Snoop Doggy Dogg - Murder Was The Case (Live)

Live performance from the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. Song first appeared on the 1993 album: "Doggystyle". A remix appears on the "Murder Was The Case" Soundtrack.

Doggystyle is the debut solo album from American West Coast hip hop rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, released November 23, 1993 on Death Row Records. The album was recorded soon following the release of Dr. Dre's landmark debut album The Chronic (1992), to which Snoop Dogg contributed significantly. His musical stylizations for the album share similarity to those featured on Doggystyle. Critics have praised Snoop Dogg for the lyrical "realism" he delivers on the album and for his distinctive vocal flow. While recording the album, Snoop Dogg was arrested in connection with Phillip Woldermarian's death; he was tried and acquitted in 1996.

Despite some mixed criticism of the album initially upon its release, Doggystyle has earned recognition from many music critics as one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the most important hip hop albums ever released. Much like The Chronic, the distinctive sounds of Doggystyle helped introduce the hip hop style of G-funk to a mainstream audience, bringing forward West Coast hip hop as a dominant force in the early 1990s. As of 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has certified Doggystyle quadruple platinum in sales, as it serves as Snoop Dogg's highest-selling album. The record debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold 802,858 copies in its first week alone, which was the record for a debuting artist and the fastest-selling album ever until Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000.Doggystyle is viewed by many critics and fans as a "hip hop classic" and is included in The Source magazine's list of the 100 Best Rap Albums, as well as Rolling Stone magazine's list of Essential Recordings of the 90s.

Doggystyle was recorded in early 1993 at Death Row Studios. It was produced in a style similar to The Chronic; some critics called it a "carbon copy". Snoop Dogg collaborated with two music groups, 213 and Tha Dogg Pound. Daz Dillinger, of the latter group, accused Dr. Dre of taking sole recognition for the songs and alleged he and Warren G were uncredited on many tracks. Snoop Dogg said Dr. Dre was capable of making beats without the help of collaborators and addressed the issues with Warren G and Daz, stating "They made beats, Dre produced that record". He discussed the track "Ain't No Fun", mentioning that Daz and Warren G brought Dr. Dre the beat but "Dre took that muthafucka to the next level!" Bruce Williams, closely affiliated with Dr. Dre, discussed the recording process during Dre's time at Death Row Records, stating:

Dres going to be the first one in the studio and the last one to leave. Hell start messing with a beat. As the beat starts pumping, the guys start filtering in. Everybody will get their little drink and smoke in. Soon enough the beat starts to make a presence. Youll look around the room and every cat that was a rapper from Kurupt to Daz to Snoop will grab a pen. They would start writing while Dre is making a beat so by the time hes finished with the beat, they are ready to hit the booth and start spittin'. To see those young cats they were all hungry and wanted to make something dope. The atmosphere that was there, you couldnt be wack.

Williams said the album was never finished and because of the demand for the record, the distributors insisted the album be completed, otherwise they would cancel the album's orders. This resulted in Dr. Dre mixing the album and inserting the skits within 48 hours, which enabled the album to be released. Rolling Stone writer Jonathan Gold described how Dr. Dre produced a beat from scratch to complete instrumental: "Dre may find something he likes from an old drum break, loop it and gradually replace each part with a better tom-tom sound, a kick-drum sound he adores, until the beat bears the same relationship to the original that the Incredible Hulk does to Bill Bixby". Gold also described how the track progressed with other musicians adding to the song, stating "A bass player wanders in, unpacks his instrument and pops a funky two-note bass line over the beat, then leaves to watch CNN, though his two notes keep looping into infinity. A smiling guy in a striped jersey plays a nasty one-fingered melody on an old Mini-Moog synthesizer that's been obsolete since 1982, and Dre scratches in a sort of surfadelic munching noise, and then from his well-stocked Akai MPC60 sample comes a shriek, a spare piano chord, an ejaculation from the first Beastie's record -- "Let me clear my throat" -- and the many-layered groove is happening, bumping, breathing, almost loud enough to see."