Snoop Doggy Dogg – Doggystyle (11-23-1993)

Posted on Jul 14 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

I could only wish that I had had the intuition to be a hip-hop journalist at the age of eight. If I would have I might have been able to write reviews about an album such as Doggystyle. Well, since I own this site and I pretty much dictate whatever goes on in this corner of the internet I’m writing a review on Doggystyle in 2009. I didn’t really get into this album anywhere near the time that it actually came out. Much like the rest of the albums of the early 90’s I didn’t get onto this until about a year later. It might have actually been two years later because I distinctly remember listening to this and Bone’s Eternal 1999 simultaneously. Whatever the case was, the shit bumped and here’s why…

What would life be like without a pound of weed per day and a big screen TV? These are the questions that one of Snoop’s accomplices asks on the album’s bathtub intro. After a quick reintroduction to the album on “G-Funk Intro” Snoop gets right down to business on one of the most famous rap songs of all time with the anthem “Gin & Juice.”

In it’s prime simplicity “The Shiznit” still serves as one of Dr. Dre’s signature production efforts from his storied career behind the boards. “Lodi Dodi” finds Snoop expanding his creativity as he spits simple bars in the same fashion that Slick Rick would have. Of course we all know about the eerie coincidence in timing between Snoop’s murder trial and the release of the popular single “Murder Was The Case.” Dr. Dre makes his only cameo on the album on the albums first single “Who Am I (What’s My Name).”

It might be a consensus that “It Aint No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None)” is where Nate Dogg’s absurd singing career really took off.  Dr. Dre goes all the way in on the Dramatics featured “Doggy Dogg World.” Though the lyrics are pretty much on course with the rest of the album this particular track definitely stands out as the most grown up affair. Things start to get just a little monotonous as the album wears through the fourth quarter but “G’z and Hustlas” should still be one of the album’s favorites.

After listening to this classic piece of work in its entirety today I realize that maybe this album wasn’t as good as we all once thought it was. Of course it still has those tracks that touch that back part of your neck but overall it plays out to be just a tad bit dry. Then again maybe a bulk of the albums that were inspired by and came after Doggystyle each took away some of its urban relevance. No matter what we may think about it listening to it today it still and will always serve as one of the most quintessential hip hop albums of all time. Remember I use the word hip-hop to describe what most people consider rap. Doggystyle was a lot of things, it was gangsta rap, it was G-Funk, it was hip-hop, but most importantly it was and still is a classic!