“The Next Episode” was released as the third single from Dr. Dre’s 2001 and features his frequent Dogg Pound collaborators Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Kurupt. A previous Snoop Dogg/Dr. Dre collaboration was entitled “Tha Next Episode” and intended for inclusion on Snoop’s debut album Doggystyle in 1993 but was removed due to an uncleared sample. The beat for that version was later used on Warren G’s “Runnin' Wit No Breaks.”

The single peaked at #23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, while achieving platinum status in the United Kingdom along with gold status in Germany and Italy.

The beat samples “The Edge” by David McCallum, which was also sampled in the Missin' Linx track “M.I.A.” a year earlier.