Various Artists Murder Was The Case

Between late 1992 and winter 1993, Death Row Records was on a roll—and Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg were two superstars who were creatively steering the ship. Between their respective debuts The Chronic and Doggystyle, they had rap in a chokehold with Dre’s catchy, sinister G-funk gems and Snoop’s snarling, unshakable rhymes. Their first collaboration was the theme song for the film Deep Cover, so it's only right “Murder Was the Case” would follow. The song was the harrowing title track for a short film that Death Row produced, where Snoop sells his soul to Satan after being murdered. This soundtrack isn't lauded as much as the classics that preceded it, but Death Row’s dominance was still just as impenetrable: Dre and Snoop’s chemistry was already fully realized, and their collaborators were equally in tune. Tha Dogg Pound later earned a Grammy nomination for “What Would U Do?”; Nate Dogg’s soulful, thugged-out vocals shined on “One More Day”; Dre’s former N.W.A brother Ice Cube showed up for “Natural Born Killaz”; and fellow West Coast architect DJ Quik lent one of his all-time great songs, “Dollars and Sense,” to the soundtrack’s second half. This soundtrack proved that Death Row had only just gotten started.