REVIEW: Snoop Dogg – “Doggumentary”

Snoop Dogg / Doggumentary / EMI

Anyone who thought that cameos in Katy Perry songs or Donald Trump roasts were all Snoop Dogg had left in him might need help picking their jaw up off the ground after taking a look at the 21-song tracklist on Doggumentary, his 11th studio album. He’s been so present in the media in the past few years in so many non-threatening roles (some audio from his interview on Larry King Live turns up on the track “Gangbang Rookie”), it’s easy to forget just what made him famous. Such a large number of tracks sort of seems like overkill when the topics covered rarely diverge from the following list: women, diamonds, guns and drugs. Still, more than the occasional gem is offered up that any modern philosopher would be happy to have credited to them, let alone any hip hop artist. On “El Lay” Snoop even makes a valiant effort to coin a west coast love letter equivalent to Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” – the result isn’t quite on par with H.O.V.A.’s hit though.

The filthy 2010 single “Wet” finally finds a home on this disc, serving as the natural sequel to his 2008 auto-tune chuckler “Sensual Seduction”. But “Wet”, with its graphic sexual imagery, is – thankfully – an exception on an album that has Snoop mainly embracing his gangsta roots and reflecting on the past. “I came up in a different era, homie”, he states on “The Way Life Used To Be”. That’s undeniably true, but in some of these songs it sounds like Snoop doesn’t believe that era has ended. It’s hard to imagine him on a street corner with a pistol in his waistband when you’ve seen him on TV standing on the sidelines at his son’s football game. Whether it still represents the real truth in his life or not, there’s still a lot to enjoy in these songs – particularly the guest appearances by T-Pain, Kanye West, and Bootsy Collins.

Download: “My Own Way (ft. Mr. Porter)”, “Boom (ft. T-Pain)”
 

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