| Product: |
Doggy Style - Snoop Dogg |
| Date: |
31/03/04 (134 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: musically excellent, strong first half
Disadvantages: pointless lyrics, understatedly sexist, malicious
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I decided recently that it's probably high time I wrote a negative review of something I hate. And here it is- my review on an album I bought three years ago which is hard to beat for poor purchasings.
Disclaimer: this is the same review I wrote for the Epinipons website
Here's a track by track rundown.
Skit- "Bath tub intro" This is the first skit on the album- and it's actually the only one that is any good. In-fact its quite cinematic and dramatic, as Snoop Dogg is visited by some of his old shady connections, who are trying to persuade him to return to the criminal lifestyle he has left behind. Suffice it to say he agrees.
* "G-Funk Intro". A quite bouncy 1 minute track where Snoop Dogg is absent and Lady of Rage takes the mike. I'm not too keen on her flow, but soundwise, it's pretty good. Dr. Dre was never a sloppy musical producer, and here he creates some infectiously upbeat and fast funk, tinged with a little bit of gospel.
"This is just a small introduction to the G Funk Era
Everyday of my life I take a glimpse in the mirror
And I see motherf***ers tryin to be like me
Every since I put it down with the D-R-E"
* "Gin and Juice". The album mellows out for a bit now, and Snoop takes the mike properly this time, describing a house party full of weed and prostitutes. The subject matter is pretty shallow and incredibly sexist, but Snoop's mike skills of storytelling and speedy rapping somehow make it all interesting.
"With so much drama in the L-B-C
It's kinda hard bein Snoop D-O-double-G
But I, somehow, some way
Keep comin up wit
h funky a*s s**t like every single day
May I, kick a little something for the G's
and, make a few ends as I breeze, through
Two in the mornin and the party's still jumpin
cause my momma ain't home
I got b***hes in the living room gettin it on
and, they ain't leavin til six in the mornin"
* "Skit: W. Balls" a pretty unfunny skit about a radio station. It's frustratingly long too...
* "The Shiznit". A nice pumped up base and upbeat flute whistles set this one apart. Here Snoop's topics are more focused on th
e gangster lifestyle, and are unusually confrontational for his laid-back rapping style, making a disturbing contradiction.
"Poppin, stoppin, hoppin like a rabbit
When I take the nina Ross ya know I gota ta have it
I lay back in the cut retain myself
Think about the s**t, and I'm thinkin wealth
How can I makes my grip
And how should I make that n**ga straight slip
Set trip, gotta get him for his grip
as i dip around the corner, now i'm on a-nother
mission, wishin, upon a star
Snoop Doggy Dogg with the caviar
In the back of the limo no demo, this is the real
Breakin n**gaz down like Evander Holyfield"
* "Lodi Dodi". Snoop Dogg's remake of Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh's old Rap classic. The first time a Rap song had ever been remade (if you don't count Grandmaster Melle Mel's 1984 cover of Lightnin' Rod's "Sport", which was a spoken-word jazz, and a pre-cursor to Hip-Hop). He carries the song well, dealing with the same storyline of the original, involving a talking mirror, bubblebaths and a daughter and mother violently competing for the Rapper's affections.
I'm not too happy with some of the changes he makes to the storytelling, bringing in gratuitous drug references and misogyny. However I have to say that
soun
dwise, it's better than the original, with nice whistles and strings giving much more atmosphere and cartoonish surrealness.
* "Murder Was The Case". Best track on the album. After the previous tracks, this adds a nice little 'journey' moment. Beginning with a truly disturbing depiction of Snoop Dogg's drive-by shooting murder by a rival gang (I believe they were called the Bloods). Throughout the song Snoop tells a compelling but confusing tale of a near death experience, an encounter with God, reincarnation, living rich and somehow the story ends with Snoop in jail. Desp
ite its fantasy element, it is the only conscious or ghettocentric track on the whole album.
"As I look up at the sky
My mind starts trippin, a tear drops my eye
My body temperature falls
I'm shakin and they breakin tryin to save the Dogg
Pumpin on my chest and I'm screamin
I stop breathin, damn I see deamons
Dear God, I wonder can ya save me
I can't die Boo-Boo's bout to have my baby"
This song has been remixed since, but this original is the best, with an ominous, gothic soundscape and hard-hitting beats.
"Serial Killer" I don't like this one, the chorus just really irks me like nothing else. "Suicide, it's a suicide. Suicide, it's a suicide." etc... I always have to skip this one.
* "Who Am I (What's My Name)" with a nice interpolation of George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", and drawing on a similar musical style of infectious funk keyboard notes and gospel claps. Can't complain about Snoop's tongue twister delivery either, which the two seem made for each other. I actually think this is more of a party track than "Gin n' Juice"
* "To All my N**gas and my B**ches". Another meaningless song. Still it's listenable enough, but the quality of the album
is starti
ng to decline.
......and here it hits an all time low!!
* "Ain't No Fun". Well what can i say about this piece of trash. Actually it sounds really good, with a nice mellow beat and some nice guitar strings, giving a nice R'n'B feel to the track. Unfortunately the lyrics are anything but. The song is a vulgar parody of a love song, and is about gang-b*nging sex and glorified misogyny- almost as if they want to play cruel mind games with female listeners by making it seem as first as if this is a love song.
Kind of the same way you may get a hate message from some
one in your inbox and try to fool you into thinking its a friendly message by starting with "Hi there!", before subjecting you to a load of verbal abuse and the song literally is as unfunny, excessively unpleasant, malicious, immature and totally undeserving of any respect as that. Snoop, Nate Dogg, Kurupt and Warren G each deliver a long tyrade of verbal abuse of women, done with a shallowness and banality that is unbelievably pathetic.
"Well, if Kurupt gave a f**k about a b**ch I'd always be broke
I'd never have no motherf***in indo to smoke
I gets loced and looney, b**ch you can't Do Me
Do we like BBD, you hoochie groupie?
I have no love for hoes
That's somethin I learned in the pound
so how the f**k am I supposed
to pay this hoe, just to lay this hoe
I know the p**sy's mines, I'ma f**k a couple more times"
Whatever, ChuckleVision is more entertaining than this.
Definitely makes my list of one of the worst listening experiences I've ever had, and I could not defend this if a Rap-hater brought this up to me for his argument that Hip-Hop lyrics are just mindless crap. This is no better than a rascist's hate speech against Jews/Blacks/Asians as these Rappers' downright horrific hate speech against women. In-fact it
closes with a
horrible stoned spoken word hateful rant against women who like their boyfriends to take them to expensive restaurants and says it immediately qualifies as gold-digging on the woman's part. Basically sounding no better than a poorly educated Nazi ranting about imigrants feeding on the country's resources- in-fact if he had done that, I doubt he'd have gotten away with it.
* "Doggy Dogg World" Unfortunately features more pimpster bulls**t. Actually I like the mellow Disco flavour to the track, and the gospel chorus. But again the lyrics are sometimes quite catchy, and sometimes banal, mi
sogynistic trash. The second half of this album just hammers you over the head with unfunny sexist jokes.
"Diggity Daz out of the motherf****n cut once mo'
So grab a seat and grab your gin and juice and check out the flow
I flip flop and serve hoes with a fat d**k
Till I die I'm still screamin that (b***hes ain't s**t)"
Real Disco was never THIS banal!
"Gz & Hustlers" is next. This is far more listenable, and Snoop does inject some style into his Rapping.
"So sit back relax new jacks get smacked
It's Snoop Doggy Dogg I'm at the top of the stack
I don't lack for a second, and I'm still checkin
The dopest motherf***er that ya hearin on the record"
The old 70's R'n'B flavour's really upbeat too.
* Skit- "U Betta Recognise" This skit is awful. Basically Snoop shows off his ego, and his ability to attract the opposite sex even whilst he calls them b**ches and ho's. In this skit he kills the boyfriend of one of his fans who was trying to get into his pocket. I wonder why there are women who agree to play such parts in the song or video.
Actually the ammount of violence on this album is quite low, and moments of gunshots and killing are rarer than mos
t Gangster Rap album
s. Still he doesn't inject an ounce of wit to this.
* "Pump Pump" a nice close to the album actually. Quite bouncy. Snoop's flow is good too.
"Whether standin on the corner, or bouncin in the six-deuce
When I was locked up, I couldn't wait to get loose
Cuz back in the days, on the side where it's at
A n**ga had to have a fat stack
And I was a fool, don't make me have to grab my strap and go
rat-tat-tat-tat, n**ga slap to a motherf***er face he fall"
Then there is supposed to be the track "G's Up, Ho's Down" but
it was removed because it was offensive to women... (snicker). I don't think one more song like the ones above would have made much difference to the album's overall effect (cover art and all) to put women through a verbal meat shredder. I'm pretty sure its removal isn't something I'll lose sleep over.
My recommendation is, rather like its companion album "The Chronic", if you can get past the offensive lyrics, then you'll probably like this album and employ it for house parties. If you like the G-Funk sound, but are looking for something less violent than Dr. Dre or Eminem, then this, or something by Warren G. is probably a good choice. This album will not educate you in the way of a Public Enemy, KRS-ONE or Common album. I cannot really complain about the first half of the album. It's really good, ranging from ominous to laid back, to captivating.
However if you don't want to spend money on a full album, then believe me, you don't want to buy this album- the second half of this album is downright atrocious.
Furthermore if you are a self-respecting feminist who does not wish to hear such grossly misogynistic lyrics or financially reward artists who perform them, then stay clear.
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