Early last year, The Chronic, Dr Dre’s debut solo album, disappeared from streaming services along with a number of key Death Row Records releases. This followed the purchase of Death Row by rap alumni Snoop Dogg who explained the removal of the music thus: “First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people, because those platforms don’t pay.”

He added, “So what I wanted to do is snatch my music off, create a platform similar to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. It’ll be a Death Row app, and the music, in the meantime, will live in the metaverse.” This prompted wild suggestions that he was only going to make the catalogue available as NFTs.

Just missing the 30th anniversary of its original release by a few weeks, Interscope Records confirmed on 1st February that The Chronic would return to streaming services.

“From my first day at Interscope the significance of Dr Dre as a foundational artist at this label was incredibly important to me,” said John Janick, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M, in a press statement. “We take our responsibility to Dre and his amazing body of work very seriously and we are honored to work closely with him on this re-release of one of the most important albums of all time.”

So not only did it return to DSPs, all manner of physical versions were put online for sale (double vinyl for $38, a green cassette for $20) as well as wallet-rattling merchandise ($85 hoodies, $75 crewnecks, $35 T-shirts).

Fans can also have their faces inserted into the cover artwork, replacing Dre’s stern stare with their own. Inevitably, they are encouraged to share the results on social media.