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November 14, 2006

Snoop Dogg - Blue Carpet Treatment: Album Review

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment

Snoop Dogg, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (Geffen, 2006)
Snoop's last album was 2004's Neptunes'd out R&G the Masterpiece. As I recall, it did well enough, but there may have been some concern that Snoop had gone soft after that shit he did with Justin Timberlake. Hence this follow-up finds Snoop rapping over harder-sounding beats and working with a wider palette of collaborators.

INTROLOGY

George Clinton mumbles some shit about smoking weed, and then Snoop spits a pretty retarded verse about all the blue shit he keeps in his house.

THINK ABOUT IT

Another intro of sorts. It's like one long verse, over some laid back, pimp-sounding shit. Snoop blazes it pretty hard, at least by Snoop standards.

CRAZY

This beat is a little creative for my liking, but Nate Dogg's chorus is his most inspired in ages. I about shit my pants the first time I heard him sing, "Walking doooown the avenuuuue."

VATO

The Neptunes-produced lead single, with B-Real as the Mexican fellow on the chorus. I'm still not that crazy about it, but I have come to appreciate the "run nigga, run" part. I find myself mumbling it to myself under my breath at the BGM.

THAT'S THAT

One of the other singles - presumably, the one for the bitches. Not generally my kind of thing, but R Kelly's chorus is just brilliant and the beat kinda knocks for an R&B joint.

CANDY (DRIPPIN' LIKE WATER)

Sounds like something that got left off of the last E-40 album (complete with requisite Digable Planets sample). In a good way, of course.

GET A LIGHT

Surprisingly hard-sounding, in a Neptunes sort of way. I don't know that it fits so well with the more pop-ish first six tracks, and the Damian Marley's chorus is kinda retarded, but otherwise. . .

GANGBANGIN' 101

The one with the Game. Both Snoop and Teh Ghey go pretty hard on their verses, but this beat doesn't really do it for me at all. Kind of a waste of Game verse, IMHO.

BOSS' LIFE

Ah, Snoop Dogg over Dr. Dre production. It's like chocolate over peanut butter even when it's only kinda good. Nhjic.

LAX

The chorus for this is just retarded. You wish someone would stop these d-bags from fucking with Biggie's corpse like this.

10 LIL' CRIPS

The hardest Neptunes beat evar. So hard in fact it's actually kinda retarded. Snoop goes kinda "loco" on it though.

ROUND HERE

Holy crap, it's that Dido song Eminem sampled for "Stan!" (And, notably, not the classic Counting Crows record.) Um, why? Supposedly Dr. Dre is responsible for this.

A BITCH I KNEW

Kind of a retro West Coast vibe. Snoop raps about some broads he used to bang. This could've been left off of here.

LIKE THIS

A weed carriers track. Skip!

WHICH ONE OF YOU

This group, Nine Inch Dix, had a song on that Doggystyle Records compilation from a year or so ago that was fucking hilarious. I don't like this one as much, but it's basically the same kind of thing.

I WANNA FUCK YOU

The one with Akon, which has also been on the radio now for a minute. Best Akon record evar?

PSST!

Somebody stop Jamie Foxx already.

BEAT UP ON YO PADS

What the fuck is this, a PSA for little league football? In the middle of the goddamn album? Why?

DON'T STOP

The Warzone, anyone? Me neither.

IMAGINE

The one with Dr. Dre (rappin') and reclusive cracked out '90s R&B relic D'Angelo. The production is brilliant. I could've done without Dre's clumsy-sounding verse, but I'm a hater like that.

CONVERSATIONS

Somehow this manages to distill everything that is truly awful about Stevie Wonder's oeuvre. It's actually kinda impressive in a way.

COMMENTS: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is kind of a mixed bag. It's got a solid core of pretty good songs, but it's over-long and the second half in particular gets bogged down with weed carrier beats and verses, and ill-advised song ideas. Still, the best 12 tracks on this > Kingdom Come.

BEST TRACKS: "That's That" "10 Lil' Crips" "I Wanna Fuck You"

BONUS VIDEO: Check out this clip for "That's That."

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Byron Crawford a/k/a Bol is the celebrated author of The Mindset of a Champion: Your Favorite Rapper's Least Favorite Book, and Infinite Crab Meats.

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Posted by Bol at 12:00 PM | Permalink

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