Can Snoop Dogg still be taken seriously, musically?
Can Snoop Dogg still be taken seriously, musically speaking? Or Snoop Dogg at the beginning of the 90s with albums like “Doggystyle” and “Tha Doggfather” he made the revolution with those funk sounds and that “relaxed” style destined to set the tone, is there very little left? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves while listening.”Missionary”, the new album by the now 53-year-old Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr.
this is the real name of the American rapper and producer with over 35 million copies sold worldwide and an estimated worth of 170 million dollars. Two years after his last album “Bodr”, Dogg reappears on the recording scene to relaunch his ambitions. And it does t.ornating to have an album produced after fifteen years by a legend of the caliber of Dr. Dreone of the most influential musicians in the history of hip hop, under whose fingers some of the most iconic albums of the genre have passed, from “Straight outta Compton” by NWA to “The Slim Shady LP” by Eminem, from “No more drama ” by Mary J. Blige to “Get rich or die tryin’” by 50 Cent: it’s to Dre, who in the past produced albums for him such as “Doggystyle” himself, “Death row: the lost session vol. 1”, “Tha blue carpet treatment” and “The last meal”, which Dogg entrusted with the task of making him musically relevant again, after at least two decades of total lack of influence on the scene.
The operation
“It’s like I’m a student again. I have the chance to go back to school and let him take me on trips and show me places I’ve never been”, says Snoop Dogg about the operation, a sort of return to origins. Because this, in fact, represents “Missionary” for the rapper. As a great survivor of 90s gang rap, Snoop Dogg had reinvented himself as a pop star for some time now, understanding that they can monetize in other ways: from his brand of cannabis-based products Leafs by Snoop (in 2018 he raised 45 million dollars to grow the sector) to fashion, through commercials, TV, cinema (we have seen it – among others – in “Starsky & Hutch”, “Scary Movie”, “The underdoggs”).
“.I realized that to stay relevant in the industry I had to be myself”, he confided in an interview with the New York Times. Gone are the days when public opinion, thirty years ago, considered him the most controversial rapper around, who was in and out of prison for drug dealing, who was accused for his alleged involvement in the murder of a boy from a rival gang (it happened in 1993, then he was later cleared of the accusations, which however tarnished his career) and which also ran prostitution rings (in the USA the Rolling Stone magazine headlined: “America’s most lovable pimp”). Not to mention that relationship with marijuana – in the past he said he ended up smoking 30 joints a day – which from a certain point onwards became the center of his imagination.
A surprising album in its own way
He enjoyed recalling it again this summer, when NBC sent him to Paris as an exceptional commentator for the Olympics and he, in the role of torchbearerdrove social media crazy with photos showing him with the Olympic torch in his arms, an allusion to his passion for joints: “I have discovered that when you carry the torch you are a messenger of peace”.
Fans have long understood that the character is what he is, and perhaps they love him for this too (the release of “Missionary” was announced through a teaser video posted on social media in which it plays on the different meanings of the word ” missionary”: the clip in fact shows two Mormon missionaries about to make an unexpected home visit when a woman in lingerie welcomes them, alluding to the irreverent style of the album). .Yet “Missionary” is a surprising album in its own way, against all expectations. Maybe all Dogg needed was the hand – and the flicks – of the trusty Dr. Dre: “This is the best music I’ve ever recorded. We are better together. There is love and respect. We can sit there and enjoy being creative and experimenting”, says the producer. The two didn’t set any delivery dates: “We went into the studio, we started playing and the result got better and better,” explains Dre. Listen to believe.
An encyclopedia of samples: Pink Floyd is also there
The album is a bridge between the West Coast past, present and future.
As well as an encyclopedia that brings together black music, jazz and rock: an encyclopedia of samples. “Shangi-La” contains a sample of “Swahililand”, performed by the legendary African-American pianist Ahmad Jamal, who passed away last year, winner of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the history of music. In “Outta da blue” there is “Paper planes” by Mia, which in turn took up “Straight to hell” by the Clash, mixed with “Saturday night” by Schoolly D and “All around the world” by Lisa Stansfield. “Thank you” contains a sample of “Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)” by Sly and the Family Stone. In “.Hard knocks“Dogg and Dre sample nothing but”Another brick in the wall (part 2)” of the Pink Floyd,”Another part of me” contains a sample of “Message in a bottle” of the PoliceWhile “Last dance with Mary Jane” contains a sample of “Mary Jane’s last dance” Of Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers: Petty’s voice rings out on the track, which is a heartfelt ode to smoking weed with Jelly Roll.
