54. Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg) - Deep Cover (Epic/Solar/Triple X. 1992. From the LP Deep Cover Soundtrack)
Mike Dikk: This was the song that introduced the world to a young man full of piss and vinegar by the name of Snoop Doggy Dogg. It also introduced us to Dr. Dre: Solo Artist. I didn’t really know what to expect from Dr. Dre at that point in time. Mainly because I was like 13 and didn’t really think deeply about stuff like if Dr. Dre would be better on his own or if he’d fade into obscurity. I mostly thought about comic books and how I was probably going to die a virgin because I was kind of fat and had acne.
It’s hard to think back to those times. I don’t mean the whole dying a virgin thing, that’s just dumb. No one dies a virgin, unless you’re my friend Jew Jay who is like the most socially awkward man on the face of the earth. I meant back to a time when Snoop’s flow was totally mesmerizing. The way he wove his way through the beat with his low key tone, even sort of doing this breathy whisper thing to emphasize certain lines like a thugged out Sade. Even from this one song alone, you could tell the sky was the limit for this dude, and it was. He’s like 30 albums deep into a career and still as relevant to teenagers as he was when I was a teenager. I may not like him all that much anymore, but he’s a true entertainer, and you have to respect that.
Not only was the rapping A++ Would Buy Again material, but this beat is easily in my top ten all time favorite beats. I know there have been literally millions of written orgasms ejaculated all over The Chronic, but this is still my favorite Dre beat ever. I know it would end up being a bad idea in the long run, but I really think this beat should be brought back once a year for some kind of all star posse cut. Like the five best rappers of that given year get to rap over it. When it came out, I listened to it on repeat for days. Now it’s kind of hard to do that because I know they’re only rapping about a really bad movie. At that time I still hadn’t seen Deep Cover, and I wish I never did. I will say this was the only song ever to encourage me to watch a movie though, so I hope Dre and Snoop got royalties on the box office sales.
Speaking of which, that was just an amazing time for rap music intertwined with movies as a whole. There were a ton of soundtracks coming out full of original five-star rap music. It’s hard for me to choose the best rap soundtrack of all time. I’d probably end up going with Juice, but this remains the all-time best rap song specifically written for a movie. Unless you’re into Will Smith. He had that Wild, Wild West jam that was pretty hot. So yeah, either Dre & Snoop’s “Deep Cover” or Will Smith’s “Wild West Summertime Just Don’t Understand Men In Black” song is the greatest soundtrack rap song of all time. I’m sticking with Dre and Snoop myself, but maybe I’m tougher than you and you don’t get down that way.
Raven Mack: This was some serious shit. That beat is out of control and it is weird to think how Snoop was this AMAZING RETARDED UNHEARD OF DISCOVERY back then, which when combined with Dre on his new jack gangsta beatmaking without the sneaky shadow of that Jerry Heller dude's devil-horned hand in his pockets, it was a double dropkick that propelled both to the point they're at now, where they can half-heartedly mail in shit on the regular, cash a fat paycheck, and still somehow not sound as stupid as about half of the people who are young and fresh trying to do the shit with whatever passion they might have.
In the process of writing these blurbs, which have taken months that you don't see in reading them, because me and Mike both suffer from about a thousand different obsessions, not to mention real life triflings, I am amazed that "G Thang" is so far below this. And I'm also amazed that this is so low. There's a serious west coast bias on this list, which we tried to avoid, but I guess it turns out it was expert east coast whiteboy analysis in the long run. I mean, "Jus Lyke Compton" isn't even on this list either, and J.J. Fad's "Supersonic" never even got a sniff of the nominations list I don't think. Fuckin' stupid.
It's also funny thinking back to "Deep Cover" days about Snoop being all skinny and short-haired, basically looking Pete Rock's Long Beach angle-faced cousin, and now, you never see Snoop without a big shit-eating grin on his face. This is because he is rich, and high. Most of us in life hit that point where we decide those two things are a fork and we must choose one or the other, but he steamrolled right into having it all. I don't know what Dre does now since I don't think anyone ever sees him. I usually just imagine he sits around like a Mormon in a big mansion somewhere, with his eldest black wife, who always cooks Sunday dinner, and he's got himself like two other white wives, but they are the eldest wife, so if it comes down to going to the Grammys or some shit, black wife is the one who gets the plus-one designation. And Dre just kind of kicks it, with a staff of four or five people seeking out talent for him, which means they get hundreds and hundreds of files of dudes hooking up beats who want to hook up with The Dr. Dre, and they each sort through the crap and bring Dre like three or four songs a week, so Dre takes those songs and picks what five or six each week he wants to steal from unsuspecting passionate young production wizards spending their idle hours all night long poking buttons on their G5s, and maybe Dre will rearrange this or that and maybe add a string section part since string sections equal pop success all throughout the history of pop music, and he sits back and gets paid, having learned well the lessons Jerry Heller taught him the hard way. It'd be nice to hear him and Snoop have some passion again like this shit though.
Download: Dr. Dre - Deep Cover
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