It's hard to find a mentor as qualified as Dr. Dre when it comes to producing West Coast beats, and when Mel-Man found himself in that position during the inauguration of Dre's Aftermath label circa 1996, his career suddenly looked promising. His work on Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath proved futile as that album ultimately ended up being a disappointing and forgotten effort, but Mel-Man continued his affiliation with the king of West Coast beats in 1997 on the debut album by a supergroup of New York rappers led by Nas called the Firm. Unfortunately, that album didn't do much better than the first Aftermath compilation, and Mel-Man returned to the studio with Dre to begin work on 2001, an album that sparked a renaissance for West Coast rap upon its release at the tail end of 1999. Following the gigantic success of that album and Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, where he again co-produced alongside Dre, Mel-Man's credentials remained in place, and he began to branch away from his mentor, co-producing some beats for Xzibit's Restless album with Battlecat.