2001

2001 (also referred to as The Chronic 2001 or The Chronic II) is the second studio album by American rapper and hip hop producer Dr. Dre. It was released on November 16, 1999, by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records as the follow-up to his 1992 debut album, The Chronic. The album was produced mainly by Dr. Dre and Mel-Man, as well as Lord Finesse, and features several guest contributions from Hittman, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Xzibit, Eminem, and Nate Dogg. 2001 exhibits an expansion on Dre's debut G-funk sound and contains gangsta rap themes such as violence, crime, promiscuity, sex, drug use, and street gangs. The album debuted at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 516,000 copies in its first week. It produced three singles that attained chart success and has been certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); as of August 2015 the album has sold 7,800,000 copies in the United States. 2001 received generally positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the production and music, although some found the lyrics objectionable. Title and Release In 1995, the original successor to The Chronic was to be titled The Chronic II: A New World Odor (Poppa's Got A Brand New Funk). However, this version of the album was scrapped after Dre's departure from Death Row Records. After the creation of Aftermath Entertainment, the album was initially titled Chronic 2000 until Priority Records, who had become Death Row Records' new distributor decided, in conjunction with Death Row's founder and then-CEO Suge Knight, to call their newest compilation album Chronic 2000. Death Row owned the trademark for The Chronic as did Interscope Records who previously distributed the Death Row catalogue. Knight became aware of the title of Dr. Dre's album when notification for the trademark use was required by his label, Aftermath Records. When Aftermath heard that Priority and Death Row planned to use the same name for their album, Dre sought legal action. According to his lawyer Howard King, "both sides agreed that we'd allow the other to use the title, and then let the public decide which one they preferred".