No Limit Top Dogg

by

Snoop Dogg

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Few people really blame Snoop Dogg for escaping from Death Row in 1996. Many do blame him for coming up with what is considered his downfall into wackness even by real fans of his, "Da Game Is To Be Sold..." after signing to Master P's notorious No Limit label that had (/has) a reputation for dropping 10 mediocre albums a week.

Hence, the majority of rap fans who remembered his glorious Death Row days, "The Chronic" and of course "Doggystyle" hoped for Snoop to recover. And indeed, this album is clearly the better of his two No Limit releases. Accompanied by Sticky Fingaz, Snoop kicks off with "Buck Em", an extremly cool opener with two extremly cool voices and an extremly cool Dr. Dre beat. At almost 80 minutes the album is far from free from filler material, but there are several highlights, including comical songs like "Snoopafella" and "G Bedtime Stories" as well as raw gangsta tracks like "Just Dippin'" and the album's best cut "B Please", another Dre production. "Don't Tell" with Warren G, Nate Dogg and Mausberg (R.I.P.), hence basically a 213 song, is actually G-Funk and DJ Quik's beat and the MC's knowing very well how to use it make it another favorite of mine.

But in my opinion this album IS too long. Some songs seem quite uninspired and suggest that there is some truth to the No Limit image I mentioned above. I doubt you will not find yourself skipping several tracks from about the third listen on. Overall this is a good album that could have been alot better just by leaving some stuff out.