West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => West Coast Classics => Topic started by: Chad Vader on April 27, 2008, 12:24:47 PM
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Ego Trippin is underrated
;D :o ::) :P :-X :-\ :laugh: ;D :o ::) :P :-X :-\ :laugh: ;D :o ::) :P :-X :-\ :laugh:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=no&client=opera&rls=nb&hs=juV&q=ego+trippin+reviews&btnG=S%C3%B8k&lr=
Rolling Stones;
Snoop Dogg; Ego Trippin' review
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/19002772/review/19059601/ego_trippin?rating=3
(http://image.listen.com/img/170x170/6/7/0/8/1198076_170x170.jpg)
Rolling Stone:
3.5of 5 Stars
Average User Rating:
4 of 5 Stars
Sixteen years into Snoop Dogg's recording career, his appeal is still based on the way he lives: in slow motion in the fast lane. That's why his stoned persona translates so well to movies and TV, whether he's making porn videos, playing Huggy Bear in Starsky and Hutch, starring in a reality series on E! or hosting the 2007 European VMAs while wearing lederhosen.
Snoop has shown a lot more flexibility onscreen than on his records, where he tends to stay in his comfort zone, pledging allegiance to girls, drugs and the gangsta lifestyle. But his languorous rapping has a way of inspiring inventively freaky sounds from producers, whether it's Dr. Dre laying down squealing keyboards on "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" or Pharrell Williams exploring mouth-popping for "Drop It Like It's Hot." About half of Ego Trippin' was produced by "QDT Muzic," a team made up of Snoop, Teddy Riley, who was the Pharrell Williams of the late Eighties and early Nineties, and DJ Quik, who would have been the Dr. Dre of the same period, except that Dre already had the job. Along with Terrace Martin, who adds live instruments, they take vintage Eighties sounds — old-school synths, vocoders — and purée them into a hip-hop mix as dense as anything the Bomb Squad ever did. The jittery "Gangsta Like Me" features an unsettling female choir, a whispering Jamie Foxx and a rap that rhymes "two-step" with "group sex." The rhythm? Twitch, twitch, boom, hum, twitch.
While the QDT tracks have a menacing vibe, the album is also salted with radio-ready singles from outside producers: Nottz's "Deez Hollywood Nights" builds around a roadhouse piano riff, and Shawty Redd's "Sexual Eruption" features a windshield-wiper rhythm and Snoop with the massage oil. "I'm going to take it slow . . . so we can get a sexual eruption" may not be especially seductive, and it barely counts as a metaphor, but it's hugely entertaining to hear Snoop lay down his bedroom come-ons through a talk box. The oddest simile on the album, by the way, is probably on "Whateva U Do": "Me and my money's like Sonny and Cher." That should mean Snoop and his money will end up being separated, only to have an awkward reunion years later on the David Letterman show.
Cramming in more than twenty tracks, Ego Trippin' grows weaker as it drifts away from head-spinning collages into generic slow jamz. But if Snoop had exercised more prudence in editing, we wouldn't get to enjoy bizarre experiments such as "My Medicine," a country-rock song dedicated to "real American gangsta" Johnny Cash, or "Cool," where Snoop credibly sings (!) a cover of an old single by the Time.
One side effect of getting older is accepting that certain adventures and career paths have passed you by. But at thirty-six, Snoop sometimes sounds like he's trying to stay young by doing everything. His raps about stealing somebody else's girl are followed by songs about how much he loves his wife and family, with no effort to reconcile the two sentiments. He seems most animated when praising the celebrity high life on "Deez Hollywood Nights": "I'm in the back of the club, getting a back rub," he raps, before shamelessly name-dropping Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson and Jessica Biel. Snoop also finds common ground with Leonardo DiCaprio: "He keeps a bad ho, I keep a bad ho."
As the record winds down, Snoop takes on a valedictory tone. "Can't Say Goodbye" is full of nostalgia for his old days: "You can't take the hood out of the homeboy," he testifies. He sounds even wearier in "Been Around tha World," claiming, "I've seen everything twice," and comparing himself to a Mafioso retiring in Miami. "I'm on my way right now," he says on that track, sounding like any husband on the phone with a skeptical wife. "I'm leaving the studio right now." That reality check might be the truest moment Snoop's ever put on tape.
GAVIN EDWARDS
(Posted: Mar 20, 2008)
411mania » Music » Album Reviews
Snoop Dogg - Ego Trippin' Review
Posted by Patrick Robinson on 03.14.2008
http://www.411mania.com/music/album_reviews/70901
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Ego_Trippin'.jpg)
Snoop Dogg returns with an album featuring some very experimental sounds with surprising results. Want to know more? Only one way to find out!
Snoop Dogg was introduced to the world on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic album back in 1992. Shortly after, he released the critically acclaimed Doggystyle but has been unable to find success to match that of his debut album since. Whilst he’s come close on occasions, and his previous album, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment featured some of his best work in years, it suffered from having too many filler songs. It was also a little disheartening to hear that after 14 years in the game, he was still rapping about gang banging like it was 1993. So we’ve now got Ego Trippin’. Originally meant to be an album with no guests to allow the man to fully showcase his ego, that concept has been ultimately scrapped in favor of a more conventional approach.
Was it the right thing to do? Read on and find out.
Tracks
1. A Word Witchya! (Intro)
2. Press Play Ft. Kurupt
3. SD Is Out! Ft. Charlie Wilson
4. Gangsta Like Me
5. Neva Have 2 Worry Ft. Uncle Chucc
6. Sexual Eruption
7. Life Of Da Party Ft. Too $hort & Mistah F.A.B.
8. Waste Of Time Ft. Raphael Saadiq
9. Cool
10. Sets Up Ft. Pharrell
11. Deez Hollywood Nights
12. Whateva U Do
13. Staxxx In My Jeans
14. Been Around Tha World Ft. Tone
15. Let It Out
16. My Medicine Ft. Everlast
17. Ridin’ In My Chevy
18. Those Gurlz
19. One Chance (Make It Good)
20. Why Did You Leave Me?
21. Can’t Say Goodbye Ft. Charlie Wilson & The Gap Band
Well at 20 tracks plus an Intro, it’s easy to see we’re in for a long listen.
The instrumental for the spoken word intro is very laidback and spaced out and it’s disappointing he didn’t actually rap over it in the end. After the obligatory shout outs, we quickly move into the first track, “Press Play”. Produced by DJ Quik and featuring Kurupt on the hook (as well as random adlibs) the track has a celebratory feel and at nine albums in and being arguably the most recognized rapper in the world, there’s reason to celebrate. The track features Snoop’s GOOD flow, rather than the lazy drawl he’s developed in recent times. Following is “SD Is Out!” which features some very robotic sounding vocals on the hook as well as a beat that sounds very much like “Drop It Like It’s Hot” care of Teddy Riley. Charlie Wilson’s contributions don’t really add much to the song but overall, it’s a strong effort that shows Snoop’s willingness to experiment on the track.
Speaking of experimentation, the album is full of it to be honest. I suppose when he called it Ego Trippin’ it’s better to take it from the view that since he’s been around forever, his ego will allow him to do whatever he wants and he’ll get away with it.
Lead single, “Sexual Eruption” (or “Sensual Seduction” for the censored masses), is not meant to be taken seriously and is designed for fun. The track is infamous for Snoop’s use of the talk box to an effect similar to T-Pain’s style. Snoop does eventually rap for the last verse and continues the trend of the song dropping some funny lines like “I got her to the crib and exchanged some f*** faces”. Snoop’s sex noises are a bit too much though.
Continuing with the good, we have “Cool” which is essentially a cover of “Cool” by Morris Day & The Time. The production is bouncy and upbeat and Snoop continues to have fun on the track changing his vocal effects yet again to fit the sound of the track. Two tracks later, “Deez Hollywood Nights” is more traditional Snoop but the production care of Nottz deserves credit as it definitely gives you a “Hollywood” feel as you listen to the song.
“My Medicine” features Everlast on the guitar and backing vocals as Snoop pays homage to Johnny Cash. You wouldn’t think a Country flavored track would work on a Snoop Dogg album, but surprisingly it does. I think it just goes to show that Snoop can really excel when he leaves his comfort zone.
The final two tracks on the album are my favorites with “Why Did You Leave Me?” featuring Polow Da Don’s (he’s really impressing me at the moment) interpretation of “Celtic Rain” by Mike Oldfield. Snoop laments his love leaving him and the stress it puts him through being unable to write and finding it hard to go through each day. Snoop’s lyrics, whilst nothing spectacular are definitely aided by the production, which is probably going to be one of the best this year in my opinion.
“Can’t Say Goodbye” closes the album, although it probably would have been better coming in before “Why Did You Leave Me”. It’s an unapologetic track as Snoop reminds us “you can’t take the hood out the homeboy”. Despite living a rich lifestyle that should be Award ceremonies and family orientated, he can’t turn his back on the life he used to live.
So, that was the good, and what’s left either falls into ‘forgettable’ or ‘plain bad’.
The beat for “Gangsta” seems like it wasn’t finished in time and is the typical gangsta raps that Snoop’s previously done which as you can see by the tracks that have worked well, he should have stayed away from. Similarly, “Sets Up” features production by The Neptunes (you’ll recognize it instantly) and sounds like a carbon copy, slowed-down version of “Money Maker”. Pharrell’s non-sensical hook doesn’t exactly help either. “Staxxx In My Jeans” is as terrible as the name makes it sound. From the poor chopped and screwed hook to the sub-par lyrics it’s a far cry from the Snoop we heard at the beginning of the album with a smooth flow. “Ridin’ In My Chevy” is Snoop’s attempt at capturing the Southern sound and it really doesn’t work and Snoop sounds extremely uncomfortable spitting lyrics like “them punches won’t work, you need more MUSTARD”.
The 411: Snoop’s ninth album is a vast improvement over his last, featuring less of a focus on gang banging, money and weed and a willingness to experiment on tracks, with the results being very un-Snoop-like, but working nevertheless. The main problem with Ego Trippin’ is it’s length. Clocking in at 1 hour 17 minutes, there’s a lot of filler that should have been left off and the album would have been better overall. In the end though, pick it up if you’re a fan of Snoop or if you appreciated the humor behind “Sexual Eruption” as there's enough good here to outweigh the bad.
Final Score: 7.0 [ Good ] legend
(http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/images/hdr_logo.gif)
Ego Trippin' SNOOP DOGG review
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/content_display/reviews/albums/e3ia99a189e2d22c6c704c87bfc5a737d74
(http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/photos/covers/2008/snoop_dog_ego_trippin.gif)
Snoop Dogg's ninth album is perhaps his most progressive one to date.
It not only features a vintage '80s sound complete with old-school synths and vocoders,
but also finds D-O-double G pulling triple duty as rapper, singer (!) and one-third of production team QDT.
The Shawty Redd-produced "Sensual Seduction" is already a big hit that finds the 36-year-old
harmonizing about being "a freak" and "playing in the sheets,
" while "Cool" reflects on his fame and posh lifestyle, both via a talkbox.
But there's a refreshing sincerity to cuts like the nostalgic "Can't Say Goodbye"
("You can't take the hood out the homeboy," he instructs) and an ode to his wife, "All Around the World."
Throughout, the focus is on Snoop and not on mic-hogging guests,
although Terrance Martin is a welcome presence on "Neva Have 2 Worry."
—Mariel Concepcion
Snoop Dogg: Ego Trippin': Pitchfork Record Review
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/49240-ego-trippin
(http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/46414.egotrippin.jpg?)
Snoop Dogg
Ego Trippin'
[Geffen; 2008]
Rating: 6.6
Snoop Dogg was more famous for being famous than for rapping long before the E! network gave him a reality show. His pimp persona hardened into shtick at least a decade ago, and music has felt like an afterthought for him ever since he embarked on an endless run of stoner-comedy cameos. The dangerous urgency and viciously charismatic lean of his early Doggystyle peak are distant memories. And yet he's somehow managed to evolve into a model of gangsta consistency, a sort of rap version of Tom Petty or Alan Jackson. He cranks out lazy, effortless hits at a scary clip, slightly tweaking his formula as the musical climate changes without ever leaving his comfort zone. On "Neva Have 2 Worry", the fifth track of his ninth album, Snoop reminds us that he "ain't never went gold"; every one of those previous eight albums sold a million copies. Those numbers are worldwide, not domestic, but still. He's doing something right.
"Neva Have 2 Worry" is a lean autobiographical track, but it's not a frustrated emo-memoir like Nas' "Last Real Nigga Alive" or Bun B's "The Story". Snoop doesn't do self-disclosure. Rather than giving us inside glimpses of his triumphs and failures, Snoop calmly recites his accomplishments, taking quick pauses to remind us of his murder trial and to defend himself from accusations of misogyny by kicking more misogyny. We don't learn anything from "Neva Have 2 Worry", but it sounds great: Snoop's craggy sing-song purr sinking deep into his own lush, smooth, low-key track. It doesn't reward close attention, but it fills the air beautifully.
That's true of almost all of Ego Trippin'. Snoop says basically nothing new over the course of the album's way-excessive 21 tracks, but he usually sounds good saying it, and the expansive, expensive production gives him the sort of luxuriant bed that few rappers can afford anymore. First single "Sexual Eruption" might find Snoop cooing though one of T-Pain's vocoders and extolling the virtues of bedtime reciprocity, but those tweaks are subtle; it's not like Snoop is diving headlong into feminism or electro. Rather, the slight, unremarkable track seems to exist mostly as an excuse for its retro-VHS video than as a song in its own right. That video is the best thing Snoop's done in years, a better vehicle for his sly, self-aware persona than any of the songs on this album. And yet there's something encouraging about endless confidence and professionalism on display here. In a time when the rap industry is in serious money-drain tumult, Snoop sounds as unperturbed as ever, and better for it.
Many of the tracks on Ego Trippin' come from some iteration of the newly-formed QDT, a production trio of Snoop, new jack swing architect and former Blackstreet frontman Teddy Riley, and g-funk architect and former convict DJ Quik. All of these guys are pros, and it's great to hear Snoop using his enviable position to play patron to those two underrated pop veterans. Quik's beat for "Press Play" is all fluid soul-rap, its Isley Brothers sample twittering gorgeously over its rippling guitars and horn-stabs. And on "SD Is Out", Riley somehow pulls off the neat trick of crafting a lush snap beat, its spare production absolutely at home in its pillowy layers of bass and vocoders. But tracks as pretty as these can't erase the sad reality that Snoop is running through trite pimp-life clichés for the billionth time, talking about macking hoes with Leonardo DiCaprio and never quite sounding enthused about the women he's reportedly fucking. Even the love song he dedicates to his wife turns out to be more about Snoop's globe-trotting exploits than anything resembling actual sentiment.
So it comes as a relief whenever Snoop deviates from his usual talking-points to give us the odd stylistic curveball. And those curveballs can often be pretty great on their own merits, as when Snoop covers the Time's Minneapolis new-wave funk manifesto "Cool", singing in a self-obsessed whine about diamonds on his toes while Riley faithfully recreates the original's Princely synths. And then there's the utterly inexplicable country-fried "My Medicine", which Snoop dedicates to "my main man Johnny Cash, a real American gangster" before intoning "Grand Ole Opry, here we come" and sing-rapping about weed over Everlast's respectable Tennessee Three pastiche. It's the closest thing we've ever had to a straight-up country song from one of the world's most recognizable rappers, and it's also a celebration of drugs dedicated to a beloved figure whose pill habit almost killed him more than once; I sort of can't believe it exists.
As batshit awesome as "My Medicine" is, the best two moments of Ego Trippin' are its two last songs, "Why Did You Leave Me" and "Can't Say Goodbye", both wide-open heartbroken emo-pop-soul lilts on which Snoop sounds more like an actual human being rather than a walking catchphrase dispenser. The first is a generous, bedraggled breakup track with an absurdly catchy beat from Hitboy and Polow da Don; three months from now, it'll probably be inescapable. And on the second, Snoop and the Gap Band's Charlie Wilson moan empathy for the people who share their backgrounds over a gorgeously elegiac Riley track. These are some grown-up songs, and Snoop probably has a whole album of them somewhere in him. But as long as the pothead-pimp shtick keeps selling, we'll probably never hear it.
-Tom Breihan, March 14, 2008
Snoop Dogg: Ego Trippin' - PopMatters Music Review
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/56470/snoop-dogg-ego-trippin/
After nine albums, Snoop Dogg has developed an on-again, off-again attitude towards album titles: Some seem central to the record, others, more like afterthoughts.
Take the title of his debut, for example: No other compound word but Doggystyle could so expertly encapsulate the grody particulars to a way of life so retrograde, irreverent, wicked, and wonderful and derogatory and stupid. Or there was Last Meal, a somber title for a contemplative, retrospective record, full of smooth, buttery come-downs like the opiate “Stacey Adams”.
Amazon
But then you have Da Game is 2 Be Sold, Not 2 Be Told, a hollow Silkk-The-Shockerian proverb that signified positively nothing, followed by No Limit Top Dogg, another title that did a far weaker job contextualizing the album’s content than most No Limit CDs. Along the way we had Doggfather, not to mention Doggy Style All-Stars: Welcome to the House.
General rule with the Snoop Dogg records. The more central the album title is to the album, the better the album. Who knows, maybe a title is the sort of thing that helps a pot icon focus.
With a title like Ego Trippin’, however, there’s really no telling which camp to place it in. Central concept or aphoristic afterthought? Could be either, especially when you factor in the Nikki Giovanni poem of the same name. Aware of the poem or not, Snoop certainly seems enamored with the concept of Ego Trippin’. He welcomes us to the album in a lavish intro rich with shout-outs and explanations that this, right here, is Ego Trippin’. Confirmed. Periodically, he checks in to ask us how we’re doing, remind us lyrically that this is, that’s right, Ego Trippin’. And production-wise, the beats lean towards celebratory, brass-punctuated pizazz, recalling Kanye West, who is certainly familiar with the Ego Trip.
So maybe you could posit that Ego Trippin’ is Snoop’s chance to say something timeless, touching, and redemptive about the ills and thrills of celebrityism, but, nah. Almost. He mingles with the Marleys and Leo on “Hollywood Nights”, describing his club life in frame-by-frame detail. And that’s kinda fun, catchy. Then there’s “Life of the Party”, one of those obnoxious Rap/R&B songs where the rich and famous remind you their fan that you’re neither, and your love life pales in comparison to theirs. Very kind. But nothing in the key of celebrityism or night life really pokes out from Ego Trippin‘s filler, and if the album has meat, it’s definitely not on its club-bangers, which are skeletal.
Ego Trippin‘s defining feature could be this: At 36, Snoop has become something of a Rap Miles Davis, charting new courses in the genre less through his moderate command over his own instrument than the avant-garde company he seeks out. At the begining of his career, that meant submitting himself to the will of Los Angeles’ bangin’-est beatmakers—West Coast Gangsta Rap:Snoop is like East Coast Bop:Miles, with, if you care to extend the analogy, Dre as the soft-hearted, amicable Dizzy and Tupac as the sensational, ballistic, death-envious Yardbird. In time, Snoop dropped the restrictively regional sound that confined his Death Row labelmates to obscurity. By 2000’s Last Meal, he had become a kind of middle-man-muse of hip-hop, shuttling in producers from across the country, inspiring each in 100 different directions with the exact same unruffled flow and elementary rhyme schemes. Listening to Ego Trippin‘s varied, pan-regional panache, it’s hard to believe that this is the same bully who gallivanted across New York’s Source Awards stage, taunting the East Coast to hate a lil bit harder.
But now they love Snoop Dogg and maybe the Top Dogg isn’t quite so sure what to do with that. For the better half of the 1990s, opposition gave Snoop Dogg meaning the way Principle Skinner gave Bart Simpson purpose, and Ronald Reagan kept Gil Scott-Heron busy. Most of that opposition came through in that uniquely laidback voice of his: your reviewer always interpreted Snoop’s unwavering chillness as a talisman against those evil forces trying to drag him down, namely judges, juries, and “bitches.” Snoop Dog, it’s worth remembering, is one of the many American writers/artists/public figures who found his voice in the confines of a prison cell, specifically Orange County Jail, a place where maintaining a cool composure and a syrupy flow is probably an act of human triumph on par with the Shawshank Redemption.
So maybe a proper review of Ego Trippin’ starts with that elusive, one-of-a-kind voice of his, the slur that launched a thousand obscenity suits and inspired ten thousands teenagers to drop their jeans. It could be a function of time—or Snoop’s age—but his syrupy flow doesn’t drip, burn, and ooze puss like it used ta. Back in the day, Snoop could flip utterly demeaning insults with the casual expertise of a short order cook, but on “Press Play”, when he threatens to “let hollows rip on through ya,” the quip seems stuffed in there, either to appease the rhyme scheme or some kind of offensive statements quota. Theory: the FCC is paying Snoop Dogg to say those things so as to generate lawsuit revenue from independent radio stations, and that’s why his performance comes off as half-felt.
Not that this is necessarily a bad development—on “Waste of Time”, he dismisses his ex in far kinder, more conflicted terms than 1992’s “I don’t love you hoes, I’m out the do’.” Love hurts, and Raphael Saadiq’s melisma in the hook acknowledges that consequence in ways a younger Snoop Dogg never would. “Been Around the World” is for his “baby… from me to you,” and monogamy from Snoop Dogg is a sure sign of hope. But Snoop has never been a paragon of virtue, and why would he? The role makes him comes off as aged and learned, but also trite. For better or worse, Hip-Hop is an oedipal story on repeat, a country where old men get spiked on the regular by arrogant little brats.
Still, there’s a light: Ego Trippin’ has more than a few moments where Snoop glides into the future, spicing and dicing a voice that heretofore was best served plain. “My Medicine” is a promising start, a pseudo-country and blues song, dedicated to “my main man Johnny Cash,” with confounding couplets like “the mo dedicated the mo’ medicated” and “they say you can’t buy me love, but you damn sure can buy me dub.” On paper, its a page pulled right from the OutKast Book of Excess, but in practice it lacks a certain wit, a redemptive quality OutKast’s Idlewild peddled in abundance.
The single that Ego Trippin’ will and should be remembered for is the dazzling “Sensual Seduction”, a cuddley and catchy kick weighed down by the domestic pull of soap opera strings. Apron Strings. It’s cozy and exotic, spacey and warm, the perfect emotional blend for a serial-polygamist-turned Fatherhood star. What’s more? Snoop’s voice: he totally surrenders that singular slur of his to the warbling yodel of autotune, sacrificing his very identity to the digital gods. It’s a shocking moment for anyone who vaguely remembers the early ‘90s, and another testament to Calvin Broadus Jr.’s unrivalled ability to inspire strange new sounds without ever raising his voice.
RATING: 7 out of 10
— 31 March 2008
www.usatoday.com ´s snoop 'Ego Trippin review
http://blogs.usatoday.com/listenup/2008/03/this-weeks-revi.html?csp=34
Snoop's 'Ego' a mix of moods
Snoop Dogg, Ego Trippin',
**½ (out of four) -- FLY LIKE AN EGO
"A b- - -ch is a b- - -ch, and a ho is a ho," Snoop declares on Never Have 2 Worry, the fifth track on Ego Trippin' —
and he doesn't seem to be joking. More than 16 years into his career, Snoop clearly isn't interested in sensitivity training.
What makes his latest effort at once fascinating and disturbing is his apparent inability to connect the dots between his personal struggles and the gangsta ethics he champions so artfully.
Musically, Trippin' ranks with the rapper's best work;
he and his co-producers fold '80s electro-funk into arrangements that feel at once nostalgic and bracingly fresh, from the shimmering single Sexual Seduction to the Princely Cool.
Snoop's distinctly mellow rhyming shines brightest when he's in a playful mood, as on the twangy My Medicine or Deez Hollywood Nights, where he boasts of being at a club "smoking with one of the Marleys — one love." But the references to bad girls and fun drugs grow less amusing when considered alongside material that either is more soberly misogynistic or tries to trumpet family values. On Why Did You Leave Me, he asks why a true love "had to go away." Well, duh. — Elysa Gardner
>>Download: previously mentioned highlights >>Consider: Let It Out>>Skip: Waste of Time
BBC - Urban Review - Snoop Dogg, Ego Trippin'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/53bd/
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/urban/release/images/up_snoopdogg_ego_140.jpg)
by Maxine Headley
02 April 2008
Bearing in mind that rap music has always be considered a music genre for the rebellious youth,
it is debatable when a rapper should hang up his or her mic.
For Snoop Dogg, who returns with his ninth solo effort and 15 years of experience under his belt,
it is pretty clear the thought of retiring is not yet in his foreseeable future.
It's surprising, given that he has also been occupied with other projects,
like his family reality show Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, endorsements and directing porno flicks.
Snoop seems continuously on his grind, whilst displaying a multitude of personalities.
I mean, what other entertainer could get away with
openly exhibiting their gang affiliations and still appear on mainstream talk shows like
The David Letterman Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show?
The aptly titled Ego Trippin',
chooses not to be littered with the obvious current big names and rather lends most of the production to QDT Music,
the producer collaboration of Teddy Riley and DJ Quik, while the sounds are inspired by '70s soul to '80s pop.
Sensual Seduction, the lead single, has the Southern Californian singing the majority of the track through a vocoder,
much like T-Pain, and enlists Shawty Redd to re-create the '80s disco funk,
aiding one of his favourite topics: Bedding women.
Yes, Snoop does continue to stay within his lyrical comfort zone; gangsters, hos and recreational drugs.
Maybe this is an indication that he has nothing new to say on wax,
although Neva Have 2 Worry aims to confirm this hasn't prevented him from successes:
''Stack plaque after plaque, gain millions sold I'm the Bo$$ of this bitch and I ain't never went Gold''.
Cool, a cover track by The Time, has Snoop singing again and My Medicine a country ode to Jonny Crash are both oddly brilliant, purely because we've never heard songs like these coming from die-hard rappers.
Also, amongst the many titillating tracks, Been Around Tha World is dedicated to his wife.
However, his boisterous accounts of his lifestyle overshadow the sentiment.
Although 21 tracks does become rather an arduous listen,
it is intriguing and some what amusing going through Snoop's experimental journey.
It just goes to show you can't keep a good Dogg down, especially when he’s still got more to offer.
Snoop Dogg : Ego Trippin’ Review on Blender
http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=5028
Snoop Dogg
Ego Trippin’
(Doggystyle/Geffen)
Release Date: 3/11/2008
Snoop the comedian steps out! (Dave Chappelle need not worry)
Reviewed by Ryan Dombal
From the raunchy cartoon cover of Doggystyle to the “Gin and Juice” video’s Home Alone parody to the winningly absurd,
short-lived sketch show Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, Snoop Dogg has always spiked his G-funk strut with a comedic streak.
And on his lascivious single “Sensual Seduction”—with its brilliant, Prince-parodying, worn-out-VHS-style video—the Doggfather embraces his funnyman side, with plenty of kitschy Roger Troutman vocoder effects to boot.
Alas, the West Coast stalwart’s ninth album doesn’t entirely make good on “Seduction”’s wacky promise.
For every over-the-top funk send-up (like “Cool,” where Snoop shows off a Chappellian Rick James impression),
there’s yet another toothless gangsta bromide (the Neptunes-produced “Sets Up”).
And the hick-hop abomination “Johnny Cash” is plenty humorous—but in a laughing-at, not laughing-with, sort of way.
Download: “Press Play,” “Cool”
3 out of 5
Snoop Dogg - Ego Trippin' Review By Marguerite French
http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18313
UGO Rating Overall: B
The Who: Snoop Doggy Dogg was one of Dr. Dre's earliest, and probably most notorious, proteges. Their collaboration on Dre's solo album was both riding on and driving the particular style of hip-hop at that time. Snoop has since created a star career for himself, but the two still love each other very much.
The Buzz: Snoop Dogg has donned so many personas and accomplished so many feats that there's very little he could do that would erode his public respect. He does seem to be pushing that envelope, however, with a string of questionable television appearances and a puzzling reality show. It is with both eagerness and relief that we see him return to the studio, although, as with any icon, what he'll turn out is a mystery as large as his reputation.
The Verdict: Ego Trippin' could use the track "Cool" as its central theme -
it sums up the basics of what keeps Snoop Dogg relevant and worth listening to.
One, he embraces new, the untried techniques (he's singing this track, for crying out loud).
Two, he keeps on the commercial end of hip-hop without washing out the beats or losing his sense of fun and originality.
Three, he states out loud what he implies in the rest of the tracks:
There's just something about him, and he's cool.
Snoop has thankfully lost a lot of the edge of his earlier rhymes.
I say "thankfully" because it's a little hard to listen to certain MCs,
now ensconced in luxury, rapping about slinging dope.
What are they, hobbyists?
"MCing pays the bills, but it's really my covert drug operation that keeps me sane."
The downside of this evolution is an occasional blandness that makes the listener drift a little,
as with "Ridin' In My Chevy."
Despite the awkwardness that comes with him finding his new dimensions, he's still entertaining.
What's more, he still teams up with artists of real talent, such as Too $hort,
whose work on "Life Of Da Party" is stock in subject, but generous and free in delivery.
Ego Trippin' contains no remarkable tracks, which could be a sad harbinger that the Doggfather's best days are behind him.
Still, the album has Snoop's characteristic charm and verve, and enough variety to keep us puzzling over it for years.
The Grade: B
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Ego trippin review in XXL May 2008
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3012/2416783822_395385bf4e_b.jpg)
4 out of 5
Rate The Snoop Albums, 1- 9
http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=135507.50
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LOL Chad ;) i think you already got your point across :laugh:
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you really have nothing better to do than discuss ego trippin online everyday
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you really have nothing better to do than discuss ego trippin online everyday
Chad Vader AKA The Grumpy Clown just love the lyrical g shit Snoop spit on the Ego Trippin album. :P ;)
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/191/521089240_d0dd206985_o.jpg)
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you really have nothing better to do than discuss ego trippin online everyday
lol let him, i love it. Just keeps proving how pathetic he is, chad stay loosin in life. Imma vote classic even though i do not think it is!
pz!
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lol let him, i love it.
Just keeps proving how pathetic he is, chad stay loosin in life.
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/31/61634095_ecb3c4f8bb.jpg?v=0)
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wow thats way more votes for "classic" than I expected. Its very good, but I dont think its a classic. And who gives a half a fuck what rolling stone thinks? Theyre a white classic rock magazine.
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you really have nothing better to do than discuss ego trippin online everyday
lol let him, i love it. Just keeps proving how pathetic he is, chad stay loosin in life. Imma vote classic even though i do not think it is!
pz!
yep, the poll definitely shows how underrated the album is ;D
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all that new shit is over rated..
is that really the cd you enjoy to put in your player ? ahahah...
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honestly Snoop needs to quit that 19,20,21 track shit he on and just "trim the fat" from his CD's and make a 11-16 track album.. then he'd make another classic cuz this was a great album minus a few tracks..
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It is his most Praised by the Critics album , Ego Trippin is a Dope album no doubt !!!!!
fav traccs
1.Waste Of Time
2.SD IS OUT
3.Never have to worry
4.Cant Say Goodbye
5.Whateva U Do
6.Ridin In My Chevy
7.One Chance
8.Press Play 8) 8)
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honestly Snoop needs to quit that 19,20,21 track shit he on and just "trim the fat" from his CD's and make a 11-16 track album.. then he'd make another classic cuz this was a great album minus a few tracks..
he refuses to, he has that 19st, rollin 20's, 21st thing going, not that I would know anything about that but apparently that is the reason why he keeps putting that many tracks on the album. ::)
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I have mixed feelings about this album. I loved it the first few times I listened to it, but I haven't played the whole album more than 5 times since I bought it. There are only a few songs that I still play regularly. Tha Blue Carpet Treatment had a lot more replay value.
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you really have nothing better to do than discuss ego trippin online everyday
lol let him, i love it. Just keeps proving how pathetic he is, chad stay loosin in life. Imma vote classic even though i do not think it is!
pz!
yep, the poll definitely shows how underrated the album is ;D
You and Fag Vader for couple of the year?lol 8)
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I have mixed feelings about this album. I loved it the first few times I listened to it, but I haven't played the whole album more than 5 times since I bought it. There are only a few songs that I still play regularly. Tha Blue Carpet Treatment had a lot more replay value.
I kinda agree to a certain extent....i thought the shit was bangin first time i heard and the next few spins i gave it but i dont really listen to the album much at all now, just a few joints like you said which i still think are bangin but the replay value i guess like you said is possibly lacking. I still think there are good points about this album but it ddef has some filler. I can't really comment ny more on TBCT because i heard it a few times and i thought that shit was way to amateur production wise and focus wise for snoop at this stage of his career.
Oh and Chad, i can accept when i am wrong, but u got three different threads, one from the one when u wasnt acting like an obsessed bitch with me and how we both kinda found a common groun in the middle, then u had a poll thread cuz u still couldnt get me outta your mind and now this and they all show different results. Your polls have no credibility. Kinda like your lame ass, nuttin left for me to say on this topic!
pz!....waits for gay couple of the year to say there bit,lol.......oh and chad, for someone so old, i would have thought you would know how to spell underrated....I know i make alot of mistakes too when i type so i guess its kinda ironic for me to say that but for a topic title...underated? C'mon dawg, i know u can do better, start another batch of ego trippin topics son, i know u obsessed
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Oh and Chad, i can accept when i am wrong, but u got three different threads, one from the one when u wasnt acting like an obsessed bitch with me and how we both kinda found a common groun in the middle, then u had a poll thread cuz u still couldnt get me outta your mind and now this and they all show different results. Your polls have no credibility. Kinda like your lame ass, nuttin left for me to say on this topic!
pz!....waits for gay couple of the year to say there bit,lol...
nah, as usual, you're being a hypocrite; if you were be able to admit it when you're wrong, then you wouldn't have taken shots at anybody for proving that you're wrong :banana:
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Oh and Chad, i can accept when i am wrong, but u got three different threads, one from the one when u wasnt acting like an obsessed bitch with me and how we both kinda found a common groun in the middle, then u had a poll thread cuz u still couldnt get me outta your mind and now this and they all show different results. Your polls have no credibility. Kinda like your lame ass, nuttin left for me to say on this topic!
pz!....waits for gay couple of the year to say there bit,lol...
nah, you're being a hypocrite; if you were be able to admit it when you're wrong, then you wouldn't have taken shots at anybody for proving that you're wrong :banana:
lol you niggas been on my dick for time!! And Chad was all on my dick when he decided to have his lil "e-thuggin" moment, so i guess that put that comment in the bin. Oh and i aint really got no major problem with you, i actually agree with some shit u say in other posts but u been on my dick for a minute, so i aint no bitch who just gonna sit down and listen. HipHop heads be real!
oh and he didnt prove nothing apart from that dubcc contains alot of inconsistancies and obsessed clowns
pz!
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Ego trippin is wak, Snoop fell the fuk off but do we need 4321 threads about this gay ass album
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Oh and Chad, i can accept when i am wrong, but u got three different threads, one from the one when u wasnt acting like an obsessed bitch with me and how we both kinda found a common groun in the middle, then u had a poll thread cuz u still couldnt get me outta your mind and now this and they all show different results. Your polls have no credibility. Kinda like your lame ass, nuttin left for me to say on this topic!
pz!....waits for gay couple of the year to say there bit,lol...
nah, you're being a hypocrite; if you were be able to admit it when you're wrong, then you wouldn't have taken shots at anybody for proving that you're wrong :banana:
lol you niggas been on my dick for time!! And Chad was all on my dick when he decided to have his lil "e-thuggin" moment, so i guess that put that comment in the bin. Oh and i aint really got no major problem with you, i actually agree with some shit u say in other posts but u been on my dick for a minute, so i aint no bitch who just gonna sit down as listen. HipHop heads be real!
oh and he didnt prove nothing apart from that dubcc contains alot of inconsistancies and obsessed clowns
pz!
again, don't blame the messenger ;) :spam: an adult like you should know that ;)
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Ego trippin is wak, Snoop fell the fuk off but do we need 4321 threads about this gay ass album
ask your boy chad
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Oh and Chad, i can accept when i am wrong, but u got three different threads, one from the one when u wasnt acting like an obsessed bitch with me and how we both kinda found a common groun in the middle, then u had a poll thread cuz u still couldnt get me outta your mind and now this and they all show different results. Your polls have no credibility. Kinda like your lame ass, nuttin left for me to say on this topic!
pz!....waits for gay couple of the year to say there bit,lol...
nah, you're being a hypocrite; if you were be able to admit it when you're wrong, then you wouldn't have taken shots at anybody for proving that you're wrong :banana:
lol you niggas been on my dick for time!! And Chad was all on my dick when he decided to have his lil "e-thuggin" moment, so i guess that put that comment in the bin. Oh and i aint really got no major problem with you, i actually agree with some shit u say in other posts but u been on my dick for a minute, so i aint no bitch who just gonna sit down as listen. HipHop heads be real!
oh and he didnt prove nothing apart from that dubcc contains alot of inconsistancies and obsessed clowns
pz!
again, don't blame the messenger ;) :spam: an adult like you should know that ;)
contribute something to my xzibit thread ;-)
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Ego trippin is wak, Snoop fell the fuk off but do we need 4321 threads about this gay ass album
ask your boy chad
wtf?
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this album is weak as hell
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some dope songs on there, some wack songs...definitely not classic thats for sure
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weak album. never in a million years would i have thought that snoop, quik and terrace martin would be putting shit like this out.
didn't problem ghostwrite on this too? the raps were above snoops usual shit but thats really all i can say. press play was dope but how many times can you play the intro to a 21 track cd
i reallize cats here say this all the time but snoop just lost it. its almost like he realized this and now he's trying to get it back. but it just sounds so disconnected from his former self... i dont have blue carpet treatment anymore, but how did an album with dre, cube, DOC, terrace martin, kurupt, eiht, kam, rhythm d, etc come off so boring. if that group came together in 2002 after last meal he probaby would have topped doggystyle. matter of fact paid the cost was really the begining of the end / the end depending on how you want to look at it.
what can he do on his next album that is going to move people? dont just blindly hate...think about it. theres no more collaborations he can do or any shit left to say really. he's in my top 5 for sure, but really how can you not feel let down.
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weak album. never in a million years would i have thought that snoop, quik and terrace martin would be putting shit like this out.
didn't problem ghostwrite on this too? the raps were above snoops usual shit but thats really all i can say. press play was dope but how many times can you play the intro to a 21 track cd
i reallize cats here say this all the time but snoop just lost it. its almost like he realized this and now he's trying to get it back. but it just sounds so disconnected from his former self... i dont have blue carpet treatment anymore, but how did an album with dre, cube, DOC, terrace martin, kurupt, eiht, kam, rhythm d, etc come off so boring. if that group came together in 2002 after last meal he probaby would have topped doggystyle. matter of fact paid the cost was really the begining of the end / the end depending on how you want to look at it.
what can he do on his next album that is going to move people? dont just blindly hate...think about it. theres no more collaborations he can do or any shit left to say really. he's in my top 5 for sure, but really how can you not feel let down.
I want a album that Snoop would want out. I can dig the R&G, BCT, Doggfather, Doggystyle, whatever style Snoop rocks. I just have felt like after Last Meal, Snoop has lost alot of direction on how to make a dope album on his own.
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weak album. never in a million years would i have thought that snoop, quik and terrace martin would be putting shit like this out.
didn't problem ghostwrite on this too? the raps were above snoops usual shit but thats really all i can say. press play was dope but how many times can you play the intro to a 21 track cd
i reallize cats here say this all the time but snoop just lost it. its almost like he realized this and now he's trying to get it back. but it just sounds so disconnected from his former self... i dont have blue carpet treatment anymore, but how did an album with dre, cube, DOC, terrace martin, kurupt, eiht, kam, rhythm d, etc come off so boring. if that group came together in 2002 after last meal he probaby would have topped doggystyle. matter of fact paid the cost was really the begining of the end / the end depending on how you want to look at it.
what can he do on his next album that is going to move people? dont just blindly hate...think about it. theres no more collaborations he can do or any shit left to say really. he's in my top 5 for sure, but really how can you not feel let down.
I want a album that Snoop would want out. I can dig the R&G, BCT, Doggfather, Doggystyle, whatever style Snoop rocks. I just have felt like after Last Meal, Snoop has lost alot of direction on how to make a dope album on his own.
he didn't lose it; he never had that skill.
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FUCK GAY ASS SNOOP...............HE ONLY WAS FAMOUS WHEN HE WAS ON DEATHROW............OTHER THAN THAT HE AINT SHIT NO MORE...............HE'S SKINNY LITTLE BITCH FAG WHO GOT PUNK BY SUGE GOT SCARE WHEN HE WAS ON THA CHI IN ONE OF HIS CONCERTS........ HE GOT SO SCARE WHEN HE SAW A SEA OF ALK'Z THROWIN DOWN THA FORKS,THROWIN DOWN THA INSANE DIAMONDS AND SNOOP'S GAY ASS CRAPPY CRAB SIGN.............BITCH TOOK OFF AND LEFT ON THA FIRST PLANE TO GAY ASS LONG BEACH!!!!IS STILL ALKN!!!FUCK ALL FOLKZ.............AND STILL D-K.........COBRA-KILLA...........AND CRIP-KILLA!!!
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bonnie & clyde '08 :cheers:
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fuck ego trippin
blue carpet was a great album.
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this album is fuckin' garbage. clean out your fuckin' ears !
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Ego trippin' is underated cuz snoop alwaus drop his wackest song like "my medecine" "sexuel seduction" ...
"press play" "sd is out" " i can't say good bye " are classicssss !!!!
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DAT NIGGA SNOOP EGO IS TRIPPIN.. I GUESS NOW HE COMING WIT SOME GANGBANG MUSIC NEXT HUH?
WELL THE BANGERS DON'T WANT EM BACK.. TO FAKE FOR US..
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DAT NIGGA SNOOP EGO IS TRIPPIN.. I GUESS NOW HE COMING WIT SOME GANGBANG MUSIC NEXT HUH?
WELL THE BANGERS DON'T WANT EM BACK.. TO FAKE FOR US..
Niggas say Snoop is fake and all that but not alot of people has come out on him compared to other niggas
whatz the deal on that nigga? is it cuz they got love for him as a legend or what?
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contribute something to my xzibit thread ;-)
i'm afraid i can't; i'm on a much lower level than you remember? :idea:
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honestly Snoop needs to quit that 19,20,21 track shit he on and just "trim the fat" from his CD's and make a 11-16 track album.. then he'd make another classic cuz this was a great album minus a few tracks..
I agree completely with this statement. On the whole, I liked it better than his last two (maybe 3) albums. It just had a couple of tracks that I didn't really feel, ultimately hurting the album's ability to be taken seriously.
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contribute something to my xzibit thread ;-)
i'm afraid i can't; i'm on a much lower level than you remember? :idea:
thats pretty evident now
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DAT NIGGA SNOOP EGO IS TRIPPIN.. I GUESS NOW HE COMING WIT SOME GANGBANG MUSIC NEXT HUH?
WELL THE BANGERS DON'T WANT EM BACK.. TO FAKE FOR US..
Niggas say Snoop is fake and all that but not alot of people has come out on him compared to other niggas
whatz the deal on that nigga? is it cuz they got love for him as a legend or what?
FUCK A LEGEND.. ONLY YOU CAN BE A LEGEND IF YOU MADE A CHANGE IN HISTORY.. AND SNOOP AINT RE-WROTE NO HISTORY SO HE AINT NO LEGEND.. A LEGEND TO ME IS SOMEONE WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW..
I DONT KNOW THE DEAL ON SNOOP, CUZ I NEVER MET HIM BUT ONCE IN COMPTON BACK IN THE EARLIER 90'S AT THE HOMIE "TOP CAT'S" RECORD SHOP..HE PERFORMED THERE..
IF YOU WANNA LISTEN TO REAL GANGSTA RAP AND REAL CRIPPIN GO HEREWWW.MYSPACE.COM/FACTORHOUSERECORDS1 (http://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/FACTORHOUSERECORDS1)
WE IN DA INDUSTRY ,BUT STILL IN DA STREETS.....
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we already know what the majority of ppl on this site think of the album think and
the written threads are a larger base to judge from than some votes in here
Is it?
What about all the "official" reviews;?
http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=178487.msg1826362#msg1826362
HAHAHA nigga im 23,
probably better educated than you,know way more shit about hiphop than your sorry white ass,
Let me guess you have a Master's degree in Hip Hop?
You had;
KRS in History
Phase 2 in Art
and
Crazy Legs in Gym?
And then u try and insult my taste in music...
lmaooo.....
sorry clown but i got way more taste in music and a more mature and varied ear than
u just by your pathetic attempts at jumping on my dick for your bullshit comments on this snoop album....
You assume a lot don´t you? :P
And then your pathetic old ass still tryna get some votes now to make yourself feel better
so u get a vote system on that nobody really wants to go through since everyone already
made there thoughts clear on this album until you sorry ass keeps bumping it forward(lmao),
Everbody is wrong but you,right?
http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=181901.msg1885797#msg1885797
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I think ego trippin was weak it was a big step backwards from blue carpet treatment.snoop should put down the mic and put out artists more often.
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I think he left off songs like my medicine(i dont mind it but it dont fit in with the album), One chance, why did you leave me and even cant say good bye. i dont mind some of them songs but the just made the album drop off and loose it feel an go way too soft.
I didnt really like stax in my jeans either, why dose there alwatys have to be a down south track on every album?
I think SD is out and Gangsta like me, as well as hollywood nights would've been better single choices also. Maybe even waste of time if were a lil longer.
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i dont have blue carpet treatment anymore, but how did an album with dre, cube, DOC, terrace martin, kurupt, eiht, kam, rhythm d, etc come off so boring. if that group came together in 2002 after last meal he probaby would have topped doggystyle.
Different strokes. imo it comes real close to Doggystyle.. sometimes i think its better.
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ego trippin sukked donkey balls, coz he keeps making these pop albums, instead of gangsta records like he used to from 1993 to 2000.
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Fans of Ego Trippin will LOVE this track.
Snoop goes Heavy Metal :P :P :P :P.....
Welcome To Tha Chuuch Vol.8: Preach Tabarnacal (http://www.cdwow.ie/CD/SNOOP-DOGG-Welcome-To-Tha-Chuuch-Vol8-Preach-Tabarnacal/product/view/17559)
(http://images-cache.cd-wow.com/images/1/1112250439_big.jpg)
Snoop Dogg; Foolin´Yaself (http://www.mediafire.com/?wdtkmnz0zuz)
Related thread;
Ego Trippin gets hated on 2 much.... (http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=204084.msg2061506#msg2061506)
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to be real that fooling yaself track is horrible. Snoop should have spit on the beat, instead his umm...doing something else...
pz!
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I liked it a lot more than BCT, but hey, opinions.