Best National Rap Act

Dr. Dre

At the beginning of Dr. Dre: 2001 (Interscope), following the THX-explosion opener that recently got Dre slapped with a sound-effect-piracy lawsuit by Lucasfilm, there's a skit where Xzibit and some other dude watch as Dre demonstrates his car's new hydraulics. It sounds as if his ride is about to shake itself to pieces, but it doesn't -- not a bad metaphor for Dre's rocky rap-game career path. If this record was, in fact, Dre's bid for one last platinum plaque before retiring -- something I'll believe when Jay- Z makes good on his promise to bow out -- he left on a high note; 2001 is that rare reputation-defensive hip-hop album that doesn't leave a sour taste in your headphones. Choice work by Xzibit (a star this year, finally) and Eminem (whose verse, on the radio edit of "Forgot About Dre," is a gap-filled transmission of helter-skelter creepiness) highlights Dre's production, which sounds like a cold summer in Compton and speaks to the weariness of Dre the new-jack-turned-OG better than his "Behind the Music" did; 2001 is to g-funk what The Limey was to gangster movies.

-- Daniel Stuckey