Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle
Featured Album
More a victory lap than a proper introduction
"Who Am I?" the title of Doggystyle's lead single asked, but by then, you already knew. While 1993's Doggystyle was technically the lanky Long Beach rapper's first full-length, he had already enjoyed a starring role alongside Dr. Dre on the latter's paradigm shifting The Chronic, released a year earlier. If Doggystyle sounds a tad more hedonistic than your typical debut — and it still sounds that way — it's because it is more a victory lap than a proper introduction.
Doggystyle essentially carries on where The Chronic ended, though it still feels like a discrete work. Snoop is a friskier, cooler, more playful rapper than his producer, which explains his instant magnetism back then — not everyone would be expected to sound this laidback next to Dre. He sounds calm and collected amidst the cacophonous menace of "Tha Shiznit," while he teases and tames the cloudy, gusty G-Funk of "Lodi Dodi." Barely a hint of worldly anxiety strains "Gin and Juice," "Who Am I?" or the Dogg Pound-featuring "Ain't No Fun," only the possibility of future conquests (sexual, mostly). The most riveting track on Doggystyle is also its most serious: "Murder Was the Case," three-and-a-half minutes of grim paranoia wherein Snoop grows up too fast and acknowledges that this devil-may-care lifestyle can't go on forever.
