This Is Our Jam: Kendrick Lamar, “The Recipe” (Featuring Dr. Dre)

13 years after Dr. Dre released The Chronic 2001, Detox still has yet to see the light of day. This could be because the West Coast legend is simply obsessed with perfection (although we all saw what happened to Axl Rose when he was in a similar position), but it also reflects the funk that Los Angeles hip-hop fell into during the 2000s. Now it’s 2012 and the landscape of L.A. rap has changed considerably — Dr. Dre has signed the Black Hippy crew (Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul) to his once-dormant Aftermath imprint, and “The Recipe” is the first release to come from the new partnership.

While a collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre might seem a bit forced (How will Dre’s old school gangsta persona stand up to Lamar’s more cerebral, hazy rhymes?), the resulting track flows smoothly enough. Even though the rappers differ in style, they both share a chilled-out left-coast vibe that plays nicely off one another. This team-up hasn't brought Dr. Dre back to his early '90s heyday (his rapping isn't show-stopping, but it's not bad either), but along with Scoop DeVille’s inspired Twin Sister sample, the two rappers have created what amounts to a really great tourism ad for the Golden State. In the end, it's the message that wins out: “Texas I be screwed up, Chi Town I be really pimping / But nothing like my hometown I’m forever living," raps Lamar. Combined with the jet engine sample at the beginning, "The Recipe" is enough to have us checking ticket prices.