Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s classic collaboration from Dre’s album 2001 has joined Spotify’s exclusive “Billions Club,” which signifies a song reaching one billion streams on the platform.
As of publication, the track has racked up 1,001,123,576 streams. It joins fellow 2001 single “Still D.R.E.” (which also features Snoop) in the club.
2001 remains one of the most influential albums in the history of rap. After releasing The Chronic in 1992, Dr. Dre spent the rest of the 90s watching the gangsta rap style he helped birth and popularize completely take over the genre. It wasn’t just a dominant force in hip-hop, it was the dominant force in music – full stop. But after releasing his second solo album, 2001 on November 16, 1999, Dre was back for the throne with a new generation of talent and an album that would define an era.
Dr. Dre already had one culture-shifting album under his belt: The Chronic had not only cemented him as one of the most legendary hip-hop producers of all time, but it had also turned Snoop Dogg into a star.
But for all The Chronic achieved, it also laid the groundwork for Dre’s stunning follow-up. 2001 is a similarly collaboration-heavy album; Snoop Dogg, now a superstar, is only on four songs this time around, but the reduced quantity is hardly noticeable because two of those songs are “Still D.R.E.” and “The Next Episode,” two of the most definitive songs not only in Dre’s catalog but in the entire canon of West Coast hip-hop.
We should also thank Dre for introducing a whole generation of kids to the symphonic genius of the late David Axelrod, through his brilliant sampling of Axelrod’s “The Edge.”
As influential as Dre was for NWA and his own albums, he’s now just as famous for launching Eminem’s career. 2001 was integral to Eminem’s ascension and despite that memorable “What’s The Difference” appearance, it’s “Forgot About Dre” that most remember as the album’s defining track. Eminem had released The Slim Shady LP at the top of the year, and, despite Dre’s involvement on that album, their best-known collaborations were yet to come.
