Here are Some of Dr. Dre’s Best Underrated Hits

In honor of Dr. Dre‘s 51st birthday, we at RESPECT have compiled a list of Dr. Dre’s ten best underrated hits. Now while even casual music listeners have heard a lot of Dr. Dre’s most prolific songs such as “California Love” with 2pac, “F*** Tha Police” with N.W.A., “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” with Snoop Dogg, and “Forgot About Dre” with Eminem. There are a few great songs by the good doctor that you may have forgot about. So here is ten of Dre’s best underrated hits in no particular order.

“The Day The N****z Took Over”– A song about the 1992 LA Riots, sparked by the non-guilty verdict for the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King. Track number four on The Chronic album features Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger and RBX. TDTNTO is menacing sonically, the lyrics are dark and eery, it’s very much a reflection of the city that was burning itself down for 4 days in April of 1992.
“Keep Their Heads Ringing”– Is a fantastic song where Dr. Dre arguably spewed the best raps of his career. KTHR was featured on The Friday soundtrack (released in 1995), and it was only the second time Dre and Ice Cube had worked together since their N.W.A. days.
“Natural Born Killaz”– A killer collaboration between Dr. Dre and Ice Cube released in 1994. It was a dream of many rap fans to have Dre and Cube work together again and the ominous production sounded like the score to your worst nightmare.
“Lyrical Gang-Bang”– The most aptly titled song on this list, it features Kurupt, RBX, The Lady of Rage, Snoop Dogg, D.O.C and Dr. Dre. all doing incredibly hardcore rapping.
“Put It On Me”– This record featuring west coast legend DJ Quik appeared on the Training Day soundtrack. Dre’s hard-hitting rapping and production is superb, coupled with Quik’s funky flow created a classic.
“Bad Intentions”– Was on Dr. Dre’s movie The Wash Soundtrack and features Noc’Turn’al . This was perhaps his most X-rated song lyrically in a pretty decent catalogue of obscene lyrics.
“Housewife”– A staple in LA culture in the late 90’s after it’s release, Kurupt and Dr. Dre put a phrase into the hip-hop lexicon because the hook on this record became so popular.
“Some LA N****z”– A cypher style record with some of LA’s best emcees rapping over infectious Dr. Dre production. Featuring Kokane, M.C. Ren, Xzibit, Time Bomb, Defari, Knoc-Turn’Al, King T, and Hitman.
“The Message”– Mary J. Blige sang the heavenly hook of this record about Dre’s younger brother Tyree who passed away early in his career. It’s his most heartfelt song to date, although we know Dr. Dre he’s never really opened up about his personal life in depth before and this was a window into it.
“For The Love of Money”– A relatively new record off of his 2015 album Compton The Soundtrack this one is at least partially influence by his late group-mate Eazy E and features a few dope bars about the Compton emcee. This record features Jon Connor, Jill Scott and borrows elements from Bone Thugs N Harmony.