''Dr. Dre Presents... The Aftermath'' is a compilation album by American and West Coast

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

Dr. Dre Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...

. It was released on November 26, 1996, as the first album on

Aftermath Entertainment Aftermath Entertainment is an American record label founded by hip hop producer and rapper Dr. Dre. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, Interscope Records. Current acts include Dr. Dre himself, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, ...

. Dre's scarce vocals, newly critiquing gangsta rap, marked Dre's reemergence after his March 1996 departure from Death Row Records, where Dre himself had propelled gangsta rap into the mainstream. (Dre had co-founded Death Row in 1991 amid his embattled split from Ruthless Records and its pioneering, gangsta rap group

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered ...

.) The 1996 album's first single, a Dre solo, is the only track with Dre as main vocalist, " Been There, Done That." The second single was "East Coast/West Coast Killas," prominent rappers from California, New York, and Texas rebuking rap's recently ugly East–West "war." A

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

seller, the album peaked at #6 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of ar ...

and at #3 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop-Albums charts. Nonetheless, quite unlike Dre's prior album—''The Chronic'', released in December 1992 as Dre's debut solo album and Death Row Records' first album—Dre's new offering, not a standout, received mixed reviews and lukewarm appraisals. The Glove, among the album's coproducers, reasoned, "People were upset because they wanted a 'Dr. Dre' album. They weren't looking for a compilation album. That's what messed that up. Plus the single 'Been There, Done That' was cool, but it was taking away from the gangster style that people wanted." Himself commenting on the album, Dre remarked, "It was just okay. That was a hit and miss." More broadly, Dre explained, "That point of my life, musically, it was just off balance. I was off track then and trying to find it. It was a period of doubt. . . It happens with artists. Everything isn't going to be out of the park."

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1996 compilation albums Albums produced by Bud'da Albums produced by Dr. Dre Hip hop compilation albums Aftermath Entertainment compilation albums Interscope Records compilation albums Compilation albums by American artists Record label compilation albums