‘The Chronic’ 20 Years Later: An Audio Document Of The L.A. Riots
Posting this because it neatly ties into the whole “iconic albums hitting decade/multi-decade milestones in 2013” theme I blogged about yesterday. Also, because, c’mon, The Chronic was great.
With that said, I think NPR is making an impossible stretch by arguing that The Chronic was an artistic response to the Rodney King riots. Yes, soundbites of documentary footage taken during the riots were used as an intro to one song on the album, but they were used in such a generic context those clips could have been from any source.
If you wanted to write a piece about a hip hop album that was a direct response to the LA riots, why not reference The Predator?