The Chronic

'The Chronic' is slang for high-quality marijuana, and the album's cover art features a cannabis leaf embedded in the gold-and-black design. The term became widely popularized through this album and the broader Death Row Records culture of the early 1990s.

The album introduced the world to Snoop Dogg (then known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), who appears prominently throughout and was still a teenager at the time of recording. Other Death Row Records artists appearing include Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, The Lady of Rage, and RBX—many of whom went on to successful solo careers.

G-funk (Gangsta funk) is a hip-hop subgenre characterized by slow tempos, melodic synthesizer lines, deep bass, and samples from 1970s funk—particularly Parliament-Funkadelic. The Chronic codified this sound, especially through tracks like 'Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang' and 'Let Me Ride,' which sample Parliament-Funkadelic and other classic funk artists.

Dr. Dre had been a founding member of N.W.A. and had recently left both the group and their label, Ruthless Records, amid a bitter dispute with Eazy-E and manager Jerry Heller. He co-founded Death Row Records with Suge Knight in 1991, and The Chronic, released in December 1992, was his first full-length release on the new label.