Classic: Snoop Dogg, Doggy Style - Death Row

Kooperman · March 31, 2004

Retro "213" Classic: Snoop Dogg, Doggy Style - Death Row Records 1993

written by George Hagan

Tuesday - March 16, 2004

Snoop is large right now -- a starring role as the shiesty informant "Huggy Bear" in the "Starsky & Hutch" movie, his own clothing line, continuous hit records, guest spots on damn near everyone's album, a real-life pimp (Bishop Don Juan) that escorts him everywhere and instant recognition all over the globe. With his current notoriety and house-hold name status, it is hard to ever picture a time when Snoop was just another hungry, black youngster trying to get in the game.

The year was '92, and the song was Dr. Dre's "187," a track from the "Deep Cover" movie soundtrack. That song was the medium by which the good doctor's new protégé, Snoop Doggy Dogg would be introduced to the rap world. Snoop at that time looked nothing like the baller he is right now. The sinewy, lanky frame was still intact, but there were no shoulder-length braids or flowing Shirley Temple perm. It was just creased khakis, chucks and a baseball cap concealing a low-fade.

The presentation didn't even matter, because Snoop's talent and charisma preceded him. He had that breezy, laid-back voice and cadence that already made him unique. Then there was his effortless, liquid delivery that spread like hot butter over Dre's dark infectious baseline.

"187" started the Snoop buzz, and his subsequent show-stealing performances on Dre's breakthrough gangsta rap opus, The Chronic took it to a fever pitch. When Snoop's Dre-produced debut album Doggystyle finally dropped, it didn't disappoint. The album debuted at #1 on the charts and sold over 800,000 records in its first week.

At the time of its release, the West was already running the hip-hop scene and infiltrating the whole game with their easily digestible, old school R&B-channeling, g-funk rhythms. Snoop's album came along and absolutely cemented the left coast's cred as hip-hop's reigning players.

G-funk influences like the ever-present, siren-like, horn effects and melodic flutes were signature "west coast" sounds throughout Doggystyle. And quite a few beats on the album had a more frenetic, percussion-driven vibe to them - a sound more suited to the East Coast. The album yielded four singles in all including the excellent "Gin and Juice," and the epic, genre-crossing "Murder Was The Case." The latter song was eventually transformed into an 18-minute mini-movie, and when Snoop performed it at the MTV VMA's, his popularity was elevated to a cult status.

Before Doggystyle and The Chronic, rap had already started making inroads into white America. But these two albums presented an unfiltered, marijuana-drenched, carefree lifestyle replete with alcoholic and sexual debauchery that really hit a note with white kids in American suburbia. After these two albums, it started becoming quite normal for hip-hop albums to have the same crazy record sales as popular rock and pop acts.

There is no doubt that Snoop is still as important to hip-hop as he was a decade ago - a feat very few people in his graduating class can match. For this and his signature contributions to the hip-hop dictionary, Snoop gets our "G's up, ho's down" retro classic seal of approval.

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