Snoop Dogg
“THE BLUE CARPET TREATMENT”
RATING: 2 SOUND LEVELS
After Snoop Dogg got out of the gangsta rap cliche business with 2004’s “R&G: Rhythm & Gangsta,” it looked as if he was taking his career in a different direction, with the unusual, inventive hits “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Signs.”
But Snoop’s latest is a hazy mess–part pro-gang propaganda, part heal-the-world sentiments, part pop star, part anti-hero. It’s hard to explain why the pro-prayer “Conversations,” featuring a soul-funk appearance by Stevie Wonder, is put on the same album as “10 Lil’ Crips,” which promotes the gang, or “Don’t Stop,” which glamorizes lawlessness.
Musical choices are just as strange, especially picking the incredibly lame “That’s That,” –featuring a non-sensical R. Kelly — as a single, instead of the super-catchy “Pssst,” featuring Jamie Foxx. Forget the blue carpet. The “Treatment” Snoop really needs is one that gets his head straight.
