DR. DRE feat. SNOOP DOGGY DOGG – “Still D.R.E.” (CD Single)
We learn a total of two things from “Still DRE”. 1) Eminem sells a lot of records. 2) Dr. DRE hasn’t changed his name in the last eight years. We learn this second thing many times. Now, if you were one of those people who still think the rapping is all that matters in hip-hop, you might wish to hear no more. But in the face of lyrical adversity, this single wins through, simply because it’s perhaps the most Kraftwerk-influenced hip-hop track since “Planet Rock”, with a mournfully restrained synth-squiggle that’s Straight Outta Dusseldorf. That one instrumental touch turns the track around: the rest is stringy menace and an unflinching beat, adequate but by itself nothing special. Such is the enduring beauty of hip-hop – the way one sound can switch a tune from being blah to being a blast. It’s a lesson Kraftwerk themselves could have usefully picked up.