"The Formula" is a song by American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

The D.O.C. from his 1989 debut album '' No One Can Do It Better''. It was released as the third single to support the album and reached #4 on the

Hot Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...

and #76 on the

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

charts in April 1990. "The Formula" has been seen as the song that invented

G-funk G-funk, short for gangsta funk, (or funk rap) is a sub-genre of gangsta rap that emerged from the West Coast scene in the early 1990s. The genre is heavily influenced by the synthesizer-heavy 1970s funk sound of Parliament-Funkadelic (aka P-F ...

Background

"The Formula" was produced by

Dr. Dre Andre Romell Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, record executive, and actor. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and co-founder of ...

and contains samples from

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...

's "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", from his 1971 album '' What's Going On''. The remix of the song features a lengthy instrumental outro.

Music video

The music video for "The Formula" was shot before The D.O.C.'s car accident. It begins with

and

Eazy-E Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. Eazy-E is often re ...

in a studio where musicians come in for an audition but get turned down; the two complain about the experience, finding it increasingly difficult to locate "the perfect rapper". In the video, Dre plays a scientist, and is implied to be biologically modifying the D.O.C. in a method similar to

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster, commonly referred to as Frankenstein, is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's ...

; this seems to be in order to create the perfect rapper, rather than finding him through the initially shown auditions. Throughout the video as more progress is made the D.O.C's shows more and more signs of life; at the very end a pair of headphones are put on his head and he sits up and eventually gets on his feet.

Track listing

;''US 12" Vinyl Single'' A side #"The Formula" (Funky FM Mix) - 5:37 #"The Formula" (Instrumental) - 4:07 B side #"Whirlwind Pyramid" - 3:16 #"The Formula" - 4:11

Charts

References

1989 singles American hip-hop songs Song recordings produced by Dr. Dre Songs written by The D.O.C. 1989 songs Atlantic Records singles Ruthless Records singles G-funk songs {{1980s-hiphop-song-stub