Andrew Youssef

When Snoop Dogg started calling himself Snoop Lion last year, those who casually follow him (ie the entirety of the internet) collectively snickered. His embrace of Rastafarianism and journey to Jamaica -- resulting in April's Reincarnated -- has been widely criticized and mocked, by those in the know and by armchair cultural quarterbacks. The album got horribly middling reviews, and his critics, like everyone else, took the opportunity to belittle not just the music but his quest. "Snoop Dogg has sought solace in exotic spirituality," wrote Spin, "not Kabbalah or Scientology, of course, but the one that lets you smoke a lot of weed."

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Steve Cohn/University of Southern California

L to R: Jimmy Iovine, USC Dean Erica Muhl, Dr. Dre, USC President C.L. Max Nikias

As our sister blog The Informer reported yesterday, Interscope Records boss Jimmy Iovine and boss of all bosses Dr. Dre pooled together $70 million they had lying around to establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. It will offer students the most badass major imaginable, starting with the incoming class of 2018.

Their press conference at Interscope Studios in Santa Monica yesterday brought out Dre for a rare public appearance; he wore a black suit (no tie) and black patent leather shoes, and was visibly nervous. This despite having his wife Nicole Threatt by his side -- in platinum blonde curls and a small black dress, she posed for pictures and briefly turned the small press gathering into a red carpet affair. In any case, the founding of this college feels monumental; not just for the kids, who will probably invent some amazing gadget that lets you design your garage while streaming music videos on your video games, but for hip-hop itself. For a young genre that can sometimes feel faddy, this is some permanent shit right here: The man who taught us to smoke trees will now have his name on the side of the building. Dre and Iovine spoke with West Coast Sound in an extremely rare interview.

See also: The Making of The Chronic

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Terrace Martin plays tomorrow's Paid Dues festival in San Bernardino. The producer, saxophonist, and emcee came up on the streets of Crenshaw and Slauson, and was tapped for Snoop Dogg's 2004 Rhythm & Gangsta album at 17 and for Quincy Jones' production staff at 22. Millions of record sold contain his melodic and soulful production touch.

After releasing the Marvin Gaye inspired Here My Dear EP in 2010 and Locke High 2 in 2011, Martin has plans to forge a name of his own with the June album release of 3 Chord Fold. In conversation, Martin describes his experience traversing the worlds of hip-hop and jazz.

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Danielle Bacher

[Editor's note: Soon-to-be-award-winning gonzo music journalist Danielle Bacher prowls the late late night scene for West Coast Sound. For this installment, she hit the town with rapper Kurupt from Tha Dogg Pound and DJ Nik Bean, a West L.A.-based mixtape impresario who has worked with Snoop and Tha Dogg Pound, DJ Felli Fel and others.]

7:56 PM, Tuesday, November 27: I can't stop coughing. I know I'm about to get sick. I arrive at Backside Records in Burbank, and hear music blasting from inside. This is going to be a rough one.

Kurupt Sails Uncharted Rap Waters
The Making of The Chronic

8:00 PM: I walk toward the back of the store. There is a crowd of people posing for a camera. I'm not really sure who any of these people are, but they look somewhat important. DJ Nik Bean introduces me to the crew.

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Christian Jørgensen

"Snoop Dogg"

Update: Jørgensen has sent in his self portrait, which you can see at the bottom of the post.

Not too long ago I received an email from a friendly Danish man (is there any other kind) named Christian Jørgensen, whose judgment I immediately trusted because of the slash through his 'o.' But that was not the right assessment. He asked me to publish some pictures of a man he'd met "on a travel to the Americas" a couple of years ago, more specifically to the Amazon rainforest.

The man, he said, was Snoop Dogg. The only problem is, as you can clearly see above and below, the man was not Snoop Dogg.

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Suge Knight at the Chasen's launch party

[Editor's note: A 2001 documentary from Santa Monica-based production company Xenon Pictures, called Welcome to Death Row, tells the story of Suge Knight's infamous imprint, and Xenon's producers are publishing interviews conducted for the film in a book next year. With their blessing, we're excerpting some of that material, including our cover story on the making of The Chronic and a dissection of the legend of Suge Knight dangling Vanilla Ice off a balcony.]

See also: The Making of The Chronic
Why The Chronic Is the Greatest Album In Rap History

Today we revisit the launch party for Death Row, held on February 25, 1992 at erstwhile West Hollywood restaurant Chasen's, a swanky eatery that once hosted Oscar parties. Though he was not able to attend because he was locked up, the money man behind Death Row, Michael "Harry O" Harris, received shout-outs throughout the night from performers like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Intended to introduce and legitimatize the fledgling label (an arm of Harris' Godfather Entertainment), the party was ultra lavish.

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If you try to remember the late fall of 1992, all you see is smoke. Smoke smoldering from the rubble of post-riot L.A. Smoke sepulchral from the barrels of freshly fired AKs. Smoke swirling from the zigzags of anyone able to purchase the bomb, the real sticky-icky, the chronic.

See also: The Making of The Chronic
Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums

All you hear is The Chronic -- Dr. Dre's perfectly rolled joint, which soon celebrates the 20th anniversary of its Dec. 15, 1992, release.

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Dr. Dre's seminal 1992 album, The Chronic, turns 20 next month. Though a sensation upon its release, the raw-but-melodic work's legend has only grown in the ensuing decades, and today seemingly every MC-producer duo fancies itself the next Dre and Snoop Dogg. It has become the most influential rap work ever made, and perhaps even the greatest, as Jeff Weiss argues.

See also: *Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums
*The Chronic: The Greatest Album In Rap History

But it almost never happened. Despite the success Dre had experienced with N.W.A, he was entangled in contractual problems with his former crewmate Eazy-E's label. For that reason, as well as Death Row's dodgy reputation, The Chronic had a hard time finding release. It took the shepherding of renegade upstart Interscope Records, the financing of convicted drug kingpin Michael Harris and the steady hand of Suge Knight, an intimidating former defensive end, to give it life.

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Warren G

This weekend Warren G turns 41, celebrating with a show at the Key Club on Friday. But while everyone knows him for "Regulate," his signature duet with Nate Dogg, he's actually had important roles in hip-hop history, many of which have gone under-discussed.

Warren Griffin III started his career as one-third of rap trio 213, along with the Doggs Nate and Snoop. Taking their name from the Long Beach area code, they recorded a particularly potent demo which Warren was able to get in the hands of his step-brother, Dr. Dre. He thus not only hooked up Dre with Snoop, but played an important role behind the scenes at Death Row Records, helping Dre produce The Chronic and shaping the west coast g-funk sound that changed hip-hop.

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