Snoop Dogg - Coolaid

Snoop Dogg
Coolaid
2016
Spotify

Coolaid is the brand spanking new album from Snoop Dogg, his 14th, and it shows him making a return to form after the disaster that was 2013's Snoop Lion. A clip has been going around Youtube for awhile of Snoop making fun of the way people rap today, and it is so dead on and with this record we see Snoop again trying to wrestle hip hop back from trap and vibe type styles. What makes this album different however is Snoop's G-funk style is more readily on display here. On "Don't Stop" Too Short and Snoop team up for a track that is a total throwback but still feels modern and fresh. Most of this record is stuff we just don't hear anymore, even from Snoop himself, and Coolaid is bringing it back. Snoop's swagger has been and will always be his biggest asset. His style has always been effortless, perfectly suited for his southern California always stay high lifestyle. After all these years though Snoop still has not lost his edge. At times when rappers age and they try to flex it comes across as insanely inauthentic. But that doesn't happen here, you believe what He is saying even though He is celebrating gang culture that he is likely years and years from.

"Ten Toes Down" is the track that most exemplifies that G-funk style and the album is so much better for it. At 20 tracks and over an hour Coolaid does have it's moments where Snoop takes a few plays off. There are 12 features on the record, enough to have their own album, which comes across as a bit of overkill. Snoop is always trying to evoke this idea of the group hang or smoke sesh, but at times it is to boring and to done to be fresh in 2016. Most notably his collaborations with Wiz Khalifa are some of the weakest moments on the track and both artists simply sleep walk through the tracks. The album closes with "Revolution" a song so out of the box for Snoop that it is almost jarring. However the message of systematic violence and Police brutality is unlikely yet perfected suited for Snoop who has seen it from both sides his entire career. Coolaid is a vibrant, fresh and exciting return to form for the Long Beach rapper and in doubt some of these tracks will be making their way on to your summer playlists.

7.8 out of 10