Many things don’t go well together; alcohol and I being one, but for Snoop Dogg it was Reggae. While his Rastafarian reincarnation enabled him to smoke eighty blunts a day and lengthen his dreadlocks, his last effort under the alias of Snoop Lion, was, well, a midlife crises for everyone to see. But every now and then a magical combination arises, one that makes you wonder why it hasn’t happen before. For Snoop Dogg (now Snoopzilla), teaming up with longtime friend and funk disciple Dâm Funk seems like the musical equivalent of strawberries and cream.
From the outset, it appears that the collaboration has paid dividends, ‘Hit the Pavement’ evokes outlandish eighties g-funk with a host of velvety synthesizers and programmed drumbeats, forming a comfortable backdrop to Snoopzilla’s smooth rapping style. While Jamaica almost ruined the Snoop Dogg we all know, his time there appears to have had the added perk of transforming the Dogg into a sagacious philosopher. Topics of reflection include domestic economy, grammar and truth, ‘If you don’t work you don’t eat/ battin my eyes while crossin my T’s/ … Act like you know/ Know not, better know better.’ Plato, he aint. Thankfully, Snoop’s preaching doesn’t survive into the sophomore track; ‘Let it Go’ eases the vibe thanks to a Prince-esque woozy bassline and Snoop Dogg’s trademark croon, exposing the former pimp as something of a tender soul. Docile tones continue in ‘Faden Away’, where a reverberated keytar riff permeates through a laid back chorus in which Snoopzilla sobs, ‘I cant live another day.’ Despite the sobriety, there is something oddly amusing about how Snoop, a married father and millionaire parodies his new alter ego; ‘Ride’ and ‘Do my Thang’ form a hilariously bizarre homage to his shady past, envisaging a Snoopzilla who pedals and abuses soft drugs, while having a funky good time.
Ostensibly, it seems that little on 7 Days of Funk works as either straightforward R&B or gansta- funk. Though for every triviality that fails, there is something that succeeds in its own peculiar way. A recent interview with Snoop Dogg revealed that writing with Dâm Funk ‘brought his knack back’ for song craft, thankfully it is a knack that has delivered one the most funky and chilled out EP’s in recent memory, a record that begs you not to give a Dâm out the pressures of life; Snoop doesn’t, so why should you?
Best Tracks:
Hit Da Pavement
Ride
Faden Away
Let it Go
