2001 (Dr. Dre album) sound and the strings and orchestration. So I'd be on the keyboards, and Mike [Elizondo] was on the bass guitar, and Dre was on the drum machine." Josh Tyrangiel of "Time" has described the recording process which Dr. Dre employs, stating "Every Dre track begins the same way, with Dre behind a drum machine in a room full of trusted musicians. (They carry beepers. When he wants to work, they work.) He'll program a beat, then ask the musicians to play along; when Dre hears something he likes, he isolates the player and tells him how to refine the sound."
2001 (Dr. Dre album) sound" from Dr. Dre and that it was as "addictive as it was back when over 3 million record buyers got hooked on "The Chronic" and Snoop Dogg's Dre-produced "Doggystyle"" and went on to commend Dr. Dre, stating, "If any rap producer deserves the title "composer", it's he." "NME" mentioned that Dr. Dre didn't expand the genre, but it was "powerful enough in parts, but not clever enough to give Will Smith the fear". PopMatters writer Chris Massey declared that "Musically, "2001" is about as close to brilliant as any one gangsta rap album might possibly get." Christopher John Farley