Happy 15th Anniversary to Snoop Dogg’s seventh studio album R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, originally released November 16, 2004.
Let us start this thing by acknowledging the incredible, sometimes inexplicable staying-power of Mr. Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus. We might not always take him seriously, but not many artists, in any genre of music, have stayed as consistently popular as Snoop.
He’s a man of a thousand faces, changing, reinventing (and even “reincarnating” in 2013) himself and his persona so many times in the media and on record that it’s been hard to keep up since his breakout in 1992. The upshot is an uneven discography, but 2004’s R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece is one of Snoop’s best albums.
If we are talking career phases, this album came during the Snoop-as-wise-OG-and-pimp period. It was also his second album after returning from the wilderness of being on No Limit Records, and also the second time Snoop collaborated heavily with The Neptunes. The famed production team was still white hot in the timespan between 2002’s Paid the Cost to Be Da Boss and R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, and Paid the Cost to Be Da Boss had gifted Snoop one of his biggest hit singles. As such, working with them again must have felt like a no-brainer for Snoop.
The Neptunes’ fingerprints are all over R&G. The album was a joint-venture between Geffen and The Neptunes’ own label, Star Trak, so their involvement and time investment on R&G ran deeper than on the many other big albums they were being drafted in to contribute to at the time. “Drop It Like It’s Hot” is one of The Neptunes’ finest moments, brilliant in its simplicity. With only sparse chords, a basic drumbeat and some very infectious mouth percussion, the single was a huge hit that reacquainted the sound of Snoop Dogg with dance floors and radio waves around the world. As for Snoop’s lyrics on the song, he may not have invented that whole “izzle” thing, but perfected it with lines like this glorious bit of tongue-twisting nonsense: “So don't change the dizzle / turn it up a little / I got a living room full of fine dime brizzles / waiting on the Pizzle, the Dizzle and the Shizzle / G's to the bizzack / now ladies here we gizzo.”
The Neptunes also lace R&G with two other big hits, the Pharrell-featured “Let’s Get Blown” and “Signs” with Justin Timberlake. Both sadly show Snoop to be as misogynistic as ever, but he had by now at least matured a tiny bit since the despicable words he wrote about women on Doggystyle (1993) and Tha Dogg Pound’s Dogg Food (1995).
For me, the best single from R&G is the weird and wonderful “Ups & Downs.” Hilariously credited as “featuring” the Bee Gees due to the sampling of their 1979 song “Love You Inside Out,” “Ups & Downs” is Snoop at his pimped-out, wise-old-gangster finest. And in my opinion, the moment when, mid-way through the first verse, the beat drops out and Snoop spits “L.B.C., 213 / hell yeah / we in this,” is quite simply cool as fuck. The second verse sees Snoop get surprisingly introspective as he looks back on his rise to fame, what lies ahead, and how sometimes he’d like nothing more than to leave this planet for somewhere else in the universe.
Part of Snoop’s lasting appeal is the comfort factor. Rappers come and go, but we can always be safe in the knowledge that Uncle Snoop is out there somewhere. And when you have Snoop, it’s also nice to have his old crew along for the ride; Dr. Dre, Daz, Kurupt, Nate Dogg, Warren G. These peers have stayed loyal to Snoop over the years with at least one of them appearing on most of his albums, but they are all noticeably absent from R&G. It’s a shame, and spoiled any hope that we’d get to revisit those classic Doggystyle days. Instead we get guest spots from the likes of a very shouty Lil Jon.
Elsewhere, R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece is bookended by contributions from two of my favorite producers. Alchemist provides the soulful album intro (“I Love to Give You Light)," while the closing track, "No Thang on Me," is produced by Hi-Tek. The Reflection Eternal beatmaker uses simple keys to calm things down after the awful track that precedes it, “Girl Like U” featuring Nelly. "No Thang on Me" is nothing more complex than Snoop doing his best Curtis Mayfield impression, but deserves props for having ad-libs from Bootsy Collins—never a bad way to end an album.
Snoop Dogg followed up R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece with The Blue Carpet Treatment in 2006 as the final “normal” album before those many changes in persona and direction kicked in. There have been nine albums since, though none of them have matched the quality found in the first half of his discography. Yet Snoop will no doubt continue to outlive the career of every other big name rapper you can think of, switching gears whenever he damn feels like it.
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