Share: mail

Long Beach native, hip-hop artist and rapper Snoop Dogg released his 15th studio album on Thursday night, less than a year after dropping his previous album, Coolaid.

The 16-track album, titled “Neva Left,” totals just over an hour in length, and is a testament to the evolutions of hip-hop and Snoop himself as indicated by the album artwork — a picture of himself from his “Doggystyle” days.

Track 1: “Neva Left”

The album’s title track is a welcoming intro to the rest of the summer album. I can almost perfectly picture driving down the street in a convertible (with the top down, of course) with this song on full blast. The slow rhythmic nature of the track, paired with the cool cadence of his voice creates the perfect soundtrack for a summer drive. The first two spoken lines of the song, “Dogg, what up mane? Word on the streets is you ain’t what you used to be,” indicates that fans are about to hear about the evolution of the Doggfather himself.

Track 2: “Moment I Feared” feat. RickRock

First of all, the transition from the first track of this album to the second was so seamless I thought I was still listening to the first song. The song has a more intense beat than the first (one that is very hard not to move with) and evokes more of a party-like vibe.

Track 3: “Bacc in Da Dayz” feat. Big Tray Deee

This song keeps up with the vibe created in “Moment I Feared.” The lyric, “the party don’t rock like it used to rock,” resonates throughout the track, as Dogg recalls what life used to be like, perhaps in his “Doggystyle” days, as his album artwork indicates. Regardless, he’s clearly showing us how things should be done (or, rather, how they were once done and how we should do them again).

Track 4: “Promise You This”

If anything stuck out about this track, it’s that Snoop Dogg doesn’t make promises. He reiterates this in the chorus with the lyrics, “one thing I never do is promise motherfuckers shit but I’ma promise you this / With your hand up you need to man up, lil’ bitch / I’ma promise you this.” He makes it clear that he doesn’t owe anybody anything and his music video shows just as much.

Track 5: “Trash Bags” feat. K. CAMP

This one was a little weird, mainly because the phrase “trash bags full of cash” was repeated more times than I could count and only left me wishing I had a few.

Track 6: “Swivel” feat. Stressmatic

This track is repetitive like the previous one, but has a catchier beat to it. The hook is filled with football lingo and he even calls out the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady with the lyrics, “hand full of rings, I’m shady like Brady.”

Track 7: “Go On” feat. October London

This is another ode to warmer days, as Snoop raps about typical summertime activities. The lyrics, “this that time of year / for everybody to be boisterous / rock with Snoop Dogg and rejoice to this” indicates that this song was meant to be a summer anthem for letting go and living carefree, much like his earlier hit “Young, Wild and Free.”

Track 8: “Big Mouth”

A message to all the haters out there, Snoop criticizes all the “big mouth motherfucker hatin,” all of the “people displeased with what you do” and all the people who try to tell anybody else what to do. It’s one of the catchiest (and most relatable) songs on the record and definitely a song worth blasting in the car at full volume.

Track 9: “Toss It” feat. Too $hort & Nef the Pharaoh

Disclaimer: if you’re not a fan of overly-explicit songs, this might not be one you’d want to listen to. However, it’s not as explicit as “Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None)” from Snoop’s debut album. It’s catchy, that’s for sure, but there’s not much else notable to it. Definitely not one of the album’s best.

Track 10: “420 (Blaze Up)” feat. Devin the Dude, Wiz Khalifa & DJ Battlecat

The first of two odes to weed, this track is slow-paced and feels like a love song to Snoop’s favorite kind of green with the lyrics, “if I had my way, at 4:20 every day, you could blaze a J and not have to answer to nobody” and the catchy chorus “so go ahead and blaze up.” I found myself singing along.

Track 11: “Lavender (Nightfall Remix)” feat. BADBADNOTGOOD & Kaytranada

Everything gets a big more serious with this track, as Snoop discusses the recent police brutality towards blacks with the lyrics, “night time, nigga tryna creep / and keep from dyin’ in these motherfuckin’ streets / Fuck the police, from a black man’s point of view / resident evil, it’s all on camera and they still don’t believe you.” The music video takes an even more political approach, as the video is set in a society of clowns, led by none other than a man named “Ronald Klump.”

Track 12: “Let Us Begin” feat. KRS-One

This is another political song, having to do with police violence in the streets. A good follow-up to the previous song, as Snoop says, “most of my homeboys are dead or in the pen,” alluding to the over-criminalization and incarceration of blacks in America’s so-called justice system.

Track 13: “Mount Kushmore” feat. Redman, Method Man & B-Real

This song is the second ode to weed, with lyrics like “so let it rain like the leaves of a cannabis plant” and the hook a repetitive “we high, we high, we high, we high.” It’s less catchy than “420 (Blaze Up),” but I still found myself repeating the hook in my head for a lot longer than I anticipated.

Track 14: “Vapors (DJ Battlecat Remix)” feat. Charlie Wilson & Teena Marie

Not gonna lie, the intro to this song is a little off-putting. There’s a good minute of a guy yelling “don’t disrespect me,” and for a second I wasn’t sure if an internet ad was playing from another browser. After that, however, the song picked up and was impressively catchy.

Track 15: “I’m Still Here”

Another reiteration of the fact that “Snoop Dogg neva left,” Snoop calls out everyone who “didn’t think [he] would last.” This is where he makes everything more personal, as this song focuses on his self-evolution and various elements of his life. The song ends with a lion’s roar, potentially a reference to the period of time where he changed his name to “Snoop Lion” as a tribute to Rastafarianism.

Track 16: “Love Around the World” feat. Big Bub

This is a more peaceful ending to the album than I was expecting. The lyrics, “from the streets to the suites, everywhere I go, everywhere I been, love, love” indicate that Snoop has been shown “mad love around the world.” A catchy song and one that I could definitely see blasting during a summer drive.

Snoop’s latest studio album definitely reminds fans that he’s still around, he “Neva Left,” and isn’t planning on going anywhere. Definitely not a ho-hum summer album, this record is instead the perfect soundtrack for the dog days, brought to you by Snoop Doggy Dogg himself.

Favorite Tracks: “Promise You This,” “Go On,” “Big Mouth”

ALBUM: 4.5/5

Follow: rssyoutubeinstagrammail

One Reply to “Snoop Dogg’s back, or rather, he ‘Neva Left’”

  1. Pingback: Homepage

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.