I’ve been told that some things are better left unsaid, and my attempt at abiding by this rule has proven successful in most cases. Unfortunately, my obedience has left me with a burdening sense of urgency to expose the rest of these “things.” You know, the ones that must be said because if they were not, all humanity would fall under a severe state of societal oblivion. Amongst many, there is one issue that I consider especially pressing – and for whatever reason, it has until this point remained unsaid. Allow me to present you with the culprit and the visual that triggered my preceding notion.
I’ll begin by admitting to my enduring love for Snoop Dogg, a love that has lingered since the release of The Chronic. I had a sweet spot for his slicked back braids and scrawny frame, but as time passed, the love grew deeper. When Doggystyle dropped, I found comfort in his passion for Marijuana and women, and even more so in his effortless rhymes. Above all, Snoop’s music epitomized what West Coast Hip Hop should be. And ‘twas for this reason that I, along with the majority of Hip Hop fans, deemed him untouchable. However, despite my affinity for him and his engrained legacy as an artist, we must pardon the Dogg no more for his current state of peaking conformity.
My bafflement blossomed as his random appearances began to multiply. Was dropping a mediocre verse on Pussycat Dolls, Katy Perry, and dare I mention- Big Time Rush- songs intended to be the transformation of the Snoop Dogg brand? Is his changing image an attempt to stay relevant in today’s version of Hip Hop? If so, his new persona is inarguably the antithesis of his old, defying all means of being an OG. I am left questioning whether Snoop’s public vulnerability in recent days causes him to lose all credibility earned in those previous.
I turned the cheek to his lyrical emptiness on the Doggumentary and choice on succumbing to reality television, but the concerned fan in me had to at last be unleashed. There is an unspoken confusion as to who Snoop Dogg is at this point- the West Coast G, the cross-genre guinea pig, the Doggfather, or no more than a brand name? In an even broader context, does his de-purified image signify the end of authentic Hip Hop or embody what it has come to be? However in that, Snoop holds fast to the utmost core identity of every native Southern Californian: the ability, and necessity, to be forever identified by that most authentically artificial a la mode.
I ask you to ponder the same, as only time will truly tell. Regardless of the outcome, Snoop will always be the one and only D-O-Double G.
#ManDown
