Snoop Dogg

Every dog has his day, but not many have them on the multiple supersize order of the double-G born Calvin Broadus: He's evolved from hip-hop phenom and nearly washed-up MC to a TV personality, while bringing a sense of humor to the hardest gangsta rap and choice West Coast slang into the national lexicon. Along the way he's made a few classic rap records. Snoop Doggy Dogg (the cute appellation by which he was then known) debuted on the Dr. Dre-produced theme song to the 1992 film Deep Cover, rapping about killing undercover cops in his already signature languid Long Beach, CA drawl. It was a quick leap to The Chronic, Dre's weeded-out gangsta masterpieice on which Snoop starred on "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," and the album's companion, Snoop's debut, Doggystyle. If you're not one of the 5 million people who bought Doggystyle, please do so now: Tracks like "Gin and Juice" and "Murder Was the Case" sound as fresh today as when they came out in 1994, helping to define West Coast hip-hop.

But Dre didn't contribute to the followup Tha Doggfather, which resulted in rote funk tracks that brought out nothing new in Snoop; the album's best moment is its cover of Biz Markie's classic "The Vapors," with Snoop sabbing the names of homies Warren G and Nate Dogg into the story rap. With Death Row boss Suge Knight running a label whose name was becoming all too apt, Snoop jumped ship to Master P's lowball lifeboat, No Limit Records. Although generally considered to be the nadir of his career, Da Game Is to Be Sold has its redeeming qualities, starting with the incredible Pen & Pixel-designed CD case (a mass-produced ghetto objet d'art if there ever was) and extending to the organic funk duet with No Limit's first lady Mia X, "Picture This." Nine months later, No Limit Top Dogg was another slave from the No Limit production line; by now, Snoop's gangsta clichés made him seem hopelessly pase. Then something interesting happened: Suge Knight cobbled together a doggie bag of leftovers, hatefully titled Dead Man Walkin', making it seem like a new Snoop album by rush-releasing it mere weeks before Snoop dropped his next proper album, Tha Last Meal. But Tha Last Meal effected Snoop's first genuine reinvention by replacing his worn-out gangsta mask with a Ronnie Isley-meets-Iceberg Slim playa-pimp persona that was an easy-to-love natural fit. It also reunited Snoop with Dre, on the G-funk essential "Lay Low," and with Timbaland, on the bounce cut "Set It Off." Jeah!

Suge Knight cashed in again with Death Row's Snoop Doggy Dogg Greatest Hits, a cobble job padded with intriguing but inessential rarities and remixes. But Snoop had regained control of his own damn self, than you, releasing the artist-showcase album Snoop Dogg Presents Doggy Style Allstars: Welcome to tha House, Vol. 1 (Doggystyle, 2002), worth buying for Lady of Rage's DJ Premier-produced "Unfucwitable." (Rage would appear again on Paid tha Cost to Be tha Bo$$'s "Batman & Robin," another Premier-produced track; props to Snoop for keeping her in the game). Paid the Cost is the peak of a long, strange comeback trip, an omrapotent chef d'oeuvre whose single bobowack moment, "Wasn't Your Fault" (a remake of Robert Palmer's "Didn't Mean to Turn You On") can be laughed over as one gorges on high-lights like the Neptunes-produced "Beautiful" and the filthy McNasty "Lollipop," with Jay-Z and Nate Dogg. It's proof that this singular Dogg is able to teach (and turn) new tricks. (PETER RELIC)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide