Tha Doggfather 1996 Album

Snoop Dogg

This really slipped under the radar and no wonder, considering the crazy environment it came out in. It's also terribly long - over 74 minutes! Listening to it feels like hearing 6 albums in one! Sure, it didn't need to be that goddamn long. But there are quite a few tracks here which are catchy (especially the DJ Pooh cuts) and overall, it feels like you're listening to one endless mix of Snoop rapping over different beats in different ways. In a sense, more fun than the flimsy concept of the debut record. Give it a chance if you see it cheap somewhere.

I'm not someone who finds Doggystyle to be an absolutely amazing record to be ranked with the absolute upper echelon hip hop albums, but this is still a huge step down. Soopafly and Daz, who I enjoy more often than not handle a handful of tracks, and DJ Pooh, who has created some hip hop classics like 'It Was a Good Day' handles half a dozen, but I can't find anything great on the boards here. And the production difference is as big as you are going to get from a debut to a second album in terms of quality and originality. And while I like Snoop, I think he is a rapper, due to his lazy type of flow at times, who needs a dope beat, or at least something as close as possible to one. In saying all this, there are still some good songs here, but overall it's fairly forgettable, and I don't know if many will have me going back to them. Best Tracks: Doggfather, Snoop's Upside Ya Head, 2001, Vapors