I’m glad Snoop is back to using the “Dogg” in his name again.
I flat out refused to call him Snoop Lion. The Doggfather has been busy as of late, currently in the studio with producer Dam-Funk. He is close to releasing his funk album, “7 Days of Funk,” under the Snoopzilla moniker. The left coast OG took some time, however, to release the DJ Drama-hosted mixtape, “That’s My Work 2.”
The tape starts off strong and shows why Snoop has managed to stay relevant for over 20 years. One of the tape’s standout cuts is the fourth track titled, “Let the K Spray.” Snoop spits some menacingly hard rhymes over a vintage G-Funk-esque instrumental.
Another track that will attract listeners is track 11, titled “Passenger Seat.” Over a beat from frequent Wiz Khalifa collaborator Cardo, Snoop delivers the smooth, charismatic lyrical persona that fans old and new gravitate to.
The rest of the tape is just lazy, uninspired, dated, simple rhymes ranging from the obscure, complex topics of weed, money, cars, jewels, women and more weed. While I don’t mind when rappers choose this as their subject matter, one should note that Snoop is close to the age of 45, with grown kids and a wife. Do we really need the pimp persona? Of the 19 tracks on the tape, there might be five that are worth listening to, but other than that, the mixtape is one of the worst from a major rapper to come out in a long time.
If you look at Snoop’s career, it’s easy to understand why he’s never reached his full potential and a myriad of factors come to mind. His success in hip-hop’s upper echelon is cemented, but he still remains overrated. His infrequent collaborations with Dr. Dre, his lack of proper beat selection, as well as up until recently the decline of the West Coast. The “Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to be Told” album with Master P’s No Limit Records post Death Row release didn’t help his situation any better.
Truth be told, we have not gotten a quality Snoop body of work since 2009’s “Malice in Wonderland.”
It’s still easy to see that the world loves Snoop Dogg, but for how much longer?
Follow Izzy Israel on Twitter IzzyEasternEcho and El_Pinaculo. Check out his blog israelsshabbatdinner.wordpress.com.
