Very few hip hop albums are in my all time, desert island, album list.  The ones that make it are obvious choices: The Beastie's Paul's Boutique, Biggie's Ready To Die, Enter The Wu-Tang, Jay Z's Black Album, Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded, Tribe's Midnite Marauders, and Dre's 2001. 

2001, Dre's last opus, which was released over NINE YEARS AGO (lord, I'm old), set the standard for the next decade with electro-rap.  It blended the waning years of DJ rave drug music with old school gangsta rap.  One can argue, along with Hype Williams videos, it perpetuated what is now the current stagnant state of hip hop, driven by bling, derivative hooks, exploitive single releases, and, of course, ubiquitous ringtones.  But, it also gave rise to the super producer (that could be a bad thing), cross pollination of genres, Eminem and 50 Cent (wait, those could still be bad things).   Either way, 2001 is a brilliant album--Dre discovering his prime--and for good or bad, it put an imprint on the entire industry. 

Now, I've heard rumblings about Detox for five years, and while the long wait might not rise to Chinese Democracy levels, the procrastination factor is still high.

Surprisingly, USA Today got the scoop on this:

"I'm just now — over the last couple of months — starting to feel that it's going to be right and it's something I can be proud of, and everybody is going to love it," says Dr. Dre (aka Andre Young). "In a perfect world, I'm shooting for a November or December release."

If anyone had the chance to see the follow up tour for 2001, you know how sick it was.  Here is a sample with Em, Xhibit and Dre: