Death Row/Interscope 92484
Executive producer: Suge Knight
Track listing: Murder Was the Case (remix) [Snoop Doggy Dogg] / Natural Born Killaz [Dr. Dre & Ice Cube] / What Would U Do? [Tha Dogg Pound] / 21 Jumpstreet [Snoop Doggy Dogg & Troy Dee] / One More Day [Nate Dogg] / Harvest for the World [Jewell] / Who Got Some Gangsta Shit? [Snoop Doggy Dogg featuring tho Dogg Pound, Lil’ Style, Young Swoop] / Come When I Call [Danny Boy] / U Better Recognize [Sam Sneed featuring Dr. Dre. / Come Up to My Room [Jodeci featuring Tha Dogg Pound] / Woman to Woman [Jewell] / The Eulogy [Slip Capone & CPO] / Horny [8- Rezell] / Eastside-Westside [Young Soldierz]
November 5, 1994
2 weeks
Clocking in at just over 73 minutes, Murder Was the Case isn’t just another Number One soundtrack album. It’s likely the only soundtrack album in history that runs more than four times longer than the film that inspired it. Based on a song from Snoop Doggy Dogg’s Doggystyle, the 18-minute film directed and co-written by Dr. Dre, starred Snoop as a gang member. In the film, a drive-by shooting leaves Snoop near death until he has a close encounter with the devil.
For Snoop and Dre, the film Murder Was the Case was an important vehicle. “We wanted to put this out so people would look at it and say, ‘These men are real talented,’ instead of, ‘They’re criminals,’ and this and that,” says Snoop. The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was anxious to prove to the public he wasn’t just a thug, following his arrest on August 25, 1993, in connection with a real drive-by shooting. “I gave a lot as far as acting goes, because I wanted to show people that I’m more than just a basic rapper,” he adds. “We wanted to dig deep and show what we can’t show because the media won’t let us.”
Murder Was the Case, which was released on home video, was certainly more graphic than the average music video. Yet the visuals weren’t the only part of the project that raised eyebrows — the track “Natural Born Killaz,” which marked the reunion of former N.W.A members Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, featured references to the Simpson, Menendez, and Manson murder cases.
Aside from a remixed version of “Murder Was the Case,” Snoop was represented on the soundtrack with two new songs, “21 Jump Street” and “Who Got Some Gangsta Shit?” Yet the majority of the Murder Was the Case soundtrack featured developing artists.
“Now it’s my turn to expose people like the way I was exposed,” says Snoop. The rapper made his debut in 1992 joining Dr. Dre on the title track of the Deep Cover soundtrack. Dr. Dre and Snoop weren’t the only artists from Deep Cover who made appearances on Murder Was the Case — R&B diva Jewell did likewise.
With Snoop’s popularity still riding high, Murder Was the Case entered The Billboard 200 at Number One, knocking off Boyz II Men’s II and fending off stiff competition from Scarface’s The Diary, another hot hardcore rap title that debuted the same week. While it’s debatable whether the film actually achieved Snoop’s goal of showcasing him as more than just a rapper, Murder proved his recording career was alive and well.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of November 5, 1994
1. Murder Was the Case, Soundtrack
2. The Diary, Scarface
3. Promised Land, Queensryche
4. II, Boyz II Men
5. Smash, Offspring