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In 1995, the rap duo “Tha Dogg Pound” released their debut album Dogg Food to strong commercial success. How could it not have been? After both members were extensively featured on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle, it was inevitable. However, after Dogg Food, the duo didn’t release another album until 2001 with Dillinger & Young Gotti. Neither of the members even released their debut solo albums until 1998; Kurupt with Kuruption!, and Daz Dillinger with Retaliation, Revenge, & Get Back. Kurupt’s album didn’t exactly do well on the charts, but Daz’ actually went on to sell over a million copies. Both released albums consistently throughout the years but reached only a fraction of the success of Dogg Food.
This didn’t matter much to Daz though as he chose to go underground and independent with further releases and in 2005, he released Tha Dogg Pound Gangsta LP. There’s a certain level of intimacy I can’t help but feel when I listen to this album as it is completely written, recorded, and produced by Daz himself with no featured rappers. It’s something I wish was more common in hip hop as often times an album will have so many features and producers that it can hardly feel like one single person’s album.
Despite coming out in 2005, multiple songs sound like they could have been recorded 10 years prior and no one would bat an eye. Songs such as the opener “That’s The Way We Ride” and “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” are excellent throwbacks to the 90s west coast style of hip hop Daz helped bring to popularity in the first place. Possibly the best of these throwbacks, and possibly even the highlight of the entire album, is the Nate Dogg collaboration “Come Close,” where Nate performs the hook in probably the most relaxed way of his entire career. The contrast between the light bassline and the upbeat drums juxtapose to make an utterly blissful experience that unfortunately has received very little attention since it came out and is something I honestly feel terrible about. Daz is known for producing songs on 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me and creating Dogg Food and that’s basically it. It’s so upsetting because of how passionate he sounds on songs like the previously mentioned “Nothing Can Stop Us Now,” “My Ambitionz As A Ridah,” and the title track “Tha Dogg Pound Gangsta.” It’s like he wants so bad to be heard but just can’t.
Tha Dogg Pound Gangsta LP will unfortunately go down as another classic lost to time. Not just overall, but when talking about the west coast style of hip hop in the 2000’s, people will always just think of The Documentary by The Game or even My Ghetto Report Card by E-40, but never Tha Dogg Pound Gangsta LP by Daz Dillinger.
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Honestly a very solid and well-thought-out review. I'm going to give some feedback and nitpicks here but don't forget that this is a great start and I'm doing this just to make you a better writer in the future (:
So I think the majority of the first paragraph was unnecessary, and could've been condensed to a sentence or two. I say this because while I was reading it, I wasn't even sure what the review was supposed to be about because it didn't tie directly into the album you're reviewing until the second para. I actually had to recheck the name of the artist to see which one you were talking about.
Secondly, you drift (no pun intended) between highly professional and highly personal styles of writing. While too much of either can be bad (though I prefer to lean to the latter), it's important to find a balance which was not represented here. The opening paragraph read like a wikipedia entry and the second read like a diary (which isn't a knock to your writing--rather the overuse "I" which is frowned upon in criticism usually, but works in small doses)
Despite these two major problems, I felt that you could've gone more into the sounds and songs on the album. I feel like the majority of the album is focused on the why and the how of the album and it's disappointing lack of fame. I think you had a great start, but you need to make the listener feel disappointed that it didn't become famous too, even though they haven't even heard it yet. That's how you get someone excited to try something new out.
But man, I seriously wish my first review was as good as this one. This isn't even just a good first review, it's just a good review in general. I'm just being overly critical because I know you can be even better. I'm super proud of you dude, you earned this pos (:
Also, here's a couple grammar nitpicks if you don't mind!:
"Possibly the best of these throwbacks, and possibly even the highlight of the entire album is the Nate Dogg collaboration" (comma between album and is)
"and is something i honestly feel terrible about" (capitalize that i!)
"Daz is known for producing songs on 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me and creating Dogg Food and that’s basically it. " (This should've been broken into another paragraph, also "That's basically it" is superrrr informal)
Okay, okay, that's it I swear, don't hate me, I love you < 3
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
First review! Feedback of course is much appreciated.
You can stream this album here:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2EsrHGWEl5Jl53pHDUSMlP
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Thanks neeka. I'll try to work on those points in my future reviews
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Oh shit whattup
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Sup dude. Any criticisms?
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"bring to popularity" = popularize
I could give this a full once over if you really want but not tonight.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Please
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huh, interesting.
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you sure you don't wanna do the blue carpet mixtape review yourself then?
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
No I want you to do it
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Most gangsta album art eva
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Okay, so here's my thoughts:
1. You overuse commas. Read each sentence aloud and if you don't pause naturally where a comma is placed that means you should remove it.
2. "Kuruption!,and" - missing space
3. "as often times an album will have so many features and producers that it can hardly feel like one single person’s album." - don't reuse "album" like that, try word variation
4. "Possibly the best of these throwbacks, and possibly" - again, word variation
5. Italicize album names.
6. "Songs such as the opener 'That’s The Way We Ride'" - remove "the" and just have it read "songs such as opener"
7. "and the title track 'Tha Dogg Pound Gangsta.'" again, remove "the" in front of title track since it's unnecessary
8. "It’s like he wants so bad to be heard but just can’t." - rephrase this so it doesn't read so informally
9. You mention it's a classic lost to time, but don't really seem to gush about it or detail its merits beforehand to the point that it feels like you've argued your position. Further, the 4.5 rating undercuts your own claim.
10. You hop from one idea to the next a bit abruptly, so try to make an effort to have smooth transitions from beginning to end.
Whew. Now I realize why I so rarely provide feedback anymore.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Thx
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I actually had the albums italicized in a word doc but it all disappeared when I copy/pasted it and didn't know how to put them in afterwards
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Yeah you've gotta use the codes here, for italics it's [i]word[/i ] without that final space in the bracket
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
I just can put the whole title in that word space right? Or do I have to out that in for each individual word?
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Whole title.
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Yeah you can put as many words as you want in between. Also if you want to bold or underline (they look ugly in a review though) just switch out the 'i' with a 'b' or 'u' respectively.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Thx
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cool
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