The benefit to being Snoop Dogg is that after releasing 11 albums, you’ve got a lot of friends and admirers.
Snoop needs them to fill all the cracks and crevices in “Doggumentary.” The record comes in at an achingly long 21 tracks. In
Snoop’s defense, few artists can come up with 21 quality tracks at one time. It would have been nice if he could have made at least five, though.
Included among the guests are Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa and R. Kelly. They all do good jobs in their guest roles. However, the celebrity sparkle fails to distract from the less-than quality musicianship.
It’s easy to point out some of the stinkers just by scrolling through the track list. “I Don’t Need No B—-” is cute for it’s misappropriation of grammar for about 10 seconds before its misogyny gets tiresome.
“This Weed Iz Mine” is actually quite enjoyable however, despite its blockheaded title. “Platinum” gets a little out of control with its images of wealth. Platinum jewelry is one thing, but dating “platinum chicks” and drinking “platinum shots” is another. Drinking molten precious metal sucks; ask Manius Aquillius.
“Wet” was written specifically for Prince William’s bachelor party (per request of the Royals, no lie), and I’d have to imagine they were disappointed in what they got.
The best guest spots on the album are the ones that are least expected. Parliament Funkadelic bassist Bootsy Collins provides nearly all of the vocals on the opening track, “Toyz N Da Hood” and also contributes to “We Rest in Cali.” Willie Nelson’s appearance on “Superman” is reminiscent of Snoop’s Johnny Cash tribute on 2008’s “Ego Trippin’.”
All is not lost for Snoop on this effort. “We Rest in Cali” and “El Lay” are the kind of relaxed hip-hop tracks that Snoop excels on. If he were to drop about 10 songs from this album, he would fare better.
