See, now you're starting to make a decent argument.
I'd argue, though, that Dr. Dre was just extensively sampling and interpolating funk records because they were popular among his targeted audience for The Chronic (black people in southern California) [This was Dre's genius, btw - with the The Chronic he introduced the idea of making hip-hop records to please the local audience, not just NY heads]. He was still just being a good DJ and giving the people what they want.
Considering Dre grew up in southern California and how popular funk is/was there, he probably did listen to a lot of funk growing up. It didn't really come into his music overtly until post-NWA, though, which makes me think that The Chronic was a deliberate act and not the natural product of any influences.
A hip-hop record that is definitely a product of outside musical influences: Electric Circus
I'm not sure where else to go with this, hopefully I made my point.
