Doggystyle

Doggystyle is the debut album by American West Coast (g-funk) hip hop artist Snoop Doggy Dogg, released on November 23, 1993 (see 1993 in music). The album was a breakthrough success for Snoop, who had established a fanbase with his extensive contributions to Dr. Dre's landmark The Chronic; this fanbase made Doggystyle the first debut album in history to enter the Billboard Music Charts at #1. It has been certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA^[1], and remains Snoop's highest-selling album to date. According to SoundScan, the album has sold over 6 million copies as of December 2006^[2], including 802,858 in its first week. This made it the fastest-selling rap album prior to Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000, and the highest debut album for any rapper in history before 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2003. It still holds the 35th place on the biggest One-Week Soundscan Sales as of 2007.

Overview

Doggystyle topped the Billboard 200 for three weeks and Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts (North America).

"Who Am I (What's My Name)" was Snoop's debut solo single. Featuring Tha Dogg Pound, "Who Am I " reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and number 20 in the United Kingdom. Another Doggystyle single, "Gin and Juice", was also a number eight Hot 100 hit, and was nominated for a 1995 Grammy Award.

A bonus track called, "G'z up Hoes Down", was included in the first pressing of the album, but not in later versions because of sample clearance issues. "G'z up Hoes Down" sampled Isaac Hayes' 1967 song "Look Of Love", written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, a sample later used in songs such as Kim Summerson's "Choices" (Dr. Dre Presents...The Aftermath, 1996), LV's "Gangsta's Boogie" (I am LV, 1996), Coolio's "Show Me Love" (El Cool Magnifico, 2002), Jay-Z's "Can I Live?" (Reasonable Doubt, 1996) and Ashanti's "Rain on Me" (Chapter II, 2003) [2]. The song can now be found on the Death Row Records 15th Aniversery Compilation CD.

"Tha Next Episode", was also included in the first pressing of the album. It is considered the original material used for the 2000 Dr. Dre single The Next Episode. It was 4:36 long.^[3] Tha Next Episode was later released on the Dr. Dre mixtape "Mick Boogie: Pretox" under the name "Chronic Unreleased Studio Session".

And there's also a leftout title song, "Doggystyle" featuring George Clinton, and is much more of a singing melody, with vocals dominating the song. It is originally 5:26 long.

The video for "Murder Was the Case" won the Video of the Year award at The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards 1995.

Track listing

• X = Only appeared on the first pressing of Doggystyle
• / = Unreleased title track

Personnel

• The Dramatics - Performer
• Dr. Dre - Producer
• Snoop Dogg - Vocals
• Warren G - Performer
• The D.O.C. - Ghostwriter of raps, Performer
• Lady of Rage - Performer
• RBX - Performer
• Bernie Grundman - Mastering
• Chicu Modu - Photography
• Dat Nigga Daz - Vocals, Performer
• Nanci Fletcher - Vocals, Vocals (bckgr)
• Tha Dogg Pound - Performer, Performer
• Nate Dogg - Performer
• Chris "The Glove" Taylor - Songwriter, Producer, Mixing
• Suge Knight - Executive Producer
• Dan Winters - Photography
• Kimberly Holt - Artwork
• Kurupt - Performer
• Kimberly Brown - Project Coordinator
• Joe Cool - Cover Artwork

Chart performance

Album

These are the singles that charted during 1994.

These are the singles that charted during 2004.

Accolades

( * ) designates lists which are unordered.
All URLs accessed on June 20, 2006 UTC

Music samples

Album singles

Notes

1. ^ http://www.riaa.com/gp/database/search_results.asp
2. ^ http://ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22680&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1575
3. ^ album analysis DubCNN
   Download sample from Westcoast2K
   Cover scans from Discogs
4. ^ http://www.rockonthenet.com/artists-s/snoopdoggydogg_main.htm
5. ^ ^{a b c} http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?key=1759&cat=a
6. ^ http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0611/S00325.htm
7. ^ Charts Plus [1]

Wikipedia information about Doggystyle This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Doggystyle". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.