With his solo debut, The Chronic, Dr. Dre managed the seemingly impossible: to craft an album as era-defining as his work on N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton four years earlier. Most obviously, by merging sampling techniques and live instrumentation, Dr. Dre’s g-funk sound helped initiate a sea change in hip-hop production that still felt today, especially on hits like “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” and “Let Me Ride.” And sure, this was also newcomer Snoop Dogg’s coming out party as Dre’s most potent partner since Ice Cube. But the importance of The Chronic can’t be divorced from how it was also the definitive, defiant post-L.A. Rebellion/gang truce album. Though its misogyny feels even more regressive now than it did then, The Chronic’s status as the gangsta’s greatest party LP of all time has yet to be seriously challenged.

– Oliver Wang