84. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle (Death Row, Interscope, 1993)
Note - The Apple list is not only quite hip-hop centred, it is particularly fixated with a certain era of it. As such there's a bigger story that we're going to be coming back to a lot of times, in achronological order. We've already had Snoop on the Robyn record, and a bit of talk of one-time East Coast adversary Sean Combs on the Mary J. Blige record, but now it's time to put an MC at the centre of it. This larger story, encompassing over a decade of 90s hip-hop is convoluted, pieced together from hearsay, living on multiple planes of reality. It's not a story that can be told as such, by me anyway, only referenced. But:
Snoop Dogg is presently the most famous living black rapper, which puts him in the top three for the most famous in history (2pac, god rest him, and Eminem, god rest him, are the only others in contention here). Snoop has probably had the biggest impact on the English language of any rapper, assisting in popularising words and phrases, some going back to the 1970s, like “fo'shizzle”, “G's”, “biatch”, “shiznit”, “poppin’”, “drop it like it's hot”, “what's crack'a'lackin'?”, “all hood”, “hella” and “balling” through his music and celebrity. I am confident that no review on this list is going to cause me to open more tabs or watch more shorts.
Snoop got his start in entertainment as a precocious dancer, in his mom's living room. He would be wheeled out at parties to amuse guests, shaking his little bum to “Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” by Joe Tex. School choir and plays followed and an addiction to the limelight started to creep in. Fortunately in 2025, Snoop has never not been famous, because it would be pretty sad to see what life without adulation would do to him. Snoop was a Rollin 20s Neighbourhood Crip. In practice this meant he engaged in some low level cocaine and crack movement circa 1989-90 and took a couple stints in the pokey for it. People always wonder about the criminal histories of the OG's, so let's get it out of the way: after the drugs, he had a 1993 “traffic stop” violation where he had a handgun in his car. He got 800 hours of community service and had to record three public service announcements where he told kids to say no to drugs, possibly for the last time. Also in 1993, he was indicted for murder, when a bodyguard of his shot dead 20 year old Philip Woldemariam. We will come back to that one. In 2006, Ronan Keating witnessed Snoop Dogg's entourage throwing cops “like pillows” in a dispute concerning access to the luxury departure lounge of Heathrow. That's it for prosecutions, everything else is weed arrests and cops getting autographs. However, in 2003, Snoop managed to fulfil a bucket list sexual fantasy of becoming the pimp that he has always wanted to be, sex trafficking and prostituting a number of Playboy bunnies and others to pro-athletes. That shit's legal in America if you're rich. He gave it up soon after, as it was somehow affecting his marriage.
Snoop started rapping early and when he began putting it on tape in '89 he had kind of a thing for De La Soul (there is a supposed demo of him rapping on Parliament's “Knee Deep”, the basis for De La's “Me Myself and I” circa 1991, but it's a fake of the .mp3 age). His intonation quickly went from the deliberate monotony of De La Soul to a highly inflected voice, liberal with the tempo, seductive and pimpish. Snoop was an early example of a means of marketing hip-hop up-and-comers. Basically a rapper or outfit take the energy that they have generated and bestow it on a promising young thing before they debut. Dr Dre managed to use his own heat and the heat of N.W.A to launch the career of Snoop Doggy Dogg. Later in the decade he would work the same magic for Eminem. In the early 2000s he made 50 Cent a household name too. I think that in all three cases, what was special about them was already present, but good ears, Doctor. Snoop appeared on Dr Dre's The Chronic and appeared on screen for the promotional videos, raising all kinds of eyebrows. Eazy-E, then salty at Dre over NWA's dissolution called Snoop “anorexic”, a “pup” and “sixty pounds when you're wet and wearin' boots”, but he was his only true hater on the mic at the time. In retaliation, there is a character called DJ EZ-Dicc on Doggystyle (presenting the Jack-Off Hour on WBALLS).
Doggystyle is a big money debut. Snoop felt unready, but was pushed into it by Dre. While Snoop does excellent work himself, the album is more a supportive launch party for him, featuring groups 213 (Nate Dogg, returned from army service in Okinawa, and Warren G, whose second album Take a Look Over Your Shoulder it turns out did way more damage in the UK than the US) and Tha Dogg Pound (Daz Dillinger, Kurupt) as well as lots of other supporting talent (his cousin Joe Cool, get it?, did the artwork) and hooks borrowed from the likes of Richard "Dimples" Fields, Slave and above all George Clinton and Parliament. It was also loaded with skits to make up for its short length (sample clearance was getting to be more of a nuisance at this point so a few cuts didn't make it), which Dr Dre allegedly added across a 48-hr cram session (leaving untouched lobster and Hennessey on the table) to avoid missing a pressing plant deadline. The skits are decent though; skits can be very musical when done right.
Snoop was distracted. He was having to learn how to craft a rap song, having previously been content to just vibe it out for half an hour on a loop. He was also busy balancing his newfound success with his murder troubles. The murder happened after he had finished just a few tracks. He surrendered to police, but he had enough clout and cash at the time that he could perform “Murder Was The Case” at the MTV Video Music awards first, proclaiming his innocence to an international audience. The Chronic was already triple platinum, and he and Dre had made a few magazine covers at this time which stuck a rocket under his income (in his own words: “The Source Magazine, every n**ga in the world knew me, but when the Rolling Stones came up? Well all Whitey then!”). He cleared the charges, but the matter continued into a 1996 settlement.
Let's talk videos. There are Amiga morph effects in his first ever video and that shit was expensive back in the day, almost another form of flaunting wealth (Michael Jackson's “Scream” which features insanely rushed morph effects counts as one of the most expensive promos of all time). “Who Am I (What's My Name)” is Snoop as a guy trying to get out of a girl's bedroom (Animorphs-style) before father finds out, “Gin and Juice” (Super Socco orange/grape juice with Tanqueray/Seagram's gin if you want to make that) is another teenage classic trope as his parents leave town, leaving space for a wild party and “Doggy Dogg World” is a dress up party, a celebration of blaxploitation (ft. Huggy Bear himself, Antonio Fargas, along with Rudi Ray Moore as Dolemite and Pam Grier as Foxy Brown). In all of them, Snoop projects a perfectly contradictory image. He is dangerous, will cause you trouble and hurt you or worse if you defy him. He is also a man of the people, surrounded by locals living their best life and a PG goofball, telling similar stories on camera to Will Smith, Bart Simpson or Kid 'n' Play. He is simultaneously the best and worst thing that mothers, his own included, can imagine him being. The fashion is interesting: women in his videos are not yet scantily clad. Snoop is pretty conservative too in his checked shirt. It would be Tupac who taught Snoop the joys of expanding his slender frame with the widest fits imaginable, leading him to plead his innocence in a gangland murder trial on camera while wearing a zoot suit that shrieked cartoonish gangsterdom. Snoop is also the condom dispenser of the G-funk world, making sure all his homies have rubbers.
Did It Make Much Of A Splash?
Doggystyle was the party that left Dogg a party fiend for life. He never could recreate the moment just-so, but for the rest of his life he will be good time music on legs, every bit as recognisable as Ray Charles, Sammy Davis Jr. or Barry White.
Gangsta rap and news reports about gangsta rap were the two main genres of the Clinton era. In the 2000s, while Snoop tried to broaden his schtick with the help of Pharrell and others, Saints Row and 'pimps and hoes' parties were popping off globally. Even now, Snoop is the perfect rap product for the meme, attention and TikTok economies. In recent years he can still shock, by doing unexpected whiteface (as Larry David no less), by converting from Rastafarianism into being a Born-Again Christian (he may need that when the Diddy stuff comes out), by wearing a t-shirt that says “OJ innocent” (it was of course Johnnie Cochran who got Snoop out of his own murder rap, less than a year after the OJ trial), or by composing an inordinately sensual song for Prince Williams’ bachelor party (titled “Wet”). He's a Redditor, a streamer, a kids sports mentor, a good neighbour to Martha and he inspired “A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup” from Sonic Adventure 2.
Where To Go From Here?
Snoop is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Doggystyle by reprising it with Dr Dre (and Sting?). The album will be called Missionary. It's not out at the time of writing, so enjoy this little anthology in the meantime:
1. “(Demo Tape) (as 213)” (unreleased)
2. “Fallin' Asleep on Death Row” (feat. Lil' Malik) - Death Row: The Lost Sessions (2009)
3. “21 Jumpstreet (feat. Big Tray Deee)” - Murder Was The Case (1994)
4. “Gold Rush (feat. Kurupt, LBC Crew)” - The Doggfather (1996)
5. “Whatcha Gon Do? (feat. Master P)” - Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told (1998)
6. “Doin' Too Much (feat. Tray Deee)” - No Limit Top Dogg (1999)
7. “Set It Off (feat. Ice Cube, MC Ren, The Lady Of Rage)” - Tha Last Meal (2000)
8. “Lollipop (feat. Jay Z, Nate Dogg, Soopafly)” - Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Bo$$ (2002)
9. “Psst! (feat. Jamie Foxx)” - Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (2006)
10. “Fuckin' Is Good For You (feat. JT Tha Bigga Figga, Kurupt, Soopafly)” - The Big Squeeze (2007)
11. “Deez Hollywood Nights” - Ego Trippin' (2008)
12. “Superman (feat. Willie Nelson)” - Doggumentary (2011)
13. “6:30 (feat. Wiz Khalifa)” - Mac And Devin Go To High School (OST) (2011)
14. “Run Away (feat. Gwen Stefani)” - BUSH (2015)
15. “Super Crip” - Coolaid (2016)
16. “Lavender (Nightfall Remix) (feat. Badbadnotgood & KAYTRANADA)” - Neva Left (2017)
17. “I Don't Care (feat. LunchMoney Lewis)” - 220 (2018)
18. “Voices of Praise” - Bible of Love (2018)
19. “Roaches in My Ashtray (feat. ProHoeZak)” - From tha Streets 2 tha Suites (2021)
20. “Crip Ya Enthusiasm” - BODR (2022)
EDIT - Ok, I've heard Missionary. Rubber on the cover is nice.
Less nice is the album. Ghost writing forces Snoops vocals into a lot of uncomfortable contortions. There is a lack of pimp energy in general, of smoothness and romancing. Plenty of sentimental callbacks, but he's been doing that for 25 years. It's a conference of artists who don't have much to prove, much to say, or are no longer alive. Dre's oppressive production and the density of uninspiring features make it an exhausting 44 minutes.
If you are curious about the “gentleman of leisure” style that Snoop has adopted, watch the 60 Minutes piece Pimps (1973). It is insightful and highly quotable.
Also, if you like hardcore pornography, Doggystyle is one of the only albums on the Apple 100 list to be adapted into a hardcore porn film, Doggystyle (2001). I don't know of any others, but I am leaving open the possibility that there is at the very least a suggestive film with a Dark Side of the Moon reference in the title.
The 1994 short film Murder Was The Case is also of relevance. Directed by Dr Dre, it is way rougher around the edges than Snoops music videos to date, which were handled slickly by Fab Five Freddy (yep, that one) and Ricky Harris (actor, voice of DJ EZ Dicc). It has a lot of blaxploitation cheapness and makes for a pretty entertaining start to the genre of hip hop videos that are way too long.
First-class jam or not, “Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)” is surely one of the most misogynist songs ever written. If that bums you out, you can enjoy the gender-flipped version, “Heartbreaker” by Mariah Carey featuring Da Brat and Missy Elliott.