Songoftheday 5/7/22 - Takin' chances while we dancin' in the party fo' sho', slip my hoe a 44 when she got in the back do'...

 

 

"The Next Episode" - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg

from the album 2001 (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 8

 

Today's song comes from hip-hop icon Andre "Dr. Dre" Young, whose second solo album 2001 had scored a Grammy-winning top-40 pop hit in the spring of 2000 with "Forgot About Dre" with Eminem. His follow-up single was "The Next Episode", which reunited him with Snoop Dogg, whom he produced his debut album Doggystyle. Snoop was on Dre's breakout solo hit "Nothin' But A G Thang", where he uttered the title of this new single. Rappers Nate Dogg and Kurupt, the latter from the group Tha Dogg Pound, also appear on the track though not getting their name on the label or chart listing. Produced by Young with Melvin "Mel-Man" Bradford, the song was simply a party club track, hyping each other, the parts of L.A. they hang, and the swag and women they have. It's not as focused as "Forgot About Dre" was, and wasn't meant to be, as the production swell seems bigger than the lyrics end up being. As for the music video, it has the four of them in a strip club...

"The Next Episode" became the second top-40 pop hit from 2001 in July of 2000. The song rose to #11 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart. Internationally, the single made the top ten in the UK (#3) and Belgium (#6F/#9W), and reached the top-40 in France (#22), The Netherlands (#26), Germany (#34), and Switzerland (#34). At the Grammy Awards in 2001, "The Next Episode" was nominated for Best Rap Group Performance, losing to himself for "Forgot About Dre" (rightfully so). 

Along with "Forgot About Dre" and "The Next Episode", a handful of other tracks from 2001 got enough airplay to make Billboard's R&B Singles chart. "F**k You", featuring Devin The Dude and Snoop Dogg, entered the chart in February and stayed for 20 weeks with a high of #61. Then in April, "Xxplosive" with Hittman, Kurupt, Nate Dogg, and Six-Two also lingered on the list peaking at #51, and "What's The Difference" featuring Eminem and Xzibit  was on for five weeks cresting at #76. After the success of "The Next Episode", "Let's Get High" featuring Hittman, Kurupt & Ms. Roq took a dozen weeks on the chart with a high of #72. And of course the first single from the set from 1999, "Still D.R.E.", went to #32 at R&B and #93 on the pop Hot 100, but returned after Dre's performance at the Super Bowl in 2022 to make the top-40 and eventually be on this series. But before that, Dr Dre will eventually be back to the series, first as a featuring artist, then as a lead.

(4/10)

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Here's Dre and Snoop on their Up In Smoke Tour behind the album...

and lastly in concert in Singapore in 2011...

Up tomorrow: This Baltimore duo have had their fill.