20 Years Of Doggystyle: What Samples Made The Album A Classic?

November 22, 2013 - 5:01 pm by Chris Harris

Gangsta rap was never supposed to sound this funky, so how did a kid from Compton become one of the most successful music producers of all time? Dr. Dre did so by prescribing old school remedies and a heavy dosage of bass to an album called Doggystyle.

Together with Snoop, Dre combined the sounds of George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, whose ensemble gained notoriety throughout the seventies for a distinct funk sound that emerged when their assortment of instruments converged. Songs like “Atomic Dog” and “Knee Deep” introduced America to spacey synthesizer frequencies, screeching electric bass lines and a bounce that made Motown seem archaic. Those reverberated rhythms reached Snoop and Dre in the early 80’s, inspiring an adolescent Andre Young to pick up the turntables. While he moonlighted as a DJ in the World Class Wreckin’ Crew, the young talent honed his production skills and acquired an eclectic taste in music, while Snoop mastered his flow across town.

“I would take somebody else's song and re-create it and make it an instrumental,” Dre said in VIBE’s February, 1996 cover story, Live From Death Row. ”So that's how I basically got into producing. My personal opinion is the '70s is when the best music was made. Some motherfuckers had orchestras! Had string sections and they'd have to sit there and orchestrate a song. And put some vocals to it. So they really got into it. Curtis Mayfield, that motherfucker was bad as shit. Isaac Hayes, Barry White, y'knowhumsayin'? Them brothers was in there doing it."

By intertwining his own instruments: keyboards, a Moog synthesizer. An Akai MPC60 (or MPC3000), and a drum machine, Dre would reprise funk for his generation, dubbing the sound catered to an influx of gangsters, G-funk. His protégé, a lanky six foot four, 21-year-old kid named Snoop – would ultimately help Dre reach unforeseen levels in the recording industry. On Doggystyle, Snoop’s groundbreaking debut, Dre took his love-affair with the 70’s to new heights, sampling his heroes from the decade heavily and solidifying his signature G-funk sound.

In honor of Doggystyle's 20 year anniversary, VIBE pieced together the samples used on the classic album. ---Chris Harris

Track 1: “Bathtub” Sample: Curtis Mayfield “Give Me Your Love” Dre made the Superfly correlation with Snoop Doggy Dogg early. The narrative behind his young career mirrored the sounds of Curtis Mayfield’s movie score. “Give Me Your Love,” the song synonymous with Superfly’s steamy, bathtub love scene serves as the music that hits your ears upon first listen – setting the tone to Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle. The audio includes a barely-legal Snoop Doggy Dogg assuming the role of Youngblood Priest, a pusha man who wants to exit the underworld.

Track 2: “G Funk Intro” Sample: Funkadelic “Knee Deep” Similar to how George Clinton pioneered p-funk, Dr. Dre unleashed the genre g-funk (Warren G, too). Here, Dre flips Funkadelic’s freaky, “Knee Deep” party-starter into a slowed-down, bass-bumping intro for the album. The Chronic gave listeners a taste of Dre’s revolutionizing rhythms but the new sound that captivated the country would come forth full-fledged on Doggystyle. Dre wouldn’t miss his chance to be heard on the “G Funk Intro,” even if all he had to say was “Yeah, and you don’t stop” and “Yeah, and you don’t quit,” his contribution was necessary.

Track 4: “Gin & Juice” Sample: Gwen McRae “I Get Lifted” Slave “Watchin’ You” “Gin & Juice” sonically sips from music’s holy grail. The second single off Doggystyle contained an interpolation of Slave’s “Watching You” chorus penned by Dr. Dre and David Ruffin Jr. Gwen McRae’s ’75 hit “I Get Lifted” is also layered into the production in a laid-back manner. Snoop’s intoxicated portrayal of a good time out cruisin,’ has proven to be timeless and an anthem for partygoers – presumably partaking in drugs and alcohol. T. Green., the Fabulous Dramatics’ bass player strummed a sick original bass line for the cut, cementing its classic status.

Track 5: “Tha Shiznit” Sample: Billy Joel “The Stranger” Preceded by an advertisement from the fictitious Eastside L.B.C. radio station 187.4 W-Balls, “Tha Shiznit” replaces Billy Joel’s climactic electric guitar melody with a cheery flute recording that sounds off simultaneously with the chorus. Here, G-funk integrates hints of soft rock from the seventies. However, there was nothing soft about Snoop Doggy Dogg’s slick, word play on “Tha Shiznit”

Track 7: “Lodi Dodi” Sample: A Taste of Honey “Sukiayaki” Snoop Doggy Dogg’s ode to the old school "La Di Da Di" by Slick Rick was polished and slanted towards his own account. His vivid storytelling would become his trademark and his knowledge of hip-hop was vast -- as he acknowledged the song’s creators in the opening verse. Leaders of the new school, Dre and Snoop paid homage to hip-hop originators Doug E. Fresh and MC Ricky D (Slick Rick) on “Lodi Dodi” - a fan favorite across generations. Death Row vocalist, Nanci Fletcher borrows lyrics from the beginning of an oriental chimed-tune, titled “Sukiayaki” to amplify the role of Sally from the Valley, an upset dope fiend.

Track 8: “Murder Was The Case” Sample: Santana “La Puesta Del Sol” Santana’s modern (90’s) San Francisco sound was used as the basis for Snoop Doggy Dogg’s dance with the devil depiction, “Murder Was the Case.” Just two years after the band recorded “La Puesta Del Sol,” Dre nabbed the eerie instrumentation and sprinkled in his own boom bap beats to sonically set the scene for Snoop’s wicked tale. The popularity of the unreleased single spawned a successful short film and soundtrack.

Track 9: “Serial Killa” Sample: Cutty Ranks “Who Seh Me Dun” & Ohio Players “Funky Worm” Dancehall artist Cutty Rank’s arrogant ad-lib “Six-million ways to die, choose one” bridged the album’s two most violent themed tracks, “Murder Was the Case” and “Serial Killa.” Dre would turn to a familiar Ohio Player’s synth-sample to fill in the rest of the song. After all, he had used it four years prior for “Dope Man” – a single off NWA’s 4x platinum Pacific Zone project. The high pitched whine from “Funky Worm” became a main ingredient in a number of West Coast productions decades after its origin.

Track 10: “Who Am I? (What’s My Name?)” Sample: The Counts “Pack of lies, Parliamant “Give Up the Funk” (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker), Funkadelic “Knee Deep” & George Clinton “Atomic Dog” Snoop Doggy Dogg’s highest grossing single of all time “Who Am I? (What’s My Name?)” is a platinum production doused directly in P-funk. George Clinton and the Parliament’s “Atomic Dog” paved the way for the foundation of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s canine opus, Doggystyle. The initial repetitive, buzzing noise that builds up the song’s suspense like a drum roll was taken from a lesser known funk group called The Counts. It’s uncanny how Dre keyed into those five seconds [2:13-2:18] on The Counts’ “Pack Of Lies” audio. He also found a way to infuse “Knee Deep” for a second time on the album.

Track 12: “Ain´t No Fun” Sample: Isaac hayes – “A Few More kisses to Go” Dre’s expertise on seventies soul combined with his clever craftsmanship allowed him to intertwine mellow Isaac Haye’s tunes and his own synthed sounds. Haye’s bedtime jam “A Few More Kisses to Go” serves as one-half of the overall production. Hard to hear the harmony? Nate Dogg’s rhythmic vocals layered with lewd lyrics from Snoop Doggy Dogg, Warren G and Kurupt tag-team the track.

Track 14: “Doggy Dogg World” Sample: Ronnie Fields "If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another" Fields said his 1982 breakthrough single “If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another" was for when you felt like even your blues had a blues. Dre grabbed a bit of the melody and gave its catchiest lyric to Death Row vocalist Nanci Fletcher and the Fabulous Dramatics to spruce up Snoop Doggy Dogg and the Dogg Pound’s braggadocios rhymes. The soothing screech from Kool and the Gang’s jazzy “Summer Madness” instrumental can also be heard woven into this masterpiece. Comedian Ricky Harris guest stars as Taadow, the owner of the fabulous Carolina West who introduces the evening’s hood headliners.

Track 16: “Gz and Hustlas” Sample: Bernard Wright “Haboglabotribin” Dre’s respect for music transcended the regional divisions. He looped the entire first minute of a hit song from the early 80’s, produced by Bernard Wright, a funk keyboardist from Jamaica Queens, NY. The same keys that led listeners into Wright’s “Haboglabotribin” production, instigated Doggystyle’s “Gz and Hustlas,” a decade later.

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