For long-time fans, however, the label's new owners recently fished through its vaults and came up with some rare and unheard tracks from that era. Various artists' outtakes are available with a remastered edition of The Chronic called Re-Lit & From the Vault; Snoop has a new disc out called The Lost Sessions Vol. 1.

Dr. Dre - The Chronic Re-Lit
3 stars

For those who don't have The Chronic yet, Re-Lit is the version to get. In addition to the remastered record, buyers get a DVD-ROM with seven "From the Vault" tracks (256 kbps, in the iPod-friendly AAC format), four classic music videos, and an extended interview with Dre. Casual fans who already have The Chronic will miss out on some decent content, but for them it's far from a must-buy.

This is one of the better remastering jobs in recent memory. The engineers resisted the temptation to make the record as "loud" as most current albums, which would have entailed compressing the life out of the music. These new recordings are the same volume as the old, yet sound a little bit clearer and less murky in places. The only problem is that the original tracks still sound great -- the remastering isn't something you'll notice unless you listen closely to the two versions back-to-back, so it's not really a reason to re-buy the record. Nonetheless, it's a nice, subtle upgrade that WIDEAwake (which bought the bankrupt Death Row in an auction) deserves credit for not botching.

The DVD-ROM is a little bit of a disappointment, though. Dre produced but one of the seven tracks, and two of them only feature Death Row B-listers CPO and Kurupt. These aren't hidden gems, but rather songs that didn't make it for a reason. They're not bad, per se, but they lack staying power.

At first glance, "Poor Young Dave" is the most promising track, as it features Snoop with production from Dre. Sure enough, the ominous bass line is downright frightening, and Snoop's second verse has a great flow to it. The awkward first verse, however, really hurts the overall quality.

"Slippin in the West" is a paint-by-numbers gangster track. The production isn't bad, but the bass line is too repetitive, and while CPO and Kurupt offer decent verses, neither tells an engaging story. "Smoke Enough Bud" is interesting for its soul-ballad feel, but the marijuana theme really doesn't fit well with the genre; this would have worked better as a straight-up love song. Even some spoken-word from Snoop can't save it. CPO's "Foo Nay Mic" is OK, but the rapper's deep voice is better suited for guest appearances, and he has trouble holding down a whole track.

Two more Snoop songs follow. The glitzy funk track "Dogg Collar" is probably the closest thing this collection has to a true gem, with its glossy production, laid-back rapping, and dance vibe. "Touchdown" has interesting production (including the sound of a heartbeat monitor) and a few decent lines from Snoop, but the guest verses from Threat lag a bit. The concluding song, "Would You Ride," features a bunch of rappers, but the chorus is awful and the mixing is worse.

As for the videos, they're essentially the same ones that have been available on YouTube for years. Even the "uncensored" "Nuthin but a 'G' Thang" still has the cleaned-up audio (though the offending images are unblurred). Also, with the exception of "Lil' Ghetto Boy," the videos don't hold up nearly as well as the songs do – in the decade and a half since they debuted, pretty much everything in them has become cliché.

The interview, meanwhile, is something of a clunker – in person, Dr. Dre tends to come off as quiet and only moderately thoughtful, so an extended conversation with him gets boring in a hurry.

Bottom line: If you don't have The Chronic, get Re-Lit & From the Vault. If you do, it's a toss-up; without it you're missing some barely noticeable remastering a few decent extra songs, and with it you're missing some cash.

Snoop Dogg - The Lost Sessions Vol. 1
4 stars

Like the tracks on From the Vault, most of the songs on The Lost Sessions didn't make it for a reason. Also, the sound here is raw, sometimes distractingly so, and much of the material is available in some form elsewhere. However, there are a few standouts, three tracks feature production from Dr. Dre (most of the others are "Producer Unknown"), and Snoop is featured on every song, so this is a pretty good buy for fans of early-'90s gangster rap.

"Doggystyle" kicks the record off after a brief intro, and it easily tops a lot of tracks Snoop has put on his records since leaving Death Row. Its Dr. Dre production, lead guitar, and appearances by George Clinton and Jewell mesh perfectly, giving the rapper an ideal template on which to do his thing.

Other standouts include an alternate version of "Serial Killa" and the original version of "O.G." "One Life to Live" is a different version of "Poor Young Dave"; the first verse still stumbles a bit, but Lady of Rage contributes a good appearance, and the (completely different) production works well. The skittish background of "Gravy Train" is an interesting counterpoint to Snoop's trademark laid-back style. The 2Pac remembrance "Life's Hard," a cover of Pac's "Life's So Hard" with R&B singing between the verses, is quite impressive.

There are plenty of clunkers here as well, though. "Caught Up" sounds a little to happy-go-lucky, and "H**z" just sounds like a complete mess. "Put It in Ya Mouth" has absolutely no redeeming value, though it's hard not to shake one's head and laugh at Snoop's casual delivery of the pointlessly offensive lyrics.

The Lost Sessions Vol. 1 has enough meat on its bones that fans of "Doggy"-era Snoop will get a kick out of it. Most of the tracks aren't classics, but no one records songs that sound like this anymore, and there's enough quality material to hold fans' attention for a while.

Robert VerBruggen is a writer living in New York.