>One of the worst albums ever made in the history of mankind.

Haha! 'History of mankind'!? Damn...I'd love to argue that but...

Snoop went from being smooth, mellow, dope, and great on everything up through Murder was the Case Soundtrack to being a mumbling and whispering dude who flat out sounded scared to rap for a bulk of two albums. My thing is...it started on Doggfather when the whole world was waiting for the follow-up to Doggystyle.

Doggfather hit my whole crew really tough..in a bad way. In short, we hated that album because we expected waaaay too much and got killed on it because it wasn't that good. No Dre, No Pac (he was alive!), hardly any DPG..Snoop's mumbling and whispering..damnit Calvin. Years later, there's a small handful of jamming songs that kinda sorta redeem it. Wake Up, Groupie, You Thought...pretty jamming. But the damn whispering and mumbling was unbearable on that album for me!

Game to be sold..honestly, I liked that one a little more than Doggfather. That written, it was still bad..especially looking back now. I remember Don't Let Go and Game of Life being good to me. Still a G Thang gave me faith that his career wasn't completely over. I can't think of anything else because Down 4 my niggas was on something else...

The way I saw it, Top Dogg had NO business having as many jams as it did considering he was still fully on No Limit. Suga Free made my year on Trust Me (Pimpin ain't easy but ho'n ain't hard nooooo...lady you 'gon haveta hooo or lady I'ma haveta gooo! See ya! Sugafreeee!). Bitch Please is of course an anthem (RIP Nate). I loved Just Dippin, Doin Too Much (Quik!), and Don't Tell with the whole crew there ready to be as offensive as ever on a mellow jam was my jam too. It was like a new Ain't No Fun..complete with a Nate verse that is hilariously offensive to this day. 'Next time you can't cuuuuuum if you got a loud touuuuuuuuunge! I know I gotta big diiiiiiick! Shouldn't loan it to a triiiiiiick' Bwahaha!

Last Meal was flat out jamming to me. Lay Low, Wrong Idea, True Lies, that song with Suga Free. It was like Kokane became his new Nate Dogg for a whole album and the result was just West Coast rider music all the way through. Wasn't Timbo's Snoop Dogg on there too!? Opening iTunes now..typing in snoop into my library. Oh yeah...Brake Fluid!? Bitch pump yo brakes!...hoooo! Hell yeah, that CD jammed.

R&G..I swear by my five favorite songs on that record as easily amongst the best of Snoop's catalog. The intro, Drop it like its hot (the first time I heard that song was the first time I was in Vegas...I KNEW it was on), UPS AND DOWNS (in the biggest font I can type with..my goodness that damn song is just the best), and Promise I.

Side note: I swear by a lot of that 213 record too. The bootleg was better than the release. Anyway, Nate's greatness as a hook/bridge/chant cat who had no qualms about coming out with something outlandish kinda carried Snoop and Warren on that one, but its not like they made it too tough for him. I'm Fly, Sassy Ways, Run on Up, Groupie Luv, etc...

Ego Trippin...we all apparently need a support group for that album. Neva Have 2 Worry, SD is out, Sexual Eruption, and a couple of other songs get my vote as the goods. Snoop/Quik/Teddy on the production!? How could that go wrong!? Oh...they could only produce a few of the songs on the album and the rest of the album can basically suck. Damnit Calvin! Tricked me again!

Overall, color me pleasantly surprised with Snoop's catalog as a whole. There's a barrage of jamming ass songs throughout his existence, and this new disc adds several more to the collection. I saw him live in Houston a few years ago. It was a good show even if the playlist was 'safer' than I would've liked AND he showed up crazy late (12:30 AM when he was listed to go on at like 10 PM). Still, Kurupt, Daz, and Soopafly were on the scene, and Snoop sounded great too. I was scared that a weed cat like him might sound far more sluggish, but Snoop was at least at a JayZ level of show professionalism, clarity, etc. And he jumped around happily like a dude who was happy to be presenting his material to a crowd of folks who were still receptive.

Jimaveli