Sometimes magic really can’t be recreated. However hard it’s strived for.
The incendiary magic that was Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg three decades ago has not been conjured again in this long-awaited reunion. There are sparks of genius, for sure, and some notable beats and samples but it’s certainly no Doggystyle. Maybe the clue is in the “cheeky” title and painfully obvious condom packet imagery on the cover. So far, so teen.
One might expect a more mature vocabulary and smarter ideas from the now 53- and 59-years-olds but, sadly – and predictably – we are served liberal sprinklings of effing and jeffing and as many bitches, ganstas, n***as and hoes as you can shake a AK47 at (every track has an explicit content warning donchaknow). Mr Dogg has said his attitude to women has changed since he had a daughter – that’s certainly not evident on this record.
“Snoop Dogg makes the world go round” the cheesy opening track "Foreplay" informs us. “Outta Da Blue” raises the game a little as Dre and Alus (who they?) join in the vocals, which include a bizarre recreation of MIA’s “Paper Planes” chorus. “Hard Knocks” works much better, not least because the funkier mixing (another eclectic inclusion is a kids’ chorus of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”). The single “Gorgeous” promised so much – this is much more like it, everything working as it should. I bet you can’t do anything but bounce to this.
Let’s face it, it must be hard to take risks when you have so much to lose – the absolute opposite situation from when they first worked together, innovating as they did. They’re now both business moguls, mainstream media fodder and up to their necks in the Olympics, none of which allows them to really push things like back in the proverbial day. And the fact that Martha Stewart gets two mentions kind of sums it all up.
What’s this? Tom Petty on an ode to Snoop’s first love – good old Mary Jane. Truly horrible. The greatest affront though, is the inclusion of Sting’s vocals in “Another Part of Me”. The Police are surely not suitable on any rap song (yes, that includes the dreadful “I’ll be missing you” by P Diddy – if only the world had taken note then), let alone one by the fathers of G-Funk. More appropriately, Eminem and Fiddy turn up on Gunz N Smoke but it’s a tad flat. Perhaps expectations are too high, the heights reached in the past now unattainable, but it’s hard to fathom who this will really appeal to in 2025.
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