Man, the last few days have been fun for Gorillaz. The new chat bot to talk to Murdoc has been hilarious to play around with, seeing his many different well-written responses. His answer when people ask about Ace Gangreen would be very interesting to delve into, since the two of them apparently go way back (maybe this could be in the TV show?) Little fun things like that make the Gorillaz project feel more immersive for its listeners, especially with the Alexa add-on featuring his voice actor. The musical side of the project has had some nice discoveries too. The summer festival tour has begun, and with it has come several new tracks from The Now Now. Sorcererz, Tranz, Magic City and Souk Eye all got revealed, and I heard them from the livestream of the Rock am Ring show. However, I will not review these tracks until the studio versions release, but I'm very excited to talk about them soon. Speaking of the new album, I must have gotten real lucky here, with the subject of this post being one of three guests on The Now Now. As with last time, I'll be doing the 5W format, like with the Bashy.com review.
Who did this? Snoop Dogg
What did he do for Gorillaz? Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, a live rendition of Clint Eastwood, and the upcoming track Hollywood. Gorillaz also gave back to Snoop by appearing on Sumthing Like This Night on his album Doggumentary.
When did this come out? November 23, 1993
Where was this recorded? In Los Angeles and North Hollywood, recording at The Village Recorder, Complex Studios and Larrabee Studios North and West.
Why should you listen to this? Snoop Dogg, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Calvin, Snoop, Snoop Lion. Whatever you call Snoop Dogg, you have certainly seen him on TV or heard one of his hit singles on the radio at some point. When I just started getting into Gorillaz and music in general, he was one of the few names I had recognized beforehand. With this debut album, I can certainly tell why he became one of the most iconic figures in rap music, even extending way beyond rap. First off, Snoop Dogg makes some very entertaining verses here, spinning tales of sex, violence, weed and gangs, doing it in a way that can put a smile on people's faces with his iconic smooth deliveries The next reason is definitely the hooks. The hooks here are all great and feel specially engineered to get into your mind and make damn sure that they and the man behind them stays in the public mind. Gin & Juice, Serial Killa, Who am I, lots of these tracks have killer hooks attached to them. The beats and production are pretty great, these classic groovy beats headed up by Dr. Dre, coming off an album called The Chronic where Snoop had been a major guest on. This teamup definitely bounces off each together well on these tracks, Snoop's lyrics being well fit for Dre's style of G-funk beats. This is another album on the Circle of Friendz with a revolving door of guests, and all of them lay out some great deliveries here that are utilized well with Snoop. My personal favorite of the bunch here has gotta be Lady of Rage, she did awesome on For All My Niggaz and Bitches! All the tracks here are pretty good, although I'm still not quite sure if Pump Pump was the strongest way to end the album on. It's a decent track, but it isn't as memorable as the work that comes before it. Another problem is found not quite with the album itself, but later pressings of it. The track Gz Up, Hoes Down is taken off of later pressings and not available on streaming services because of clearence issues. It's a damn shame because it's one of my favorite tracks on the album. Even if it falls short time-wise, it certainly doesn't fall short musically, because the sampling is great and the track is just sooo smooth.
Snoop Dogg's debut outing is an absolute classic hip-hop album, filled with tracks that have defined rap for the decades to come. Dre and Snoop have a powerful relationship here that I can't hate. I give it an 8/10.
I know lately that I have been pretty heavy on the music posts lately. This is mainly because the Circle of Friendz project is one that will take me a while, as i still have 70 something albums to get through. However, there will be some anime posting down the line soon. Spring is ending and summer is starting, so it's definitely a good time to start planning some end of season thoughts about the spring anime season. This will still take a few weeks however, since nothing has finished just yet. Expect those and some other fun surprises on here soon!
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