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The 40 Greatest Dr. Dre Productions

With the rapper-producer set to headline next month’s Super Bowl halftime show, we look back at the productions that made him an essential hip-hop icon, from World Class Wreckin’ Cru to N.W.A to Snoop to Eminem

Photographs in illustration by Al Pereira/Getty Images; Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images; Jason DeCrow/AP; Patrick Downs/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images; Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Dr. Dre’s production career spans three decades and some of the most famous moments in American popular music. The Los Angeles musician is responsible for introducing so many acts to the pop mainstream — from childhood friend Eazy-E to Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and many others — that it’s difficult to narrow his achievements to a few dozen picks. Meanwhile, readers of this list will notice the absence of Kendrick Lamar: While the Doctor has played a crucial role in Lamar’s career, Dre technically hasn’t produced any of the rapper’s hits … yet. With Dre, Snoop, Lamar, Eminem and Mary J. Blige set to headline the Super Bowl 56 halftime show next month, we look back at the productions that made him a legend. Take this list as a starting point for exploring an essential hip-hop icon.

From Rolling Stone US

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N.W.A, “Straight Outta Compton” (1989)

As the opening track of the group’s classic Straight Outta Compton, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Ice Cube present a statement of hardcore purpose, without the thuggish jokes that animated “Gangsta Gangsta.” The video clip for the single shows the crew stomping through L.A.’s blighted streets amid scenes of barking dogs, barbed wire, and fires. “I’m coming straight outta Compton!” each bellow, just before a slowed-down vocal sample from Ronnie Hudson and the Street People’s “West Coast Poplock” flutters by. “It was the best song of that album,” DJ Yella remembered for the Straight Outta Compton movie DVD. “It went right to the point. Wasn’t no sugarcoating. Nothing. This is where we from. This is how it is.”

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Dr. Dre, “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” (1992)

According to Dr. Dre, the origins of this seminal ode to Compton party-rocking lay in a stack of records he found at his mother’s house. Then he sought out Snoop Doggy Dogg, who was in jail on unknown charges. “I really wanted this demo done, so he called in and I taped the receiver of the phone to the mic,” Dre told an L.A. radio station in 2015. After Snoop was released, the two cut a proper version of the song that would help G-funk go pop upon its release, with backing musicians such as bassist Colin Wolfe replaying elements of the key Leon Haywood sample. More than its wormy keyboard melody and Blaxploitation groove, though, it’s the vocal interplay between Dre and Snoop Dogg — like a West Coast update of Run-DMC’s mic-trading sessions — that makes “G Thang” such a marvel to hear and one of the greatest songs in hip-hop history.