They have created hip-hop classics and a gigantic projection surface: After thirty years, the rapper Snoop Dogg and the producer Dr. Dre reunites for an album. It can no longer shake the world.
Snoop Dogg: His importance today has as much to do with projections as it does with his ability.
Her biceps twitch again. The rapper Snoop Dogg and the star producer Dr. Dre have collaborated again on an album length after thirty years. “Missionary” was announced as a sequel to Snoop Dogg's legendary debut “Doggystyle” (1993) – and was already declared a classic by many.
What ends up happening when these heavyweights work together is quite remarkable. They have written music history several times: Dr. Dre as producer of NWA, as pioneer of Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar, as architect of a sophisticated, wide-walled sound that has shaken up clubs for decades. And Snoop Dogg always knew how to use this sound very elegantly.
Together they not only created “Doggystyle”, they created global hits like “Nuthin' but a ‹G› Thang”, “The Next Episode” and “Still DRE”. They took the audience into a world in which only the strongest survive, in which guns and gangs rule, in which hydraulics raise the car chassis at the push of a button and defiant cool means (almost) everything.
Smoking weed, giggling, yapping
Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Dogg, now 53 years old, gradually built a global career on his image. After he was accused of murder in the 1990s and repeatedly spread a dubious image of women in his texts, he is now considered the cool uncle next door. A chummy figure who can't be surpassed in terms of coolness, who lives the life that you wouldn't dare to live yourself: smoking weed, giggling, yapping.
Over the years, the snappy mutt developed into a lovable pet. The transformation happens not least thanks to the collaboration with Pharrell Williams and tracks like “Beautiful” and “Drop It Like It's Hot”. “For a long time I was conditioned to show my tough side and not expose myself, but Pharrell told me to smile and make people happy,” he recently said on American Breakfast TV.
Today his fictional character has developed so much that he doesn't have to do much anymore. Much of what is attributed to him in terms of humor and quick-wittedness is actually projection. On breakfast television, for example, a weather forecast prepared by the editorial team is waiting for him, which only consists of places with a connection to hemp. He just has to be capable of them, and all kitchens.
This year Snoop Dogg was also seen at the Olympic Games in Paris as a reporter for the American broadcaster NBC. He cheered on the athletes in different outfits and commented on sports such as dressage or artistic gymnastics. In between, he appeared with the American household queen Martha Stewart or appeared as a jury member on “The Voice”. His 1993 hit, “Gin and Juice,” has also become a beverage brand. In short: Snoop Dogg, meanwhile, is a general store personified.
Try everything once
This also affects his music. After the stringent debut album, which seemed to take you on a convertible ride through the seedy area of LA when you listened to it – the rocking hydraulics built into the sound – a number of later albums were more reminiscent of the dragnet tactic: try everything once! So diversity drifted into arbitrariness. Of course, he noticed this himself: In the run-up to the release of “Missionary,” he noted in many interviews that many fans no longer knew what he was actually famous for. The new work therefore represents a return to one's own rap. It is intended to prove that the heart muscle still twitches rhythmically.
Snoop Dogg and Dr. However, Dre are no longer at the epicenter of hip-hop culture today. Today these are Kendrick Lamar and Drake, the rapping antagonists who have had a creative exchange of blows this year. One stands for intellect, for the artful examination of African-American culture, the other for the joyful and shameless production of hits and surfing on all kinds of musical fashions.
There can Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg can no longer keep up. If “Dr Strength of Street Knowledge”) then it sounds clumsy and old-fashioned and strained.
However, “Missionary” is a hip-hop album produced to the best of our knowledge and belief that shows the strengths and weaknesses of the two musicians. You can still rap, you can still produce. But there is a lack of current urgency, the friction with the pitfalls of the present. Meanwhile, they draw relevance from their own history.
Sting joins in
While a producer like Dre used to obtain samples illegally and create something sparkling new from stolen goods, today he can use anything from anywhere – everyone wants to benefit from his reputation. The Police hit “Message in a Bottle” is now quoted in “Another Part Of Me”, with the express permission and with the participation of Sting, who also has his voice autotuned and sings along. “Sticcy Situation” echoes the Suzanne Vega hit “Tom's Diner”. In “Last Dance With Mary Jane” you can hear the chorus from “Mary Jane's Last Dance” by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
Does the world need a new stoner song from a multimillionaire? Hardly! Still, “Missionary” isn’t a musical embarrassment. Sometimes it even sounds virtuosic, such as in “Shangri-La”, where the spoken singing and the cinematographic music fit together perfectly. The Snoop Dogg fans are probably no longer waiting for a musical development. They're happy with Snoop Dogg as a struggling uncle. As a media and advertising figure he is immortal. As a rapper, he has already done his part.
