[Review] Snoop Dogg - Malice N Wonderland

Artist: Snoop Dogg

Album: Malice N Wonderland
Release Date: 8th December 2009
Guests: Lil' Jon, Jazmine Sullivan, The-Dream, Soulja Boy, Kokane, R. Kelly, Brandy & Pharrell.

Producers: Scoop DeVille, Terrace Martin, Lil' Jon, Teddy Riley, PMG, The-Dream, B-Don, Super Ced, Danja, Timbaland, Jason Martin, Battlecat, Nottz, Tricky Stewart & The Neptunes.

Snoop is a rapper who has been around the block a few times, in fact, it almost seems that Snoop Dogg has been around since the start of time. A household name that even your granny will have heard of, even if she does not know any of his songs. To be precise, this is album number 10 for the man who once was part of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, a man who can sit and reminise about the days of N.W.A., and maybe even tell you stories about times he used to chill with the late 2Pac.

So 16 years after the first album dropped in 1993, is Snoop still the rapper that he was? A money hungry gangster from Long Beach California may have dropped the 'Doggy' from his name many years ago, but he will always be listed as a legend, alongside the Jay-Zs, Nas's and the Biggie and Pacs, Snoop has become more than just a rap star, he has endorsed many products, acted in Hollywood and reeked chaos in London's Heathrow airport.

So album number 10 follows 'Ego Trippin', which received positive reviews with the internet bloggers, although I was left unconvinced. I could not connect with the style that he rapped, and I was wondering whether this album would follow track. However, despite a pointless intro, the album does leap into action straight away. 'I Wanna Rock' may have leaked a couple of months back, but it has a high adrenaline beat and is one of the album's best songs despite a dry hook. There is also '1800' with the crunk hitmaker Lil' Jon that I can imagine being pumped out of the speakers of bouncing Impalas.

I then began to realise that the problem with 'Ego Trippin' was that Snoop was trying to get back to his old-skool west coast roots rather than continue his mainstream attack on European and international listeners.

'Upside Down' is by far my favourite beat on the album, produced by Jason and Terrace Martin, it would be a song I would also go in with at any party that was starting to go flat and needed a little mouth to mouth. I was also suprised by the 'Pronto' track featuring Soulja Boy. I was expecting some 'snap' beat with Soulja Boy repeating something over and over, but instead is instantly catchy, and I would be suprised if this was not the next single. Although Snoop used autotune on his last album for the lead single, 'Sexual Eruption', it is a brave move from such a giant in the industry to use this again, on the same track with an artist that has created many internet debates whether or not he is Hip Hop material, but it actually works, and no matter what Mr Carter expresses on 'D.O.A.', autotune can still work if used properly.

On the other hand, I was a little disappointed with 'Gansta Luv' with The-Dream. The-Dream usually hits you with fire that you can listen to over and over, and although this track was one of the first I listened to, I knew atraight away this may have been one of his cheaper beats. The disappointment did not improve with his second featured track on the album 'Luv Drunk'. In fact, I began to drift away from the positive feeling of the album by the second half. The first nine tracks are the best, and then it begins to fade. Not even Pharrell or R. elly could revive it.

So overall, I was quite pleased with this album. It is certainly one of the best albums Snoop has released in recent times. To compare it to the early Snoop Doggy Dog days would be like comparing Lil' Kim now to the photos before the opperation, or comparing R. Kelly to the days before the trial. Maybe these are a little extreme, but old skool West coast fans will not feel this. This album is a little bit more 'mushy' in terms of the love songs on it, but is still worth a try for the other MTV fans. It must be noted that when you see this on shelves in your local store, despite the strange album artwork which does not seem to have any reflection on the content, it is not actually a mixtape as it would appear.

8/10