Review Summary: Snoop Dogg made em say UGH all right...
For every crappy cliché that comes out of rap, it becomes more obvious, that with further inspection, that the blame for it's heavy over-use should be the mass production its-for-the-money-not-the-music record label No Limit Records, founded by Master P, one of the many of the rappers that was on the label that sold rap records despite not actually knowing how to rap. Other than a couple of exceptions like Mystikal and Snoop Dogg, the entire label was filled to the brim with untalented hacks with little to no flow (Silkk Tha Shocker, I'm looking DIRECTLY at you). However, both Snoopy and Mystikal, after departing the label, put out much better material than No Limit ever dreamed of creating. Snoop was much more of a victim of No Limit than Mystikal however, and
Da Game is To Be Sold, Not to be Told is Snoopy's attempt to Make Em Say UGH.
Da Game is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told is utterly terrible, from it's insipid No Limit Solidier lyrics coming out of the mouth of one of rap's most notable, to it's sad bastard cheap-ass production values, and it's simply an embarrassing effort. The beats essentially sound like No Limit's sad attempt at
Tha Chronic and
Doggstyle's G-Funk bounce, but the drums sound too weak, the bass is too boring, and the samples, while interesting if it's your first No Limit release, sounds just the same as everything they've done before. The rapping is mostly Snoop Dogg stating the fact that he's a 'No Limit solidier', and the rest of the No Limit crew jumping over tracks like slobbering, drunk gorillas, especially Master P's booming monotone shout, in which almost the entire record is drenched in.
The only positives of Snoop's first of three laughable No Limit efforts is the fact that his flow is still somewhat in tact here. The song “Woof”, despite its lackluster southern clickity drums, is a highlight because Mystikal's James Brown-on-crack flow mixed with Snoops smooth G-funk somehow work together. However, even with Snoop's flow, this record is something Snoop Dogg would never recover from. To this day, Snoop has produced some decent records, but none of them even close to
Doggstyle or
Tha Doggfather.
Da Game Is To Be Solid... is faulted because of it's cheap cheap production and lackluster gangster lyrics, and it's failed attempt to create No Limit's
Tha Chronic. There's really no reason to pick it up and let the dust leave the CD case, although it would certainly do the dust favor.
