Still Dre? The Chronic Masters Re-Release is a Total Brick

News

By RC Staff

07 June 2023

It’s been more than thirty years since Dr. Dre and the rest of NWA shook the world and changed music permanently. “Straight Outta Compton” would go on to become one of the most popular records of all time, and set every NWA member into lucrative careers. Dr. Dre’s solo debut with “The Chronic” in 1992 was extremely well received and proved he could stand on his own. In 2023, Dre announced a special re-release of the album, dubbed “The Chronic Masters”. Despite his optimism, “The Chronic Masters” has completely failed to sell at retail, likely due to its excessive price point.

What is Dr. Dre's The Chronic Masters?

“The Chronic” is one of the definitive records from rap’s breakthrough into the mainstream. It was Dr. Dre’s first solo record. Since its release in 1992, it’s sold millions of copies, gone triple platinum, and rode in the Billboard top 10 for eight months straight.

It was also subject to various licensing issues in recent years. For a period of time the record was an Apple Music exclusive, only being distributed to other streaming platforms in 2020. Following Snoop Dogg’s acquisition of Death Row Records in 2022, “The Chronic” and other Death Row albums were removed from streaming services.

Finally, a resolution came in 2023. Dr. Dre announced he had regained control of the record, and it would be returning to streaming through Interscope Records. Part of this included a special re-release of the album: “The Chronic Masters”.

Unlike past versions of the album, “The Chronic Masters” was intended as a collector’s-only version of the record. Just 310 total copies would be produced and sold, as multiple releases throughout the year. The first release of “The Chronic Masters” costs $500 on the Interscope webstore. Yes, $500.

Ok, so this record is clearly for a particular buyer. Someone who really loves “The Chronic”, Dre, or throwing money around. The construction of the set is high, featuring detailed art for each piece and encased in aluminum.

There’s just one issue. “The Chronic Masters” re-release has completely failed to sell.

The Chronic Masters is a brick

Now, this is great news if you’re a Dre superfan waiting to splurge on this release. The way things are going, this will remain in stock for awhile. As of the this article’s publication, “The Chronic Masters” is still available on Interscope’s site.

So how’s the interest in the album? We pulled stock on the sale shortly after release to gauge demand. After the sale had been live for 15 minutes, there were just 16 sales of the record. This is really, really bad. Not only that, in the five days since the sale on June 1, we checked stock again.

There were just thirteen more sales over six days.

For such an iconic record with extremely limited supply, these types of sales numbers are embarrassing. But what went wrong? If this record looked like such a sure success, then why aren’t people buying it?

The price. The price is way too damn high. When RC Elite members were first gearing up to buy these records, the retail price was anticipated to be around $100-$200. These types of numbers are much more palatable, and make sense as a premium collectible. But $500? For most people, that’s a door slamming shut.

If you were looking to profit off reselling this record, that’s not gonna happen. These will not sell out any time soon, and it’s clear people are not interested in buying them at this price.

It is possible Interscope will pull the plug on stock early and ship the sold records to people who placed an order. This could mean that only around 20 or 30 of these ever make it into general circulation. That may be a recipe for a profitable flip, but it could also be just another super-rare-super-collectable-super-special bit of overpriced crap that no one cares about.

We’ve already seen that buyers are not willing to pay $500 for these knowing that they’re limited to 300. Will things change if the amount in circulation goes even lower? We don’t think so. Don’t forget that this is only part one in series of scheduled drops in 2023.

Anyway, that’s all for now. We thought it would be fun to point out an example of a high profile product completely bricking. For all the celebrities and influencers reading right now: we hope you’re taking notes.