Snoop Dogg Is Celebrating 30 Years of Working With Dr. Dre By Dropping a New Album Together
Rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg have been working together since the early 1990s. The two superstar MCs have several hits to their name, some of which Dre himself produced. Dre produced Snoop’s 1993 debut album Doggystyle, and to celebrate the album’s 30th birthday, the two are teaming up for a whole new project.
Dr. Dre produced Snoop Dogg’s debut album ‘Doggystyle’
Dr. Dre first rose to prominence in the late 1980s as part of the hit hip-hop group N.W.A. He eventually broke out on his own, releasing his debut solo album The Chronic in 1992. Dre soon began making a name for himself as a producer in addition to being a rapper.
Dre had crossed paths with Snoop Dogg several times. Earlier in 1992, the two teamed up for “Deep Cover,” the theme song from the 1992 film of the same name.
In 1993, Dre served as the only producer on Snoop’s debut album Doggystyle. The album contained songs that are recognizable to many fans to this day, including “Gin & Juice” and “Murder Was the Case.”
Doggystyle debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart and sold more than 800,000 copies in its first week. By May 1994, Doggystyle had been certified four-times platinum with over four million copies sold in the US. To this day, Doggystyle remains Snoop’s most commercially successful album, as his subsequent albums only earned single or double platinum certification.
The two are celebrating the 30th anniversary of ‘Doggystyle’ with a new album ‘Missionary’
Snoop and Dre remained good friends over the following decades. In an October 2022 appearance on Stephen A. Smith’s K[no]w Mercy podcast, the “Drop It Like It’s Hot” rapper reflected on his relationship with Dre and how it’s changed over time. Snoop also revealed that he and Dre had begun working on a new album over the summer, and it would be released in November 2022.
“Me and Dr. Dre have been working on an album for the past two months, and it’ll be done in November,” Snoop said. “And it’s produced by Dr. Dre. It’s our 30th anniversary to Doggystyle. And the name of the album is Missionary.”
When asked why he went with the name Missionary for the album, Snoop quipped it was because “the first album was Doggystyle.“
The album will be released on Death Row Records, which Snoop recently purchased in a massive sale.
Missionary represents the latest project in 2022 that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg have worked on together. In February 2022, they took the stage alongside Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar for the Super Bowl LVI halftime show in their own backyard in Inglewood, California.
Snoop purchased his masters from ‘Doggystyle’
Snoop went on to tell Smith about his purchase of Death Row Records, and his quest to secure his masters from his early recordings released on the legendary record label.
“I was looking to get my masters back from Doggystyle — that was what I was searching for. And during the process, they were — the people that had it — were charging more for the masters than for Death Row. So I had to ask myself, ‘Do I want the masters now, or do I want to go back and get that legacy?’” Snoop said. He ended up paying for his masters and for other artists’ work from Death Row, as well as purchasing the publishing for the records.
“Death Row Records should be the most prolific, dominant, business-minded companies to come out of the West Coast,” Snoop declared.
