Dr. Dre released his highly acclaimed debut solo album
The Chronic in 1992. After this, Dre went seven years without releasing an album. During this time he featured on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers "
California Love" and "
No Diggity", while also producing
Snoop Dogg and
Eminem's debut studio albums
Doggystyle and
The Slim Shady LP, respectively. The stakes were higher for the sequel to
The Chronic, so Dre recruited
Jay-Z to ghostwrite lyrics for the former's comeback single, "Still D.R.E.". "At first, he wrote about diamonds and Bentleys," Dre told
Blaze magazine in 1999. "So I told Jay to write some other shit. Jigga sat for 20 minutes and came back with some hard-ass, around-the-way L.A. shit." In an interview on
The Breakfast Club, Snoop Dogg elaborated on Jay-Z's contributions on the song. "He wrote Dre’s shit and my shit and it was flawless," he said. "It was 'Still D.R.E.' and it was Jay-Z and he wrote the whole fucking song." An alternate reference track was also written by
The D.O.C.. "Still D.R.E." was the final song written and recorded for
2001. Dr. Dre originally wanted to release "
The Next Episode" as the album's first single: however, despite considering it a "great song" this idea was vetoed by
Jimmy Iovine, who "felt the album needed something coming out from a different way", leading to the creation of "Still D.R.E." during a late-night session at
A&M Studios.
Scott Storch first came up with the song's keyboard melody, before
Mel-Man then added the drum patterns and Dr. Dre made further adjustments; Iovine then joined them in the studio and expressed his approval with the song. ==Music video==