Dogged Persistence Bears Fruit for Snoop (Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss - Snoop Dogg)

Member Name: Sugar Matty O

Product:	Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Boss - Snoop Dogg
Date:	11/02/03 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Still can't deny the man is a presence on the mic , Best beats he's been blessed with in a long time , Good touches of humility prove it ain't all hoo-bangin'

Disadvantages: On the surface, the album he's made his career out of all along

YOU'LL ALSO FIND THIS IN THE 'SNOOP DOGG ALBUMS IN GENERAL' SECTION - FOR SOME REASON THE ORIGINAL HASN'T BEEN MOVED TO ITS PROPER PLACE, SO HERE IT IS AGAIN IN THE RIGHT SPOT

Snoop Dogg in letting his feelings run and actually declaring his affections for the fairer sex shocker? Now that can’t be right, but it’s all true. For all his pimp manoeuvres, bitch-slapping and putting his foot in the crack of they ass, Tha Boss shows a rarely shown side of humility to prove he’s a gangsta with a heart. And yet when he’s not robing himself in the flyest pimp threads, he’s still ripping open old wounds and calling the likes of Suge Knight a bitch.

With a beat from the unavoidable Neptunes finding regular favour on music channels as well, this isn’t so much as Snoop adopting the title of renaissance man but probably finding himself in a position healthier than he’s ever been in recent years. One look at the production roll-call that includes Hi-Tek, Premier and Just Blaze – and of course those pesky producers-by-the-pound Chad and Pharrell – and Snoop cannot really fail with a hunger drummed up from Tha Last Meal. Naturally the sceptical will say this is the same album he’s been making all his life, but with the backing and the pleasantly surprising lull in ferocity, this is clearly not the case, and all the better for it.

Of the cuts that serenade the woman in his life that are bound to cause fractions within his following, I Believe in You is an early r&b outcome with an obligatory Hi-Tek seal of quality. Snoop sings the praises of his nearest and dearest, even ignoring advice of homies when choosing his path and probably getting heads thinking whether some sort of lobotomy has taken place. Beautiful shows further boo commitment, almost a lighter, airy guitar of the one used in The Neptunes-penned Like I Love You. Both are a million miles away from the Knight-cursing and
very late in the day Pimp Slapp’d, a savaging that even a welcome return from EZ Dick of the Jack-off Hour cannot dilute. Xzibit and Kurupt are also dropped into conversation, and having seemingly done a U-turn with his promises of faithfulness to women, it’s reassuring to know Snoop can still attack, even at the very last minute, when he gets the scent of blood in his nostrils.

Ever keen to throw one remake of classic into the mix and seeing how it fares, just as he did when revamping Slick Rick’s Lodi Dodi and P-Funk’s Atomic Dog, Snoop goes about a pretty pointless update of Eric B & Rakim’s Paid In Full. Right down to the gut-wrenching bassline and nearly word perfect, Snoop’s blesses the cut with a birthmark that prefers a favourite dish of chicken wings shared with Warren G, rather than Rakim’s plate of fish alongside his DJ. The use of the Batman theme tune on the Premo-constructed Batman and Robin is another puzzler, digging out RBX and Lady of Rage to help keep the filth out of Gotham as Dogg clearly revels in the role of Bruce Wayne.

Both Premo and Snoop fit the billing on The One and Only, both in command of a wicked mix of sideline and boss guitars smarting from cuts for days as SD recalls his fledgling years looking skywards that forced the transition from Calvin Broadus to Snoop Doggy. Never straying too far from the funk going from P to G, Stoplight is a seriously heavy pimp strut, fast, furious and getting under the skin in no time, and of the more adventurous flirtations, Jelly Roll beams down the demented You Got What I Need. Beats and chords are catapulted left right and centre like a couple of Martians playing Ping-Pong.

Lollipop gives the funk a real licking as Just Blaze fires a fondling flute beneath Jay-Z, Soopafly & Nate Dogg for alcohol-impaired hoe hunting. Misogynistic to the extreme, but by the time that’s discovered your ass is shaking into freefall. More gue
st power comes as Redman breathlessly calculates the distance From Long Beach 2 Brick City, a superb near-4/4 groover with disco funk in abundance and Nate Dogg supplying the subtle soul as only he can. And just to prove how seriously he takes the pimping game, Suited N Booted is the obvious clothes-horse guide to how to look your finest, Snoop rocking ‘gators on your feet, six-piece outfit’ and staying ‘g’d up from the feet up’.

He remains one of the most distinctive voices in hip hop and it wouldn’t be surprising if Paid Tha Cost became Snoop’s biggest seller to date. On the surface, pimp and hoe tales-by-numbers. In reality, one of the scene’s most prominent stepping up his game big time…

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