Fifth studio album by Long Beach rapper Snoop Dogg, third and final on the Houston label No Limit Records. Production is handled by Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Scott Storch, Mike Elizondo, Battlecat, Soopafly, Meech Wells, Studio Ton, Carlos Stephens and Jelly Roll. Kokane is the main guest on the album, participating in eight songs. The other guests are The Lady of Rage, Bad Azz, Lil HD, MC Ren, Ice Cube, Nate Dogg, The Eastsidaz, Butch Cassidy, Mac Minista, Eve, Mr. Magic, Master P and Suga Free. He keeps a reference to Crips by wearing blue on the cover. Musically, the product maintains a funky soul that looks hopefully at the return of g-funk, lyrically, the rapper tackles the same topics as ever, moving from gangster themes to bars closer to pimpin'.
Kokane is the main guest and the true soul of the album, he opens it, closes it and carries it on very well: the record suffers when the artist disappears in the second half, abandoning it to minimal rhythms, heavy and crushing drums, weepy synths, decent and cheap samples, and generic tracks with an honest Snoop performance, relaxed and never memorable. Master P is featured in a track sunk by the only poor production of the entire LP, made by Carlos Stephens, while Eve delivers a good hardcore performance on Scott Storch's uptempo melodic production. The rest of the second part goes unnoticed, while the first is quite strong. Dr. Dre performs intro and first track, immediately placing a good bass and a minimal tight drum, Snoop delivers better than usual on this carpet, assisted by the usual Kokane.
Timbaland produces the single "Snoop Dogg (What's My Name Pt. 2)", but his work here will not go down in history, the drum he offers is poor and the samples don't work. Dre is back behind the keyboards for "Wrong Idea": his soundscape is masterful, sad piano sample, hard and heavy dry midtempo drum machine, Kokane sings on the chorus and Snoop delivers confident and inspired. For the umpteenth time, Young has the best rhythm on a Broadus album: if he had done all, or at least most of the production, this would be a much better project. It's not, but the kids struggle to stay on the Doctor's level: Meech Walls asserts itself with excellent rapid production in "Go Away", Snoop Dogg rips the cut with a sleek, inspired, crisp, quicker-than-usual style.
Timbaland provides competent rhythm on the "Set It Off" posse track: honest, lean and poor drum, plus haunting sample. It's all very simple and, at the same time, very rare to find a Timbaland beat that is good enough to be listened to for five minutes: MC Ren and The Lady of Rage deliver hardcore with an energetic and flowing style, followed by Nate Dogg's chanting verse. Snoop Dogg signs the last one, preceding Kurupt to the outro, uncredited: too bad he didn't leave a verse to Ice Cube, who performs the hook, it could have been one of the best posse tracks of the period. To conclude the first half of the tape, there are a couple of songs with Kokane (good funk production proposed by Jelly Roll in "Bring It On") and a second posse, with Nate Dogg, Master P, Butch Cassidy and Eastsidaz, on a minimal production by Dr. Dre & Mike Elizondo.
Priority has already taken Snoop Dogg out of the top spot for the first time in his career the year before and with this new album the label gets better: the rapper is fourth on the Billboard 200, repairing with the top spot among rap releases. In three months, it's certified platinum and is one of the ten best-selling rap albums of the season, finding the acclaim of most critics. Composed of 19 tracks for a total of 77 minutes, it's a long, slightly irregular effort, with a normal production and a good rap most of the time. Free of particularly strong songs, without excessive risks, it's almost a safe LP, with many imperfections, yet it's his finest since the debut so far.
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