Snoop Dogg - COOLAID (2016) [Album Discussion]

[Sccit]

His albums lately have no direction.  He tries to please everyone.  He makes a couple tracks that sound old school, a few that are pop, a few that are trap music, a few experimental, few club tracks, few south.  Before you know it, it's a whole album that nobody likes from start to finish.

That was the good thing about the Snoop Lion project

That's also why 7 Dayz of funk was his best project in a decade

The rapping wasnt as good on 7 days of funk.  His flow and lyrics are better on Coolaid IMO

Rapping was fine on 7 Dayz .. And more importantly, the album sounded like an album, not a compilation of random tracks .. Plus, the production was excellent. Haven't peeped Coolaid yet but I'm willing to bet off a hunch that it's not as good

ten toes down
super crip
two or more
what if
coolaid man
revolution

better than anything on 7 days IMO

what are you waiting for anyway?  go listen to it LOL

7 Days was a cool album but most definitely put together real quick and just thrown out there as an experiment, there's nothing extraordinary about it sonically... this album is a more focused effort despite it being a few tracks too long and even though it isn't Snoop's best it's far from his worst

great summertime music if you ask me 

7 Dayz wasn't sonically as impressive as let's say Bush .. But it still sounded like a far more organic album, and based on the reviews on Coolaid, I'm willing to bet it's overall a better album than this 1

the "sound" itself might appeal more but as a body of work it's not really comparable

look at the reviews of Compton though too lol

Duno what u mean fam

[So Much Style]

really been enjoying this but only bc of about 3 classic songs. 10 toes, super crip, and cool aid. whoever said snoop tries to appeal and please too many groups on his albums is spot on. If we took the consensus 4 best songs from his last 4 albums (not bush or 7 days, those are dope as hell but I look at them like side projects), it would be a classic album

[Blood$]

His albums lately have no direction.  He tries to please everyone.  He makes a couple tracks that sound old school, a few that are pop, a few that are trap music, a few experimental, few club tracks, few south.  Before you know it, it's a whole album that nobody likes from start to finish.

That was the good thing about the Snoop Lion project

That's also why 7 Dayz of funk was his best project in a decade

The rapping wasnt as good on 7 days of funk.  His flow and lyrics are better on Coolaid IMO

Rapping was fine on 7 Dayz .. And more importantly, the album sounded like an album, not a compilation of random tracks .. Plus, the production was excellent. Haven't peeped Coolaid yet but I'm willing to bet off a hunch that it's not as good

ten toes down
super crip
two or more
what if
coolaid man
revolution

better than anything on 7 days IMO

what are you waiting for anyway?  go listen to it LOL

7 Days was a cool album but most definitely put together real quick and just thrown out there as an experiment, there's nothing extraordinary about it sonically... this album is a more focused effort despite it being a few tracks too long and even though it isn't Snoop's best it's far from his worst

great summertime music if you ask me 

7 Dayz wasn't sonically as impressive as let's say Bush .. But it still sounded like a far more organic album, and based on the reviews on Coolaid, I'm willing to bet it's overall a better album than this 1

the "sound" itself might appeal more but as a body of work it's not really comparable

look at the reviews of Compton though too lol

Duno what u mean fam

you're basing what you think this album is gonna be like based off reviews here, but the Compton album got shitted on too yet you still fucked with that joint, no?

[geezy]

Still bumping these tracks nonstop -

Ten Toes Down
Don't stop
Super Crip
Coolaid Man
Let me see em up
Two or More
Side Piece
Affiliated
Got Those
what if

[Sccit]

His albums lately have no direction.  He tries to please everyone.  He makes a couple tracks that sound old school, a few that are pop, a few that are trap music, a few experimental, few club tracks, few south.  Before you know it, it's a whole album that nobody likes from start to finish.

That was the good thing about the Snoop Lion project

That's also why 7 Dayz of funk was his best project in a decade

The rapping wasnt as good on 7 days of funk.  His flow and lyrics are better on Coolaid IMO

Rapping was fine on 7 Dayz .. And more importantly, the album sounded like an album, not a compilation of random tracks .. Plus, the production was excellent. Haven't peeped Coolaid yet but I'm willing to bet off a hunch that it's not as good

ten toes down
super crip
two or more
what if
coolaid man
revolution

better than anything on 7 days IMO

what are you waiting for anyway?  go listen to it LOL

7 Days was a cool album but most definitely put together real quick and just thrown out there as an experiment, there's nothing extraordinary about it sonically... this album is a more focused effort despite it being a few tracks too long and even though it isn't Snoop's best it's far from his worst

great summertime music if you ask me  

7 Dayz wasn't sonically as impressive as let's say Bush .. But it still sounded like a far more organic album, and based on the reviews on Coolaid, I'm willing to bet it's overall a better album than this 1

the "sound" itself might appeal more but as a body of work it's not really comparable

look at the reviews of Compton though too lol

Duno what u mean fam

you're basing what you think this album is gonna be like based off reviews here, but the Compton album got shitted on too yet you still fucked with that joint, no?

Yea but knowing snoop, I have a good idea what this album is all about .. I've heard enough joints to see that he has no direction, where as people hated on Compton because it wasn't some 90s gangsta shit. Either way, I'm sure there are enough dope joints on this one to redeem the bad ones, but u know what I mean

[DRGNBLZN]

Cool album. Sort of an updated 'Tha Last Meal' type vibe.

[woof]

Snoop Dogg's "Coolaid" To Sell Less Than 10k In Debut Week

Snoop Dogg has dominated the rap game for more than two decades. He has earned numerous platinum plaques for his albums and his debut LP, Doggystyle, is certified four times platinum with more than four million copies sold.

Well, it seems that fans were a little less than excited for his latest output, Coolaid. Hits Daily Double projects that the album will sell between seven and nine thousand units its first week. This is without including streams, which would raise the overall number of album equivalent units, but still a far cry from Snoop Dogg's prime. Last year's Bush debuted at #14 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart with 27,000 copies sold.


Sales

*Blink-182 (BMG) 130-135k
*Maxwell (Columbia) 55-60k
Drake (YMCMB/Republic) 37-41k
Beyoncé (Columbia) 26-30k
Blake Shelton (Warner Bros. Nashville) 22-26k
Hamilton (Uptown) 18-21k
Chris Stapleton (Mercury Nashville) 15-19k
Adele (XL/Columbia) 15-19k
Twenty One Pilots (Fueled by Ramen) 13-16k
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Warner Bros.) 13-16k
Meghan Trainor (Epic) 9-12k
Prince (Warner Bros.) 8-10k
Now Country 9 (NOW) 7-9k
Maren Morris (Columbia Nashville) 7-9k
*Snoop Dogg (eOne) 7-9k

*DEBUTS

[Sccit]

Not surprised, wasn't promoted that well

[doggfather]

Not surprised, wasn't promoted that well

at all...

[PLANT]

Snoop has been way too inconsistent since the last meal days to have anyone but a small core fan base checking for his new shit anymore

[Sccit]

Meanwhile, blink-182 sells 135k opening week .. I didn't know that band still existed even, thought they were a 1 hit wonder. And they sold almost 20 times better than snoop?


 

[PLANT]

Pretty sad when Snoop just dropped a new album and his highest charting song is #23 on the rap charts from iTunes.  Its a new era in hiphop and he need to focus on pleasing his real fan base instead of dropping singles like "Point Seen Money Gone"

[Detox Is A Myth!!!]

Not surprised by the paltry album sales.  It's just not that good.  Bush was better than this, and had a much more cohesive sound.  Here, Snoop went bacc to making a hodgepodge album full of different stylez to satisfy fans who purchase individual songs they like on iTunes rather than the whole album.  To that end, just about every song has clear flaws.  For example, Ten Toes Down has the best beat for us Westcoast fans, but Snoop adopts Juvenile's "Ha" rhyme scheme so it sounds unoriginal, and the hook isn't that good (doesn't fit the bars).  Meanwhile, Too Short sounds extraneous on Don't Stop, and Trick Trick's inclusion on Affiliated almost ruins the song.

But perhaps those are subtle complaints.  Much more in your face flaws-wise is all the Swizz traccs, which are plain awful and should have never left the lab.  Drop them and replace them with Dre traccs, or even Pharrell.  Snoop always did this in the past -- I assume Snoop's budgets are just declining because there's a lot here that seems middle-grade musically.  In contrast, Snoop used to have albums that sounded hugely expensive (e.g. Blue Carpet).  It's sad, but Snoop is starting to sound truly irrelevant to the game now.  It took a LONG time, and he is a legend to have lasted as long as he did, but father time has finally caught up with him.  I agree with y'all that he needs to get bacc with his core bandmates and just make a whole album for his real long-time fans, but I'm sure he doesn't view himself as a washed up rapper who needs to resort to that approach, so until that happens, this is what we have to live with.

I will say, though, that I love My Carz -- really atmospheric beat with all those synths.  How is J Dilla still making beats when dude died 10 years ago?  Are rappers still hanging onto unused beats of his?  I guess so.

Here's what I would have made the tracc list.  It includes traccs I'm not in love with but could live with, and it's still long enough to constitute real full LP length:

1. "Legend"   
2. "Ten Toes Down"   
3. "Don't Stop" (featuring Too $hort)
4. "Super Crip"   
5. "Coolaid Man"   
6. "Oh Na Na" (featuring Wiz Khalifa)
7. "My Carz"   
8. "Two or More"   
9. "Affiliated" (featuring Trick Trick)
10. "Feel About Snoop"   
11. "Double Tap" (featuring E-40 and Jazze Pha)
12. "Got Those"   
13. "What If" (featuring Suga Free)
14. "Revolution" (featuring October London)

[WestSideDon]

Not surprised by the paltry album sales.  It's just not that good.  Bush was better than this, and had a much more cohesive sound.  Here, Snoop went bacc to making a hodgepodge album full of different stylez to satisfy fans who purchase individual songs they like on iTunes rather than the whole album.  To that end, just about every song has clear flaws.  For example, Ten Toes Down has the best beat for us Westcoast fans, but Snoop adopts Juvenile's "Ha" rhyme scheme so it sounds unoriginal, and the hook isn't that good (doesn't fit the bars).  Meanwhile, Too Short sounds extraneous on Don't Stop, and Trick Trick's inclusion on Affiliated almost ruins the song.

But perhaps those are subtle complaints.  Much more in your face flaws-wise is all the Swizz traccs, which are plain awful and should have never left the lab.  Drop them and replace them with Dre traccs, or even Pharrell.  Snoop always did this in the past -- I assume Snoop's budgets are just declining because there's a lot here that seems middle-grade musically.  In contrast, Snoop used to have albums that sounded hugely expensive (e.g. Blue Carpet).  It's sad, but Snoop is starting to sound truly irrelevant to the game now.  It took a LONG time, and he is a legend to have lasted as long as he did, but father time has finally caught up with him.  I agree with y'all that he needs to get bacc with his core bandmates and just make a whole album for his real long-time fans, but I'm sure he doesn't view himself as a washed up rapper who needs to resort to that approach, so until that happens, this is what we have to live with.

I will say, though, that I love My Carz -- really atmospheric beat with all those synths.  How is J Dilla still making beats when dude died 10 years ago?  Are rappers still hanging onto unused beats of his?  I guess so.

Here's what I would have made the tracc list.  It includes traccs I'm not in love with but could live with, and it's still long enough to constitute real full LP length:

1. "Legend"   
2. "Ten Toes Down"   
3. "Don't Stop" (featuring Too $hort)
4. "Super Crip"   
5. "Coolaid Man"   
6. "Oh Na Na" (featuring Wiz Khalifa)
7. "My Carz"   
8. "Two or More"   
9. "Affiliated" (featuring Trick Trick)
10. "Feel About Snoop"   
11. "Double Tap" (featuring E-40 and Jazze Pha)
12. "Got Those"   
13. "What If" (featuring Suga Free)
14. "Revolution" (featuring October London)

Only thing I truly agree with in terms of big flaws on the dope songs is the trick trick verse. It doesn't sound horribly bad but Snoop shouldve done another verse or let someone else like Kurupt or Daz spit another verse. Dont know whats wrong with Too Short on "Dont Stop" or the Snoop on "Ten Toes Down", didnt have a problem with the verses or the hook actually sounds dope.  Only thing I'd complain about is that some songs couldve used a third verse/longer parts like Supercrip, Coolaid Man, Feel About Snoop for example but the verses that are on it are dope so thats not a flaw that ruins the songs for me or anything
3 of the 4 swizz beatz songs are horrible though, youre right about that. "Let Me See Em Up" is cool tho.
If I had to make a compact tracklist out of this album It looked like this:

1.Ten Toes Down
2.Dont Stop
3.Supercrip
4.Coolaid Man
5.Let Me See Em Up
6.Oh Na Na
7.My Carz
8.Two Or More
9.Affiliated
10.Feel About Snoop
11.Double Tap
12.Got Those
13.What If
14.Revolution

would be the same length as your tracklist and you could bang this shit all the way thru.

[Marco]

XXL Review:

Any way you slice it, Snoop Dogg is one of hip-hop’s ultimate veterans. He is a true pioneer of contemporary rap music and has without a doubt birthed the style, flow and careers of countless MCs who have come after him. His legacy in the game can never be defamed but the second half of his career’s narrative is far from flawless. A couple flopped albums and two separate, unusual self-reinventions (Snoop Lion and Snoopzilla) have ultimately tainted his history of rap royalty. The Snoop that gave us timeless G-Funk put down the gin and juice and picked up a beanie, which was hardly well received. But now, after the reggae rebrand and the brief funk undertaking, the Doggfather is back with Coolaid, his most hip-hop album in years.
Based on the classic cartoon cover art alone, Snoop is bringing it back to the basics. The illustration, reminiscent of his 1993 debut LP cover for Doggystyle, features Snoop mixing up a concoction of equal parts “swag,” “lingo,” “hair,” “style” and, of course, “G.” Although Coolaid is Snoop’s 14th studio album, it truly feels and sounds like a follow up to 2004’s Rhythm & Gangsta: The Masterpiece.
Instead of bouncing all over the map with production that hits as often as it misses, Coolaid employs the kinetic genius of Swizz Beatz to handle a healthy chunk of production — just as R&G used The Neptunes’ innovative sonics to curate the album. High-profile producers like Just Blaze, Timbaland, J Dilla and Jazze Pha all lend beats to a couple cuts on the album but its Swizz’s sounds that stand out most.
“Let Me See Em Up” is perhaps the most raw, unfiltered track with lots of motivational ad-libs from Swizz and slick Snoop lines about “sittin’ on my throne” and “livin’ the boss life”; all of which makes for a very supercilious four minutes. He also declares his well-deserved OG status on the Cardo-produced “Affiliated,” stating that he “don’t hang in my hood but I bang in my hood, I’m affiliated.” It’s an honest line that’s refreshing to hear seeing as Snoop now spends most of his days coaching football in Beverly Hills instead of hanging in the hood.
What Snoop gets right on Coolaid is his ability to adapt to today’s modern sound without losing sight of his strengths. The Jeremih-assisted “Point Seen Money Gone” has all the makings of a modern day hit (a moody and melodic chorus, rolling trap drums, hoppy claps) but instead of copping out and hitting it with the laziest Auto-Tune-laced verses, Snoop keeps it incredibly real with his signature West Coast twang. Lines like “Mula, fetty, you not ready/I’mma get the cheese but the bread was spaghetti/Letti said he can play with them broads/Opportunistic I stay on them hoes” glide across Bongo’s lush beat just as slick as he did back in 1993.
“Feel About Snoop,” produced by Rockwilder, is the most creative and age appropriate track on the album. The track is a playful self-reflection on his career and the way people feel about him. Of course it’s cool to hear Snoop rap about smoking weed, pimping hoes and pouring up but we’ve all heard that a million times before. He has become such a G-Funk master that those gangster lyrics ooze out of him so naturally it must be hard to totally switch it up. But when he raps lines like “And there ain’t no doubt about it/Regarded as the freshest, by the way that I live/All the songs that I did, and givin’ back to the kids/ I mean I done been everywhere that you wanna go” it feels way more refined and timely.
Snoop is creeping up on 45 years old with a 23-year career under his belt and one hell of a story to tell. Coolaid would have gained top marks if he put some of the old school gangsta filler on ice and let us know what it’s like to be one of rap’s most accomplished veterans.
Given Snoop’s varied catalog, Coolaid actually stacks up fairly well against his 13 other releases. We get a strong dose of the old school Snoop we love and know while getting a little taste of the more distinguished Doggfather who we hope will eventually provide tracks filled with more wisdom and less weed. Don’t count on the latter though.

Read More: Snoop Dogg Takes It Back to the Basics on 'Coolaid' - XXL | http://www.xxlmag.com/rap-music/reviews/2016/07/snoop-dogg-coolaid-review/?trackback=tsmclip