An Embattled Snoop Dogg Bites Back a Little But Mostly Keeps It Cool

For 30 years, it seems that there has never been a pitch too wild for Snoop Dogg. He's done a reggae album, a funk album, two gospel albums, and even released an album on the blockchain. The Zelig of popular music, no collaborator is off limits: Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Quincy Jones, Daddy Yankee, the Bee Gees, Limp Bizkit, BTS, Patti LaBelle, Prince Royce, Banda MS, Tiësto, Popcaan, Jelly Roll, Charlie Sheen. He's sold his own app, his own breakfast cereal, and recently opened a weed store in L.A., the city where he will likely serve as NBC's ambassador to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
If any of this ever seemed incongruous with being gangsta rap royalty, it has never once affected the Teflon Dogg, America's lovable uncle. He gives a truckloads of money to charity, is generally regarded as one of the nicest people in the business, and has been consistently releasing solid if underheralded solo albums since the Clinton administration. Who's going to care if the guy sells an NFT or two?
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That all changed in January when Snoop did a short DJ set at David Sacks' Crypto Ball, a Washington, D.C., schmoozefest held to celebrate Donald Trump's re-inauguration. Fans on social media rebelled, calling him a sellout, but Snoop stood his ground, telling The Breakfast Club, 'I'm not a politician. I don't represent the Republican Party. I don't represent the Democratic Party. I represent the motherfucking Gangsta Party, period point blank.' Snoop promised that his 21st solo album, Iz It a Crime?, would break his radio silence, fighting back against haters and doubters and reaffirming his legacy. Luckily, a defensive Snoop is still classically and effortlessly cool: 'Me and Dre at the So-Fi the only way I sell out,' he raps on 'Unsung Heroes'
'Unsung Heroes' is also the album highlight with its droning organ that sounds like it's stripped from an Ethiopian jazz record providing a hot slab of asphalt for Snoop to spit venomous invective. Tracks like 'Iz It a Crime?' with its breathy Sade sample and the breezy 'Sophisticated Crippin'' are less antagonistic as middle fingers go, listing his achievements and brushing off crumbs. The only other song that really seems to be the State of the Snoop address is 'ShutYoBitchAssUp,' which most assume is aimed at former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who has been disputing Snoop's ownership of the label: 'I can see why you mad/I bought everything you own/Now you in PC snitching on the phone.'
However, beyond those tracks, Iz It a Crime? isn't really the pugilistic battle record it's being made out to be. Instead it's another dependable Rhythm & Gangsta offering in a career full of them. There's his cadre of producers he's been using for the last 20-30 years (Battlecat, Soopafly, Denaun, Nottz, Rick Rock); there's the always liquid flow ('I'm talking lolos, a couple of cholos, la vida loco/Facts in a chokehold/Hey Siri, we need some more hoes'); and there's the occasional misstep (in this case, the narcotic would-be-club-banger 'Spot'). The duet with still-rising raunch-rapper Sexxy Redd ('Me and OG Snoop') is naturally electric, and Wiz Khalifa shows up like an old friend to get a little wistful ('Just the Way It Iz'). It really is just Snoop being the ever-reliable Snoop — and only a true keyboard warrior could be mad at that.
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