Album Preview: Snoop Goes Back to Everybody Else's Old School on "Ego Trippin' "

For anyone longing for the days when low-fi Soul Train space funk ruled the airwaves, Snoop Dogg's "Sensual Seduction" provided a welcome salve. While Snoop's ninth album Ego Trippin' isn't a solid hour of vocoder-aided sex jams, as Rock Daily learned in an exclusive listening session, it's something much more. Clearly run down by the traditional hip-hop tropes and traditions, Snoop has made Trippin' into a veritable buffet of twentieth century radio goodness, throwing back to scenes with which he's never been involved. In between Roger Troutman-esque funk bangers like "Snoop Dogg Is Out" and "Life of the Party" are forays into the Dirty South ("Ridin' in My Chevy"), celestial gospel ("Can't Say Goodbye") and at least one song that sounds like a B-side from Prince's 1999 ("Cool"). Perhaps most impressively, there's a phenomenal country-rap tune called "Johnny Cash" (a collaboration with Everlast) whose chorus ("Get my money/Buy my medicine") channels rail-riding bluesmen. Produced by Snoop in collaboration with Teddy Riley and DJ Quik (a collective they refer to as "QDT"), Ego Trippin' will reveal all sides of Snoop Dogg: the father, the party animal, the savvy industry veteran and the OG.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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