Dre said. According to him, he initially planned on naming the album 2000, but the name was stolen before he could. Dre recently spoke about the meaning behind 2001’s name during an interview with Lil Wayne on his Young Money Radio podcast. RELATED: There’s a Lot of Drama Surrounding Dr. Dre attends the premiere of “The Defiant Ones” at Paramount Theatre | Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
