Warren G Takes Credit For Something Not Worth Taking Credit For
This seems to not quite qualify as a great stroke of genius. Producer and former rapper Warren G tells XXL that he came up with the name for his step-brother Dr. Dre's classic 1999 album Chronic 2001-which was a follow-up to Dre's 1992 debut, The Chronic. "We actually met at the Beverly Hills Hotel one night, and-I swear to God-he was trying to figure out what to call the album, and I actually said, 'How about Chronic 2001?' Right there at the Beverly Hills Hotel-we sat there, in the bungalows, and named it The Chronic 2001… Dre probably don't remember that shit, but I said, 'Chronic 2001… We are The Chronic. Why change it and name it something else when you can name it Chronic 2001? Because it's the second one, and it's in the new millennium. Let's start it up and hit them again with it!'" Okay. In the '90s, there were so many rap albums coming out with future-year-based titles that hip-hop magazines were doing stories about the phenomenon. How about a quick list?
1) Rahzel, Make The Music 2000 (1999)
2) Method Man, Tical 2000: Judgment Day (1998)
3) Redman, Doc's Da Name 2000 (1998)
4) Grand Puba, 2000 (1995)
5) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, E. 1999 Eternal (1995)
6) Souls of Mischief, 93 Til Infinity (1993)
Even Melissa Etheridge, an artist some might describe as slightly less musically forward-thinking than Dr. Dre, beat Warren to his eureka moment. Her own 2001 album came out in 1992.
I once stayed down the hall from Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 at a Super 8 in Twentynine Palms.
Travelodge, Super 8… Karen UhOh, you have an illustrious history in seedy motels.
Prince's 1999 (released 1982) for the win!
Rush, 2112 (1976)?
You have made my day, NominaStultorum. (That's the first album I ever owned.)
Van Halen's "5150" (1986)?
Doesn't count. That was a coded reference to the California police code for drunk and disorderly.
Van Halen's 1984, of course, operated on a number of levels, both literal and as an allusion to Orwell's novel.
Arthur C. Clarke was doing 2001 before it was cool.
Willennium?
don't forget about the Death Row label compilation: Suge Knight Represents: Chronic 2000, which came out May 1999 (before Dre's album). I'm pretty sure this was a pre-emptive strike by Suge against his most famous backstabbin' artiste.
Right! Good thinking, Baconfat. I believe that's why Dre had to use the marijuana-leaf symbol instead of the word "Chronic" on the "2001" cover. And why the album is officially listed as just "2001."
0U812
Genius!
No BritPop from The Awl? Balk really is drunk this time. Pulp: "Disco 2000" circa 1995. The remixes totes punk the album version and I say this as a formerly awesome Spin instructor circa 1997.