The impact of Dr. Dre’s 1992 solo debut, The Chronic, on West Coast Hip-Hop can’t be understated.
During the Paid in Full Foundation’s 2025 Hip-Hop Grandmaster Awards at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on October 18, the subject was justifiably top of mind.
Parliament-Funkadelic’s Chief Architect of Funk, George Clinton, was on deck to receive the foundation’s inaugural Quincy Jones Award. The group’s music was the building blocks for The Chronic, with Dre incorporating samples of “Mothership Connection (Star Child),” “Atomic Dog” and “P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up),” among others, into his G-Funk formula.
Speaking to AllHipHop on the black carpet, The Fat Boys’ Kool Rock Ski praised The Chronic for its role in popularizing Hip-Hop with a mainstream audience.
“I gotta be 100 percent honest with you,” he said. “I saw the lack in the sales and the music around ’91 and thought it would just go strictly back to the streets. Nobody was really putting out nothing big. We had a lot of artists putting out big radio hits and stuff like that, but it wasn’t until The Chronic came out and opened up the doors again for Hip-Hop sales, and the popularity came again.”
“When I heard it, a lot of people didn’t know about the Funkadelic music. Of course, we came from a musical background, so everything we heard was like, ‘Oh, that’s from Funkadelic.” But at the same time, it was blended so lovely with Hip-Hop, Snoop Dogg’s voice…I mean, it had an entourage of artists. It was smooth.
He continued, “The Lady of Rage and The D .O .C. was on it. I was stoked when they did that, but it brought back the sales, too. Because remember, by that time, it was Vanilla Ice and Hammer, who was the only ones who were selling that many records, but they weren’t considered street Hip-Hop.”
On the black carpet, former Yo! MTV Raps host Fab 5 Freddy, also caught up with Kool Rock Ski, Geto Boys’ Scarface, Ludacris, Roxanne Shanté and several other Hip-Hop legends, who were in Sin City to honor this year’s Hip Hop Grandmaster Award recipients, Kool G Rap and Brand Nubian’s Grand Puba as well as Kool Rock Ski, one of two recipients of the new Contributor Award. (The other, Whodini’s Jalil, was unable to attend in person.)
Dr. Dre surprised the crowd by joining a panel moderated by Quincy Jones III, who was interviewing Clinton about his indelible contributions to music. Dre went on to praise Clinton for his influence on him and countless others.
“George Clinton is one of my main motivations and what I grew up to,” Dre said. “Forty years this year, I started in 1985. This summer marks 40 years that I’ve been doing this thing. In the beginning of my career and my childhood and everything was based on this man right here. Everything that I’ve done, studied… all the drums and all the instruments that this man did inspired me to do what I’m doing right now, and I’m just so appreciative. It’s all love.”
The evening was marked by several performances, including from Nas, Kool Moe Dee, Clinton, Mobb Deep’s Havoc and more.
And if you haven’t seen George Clinton roll up on a motorized before…you’re welcome.
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