Snoop has shown a lot more flexibility onscreen than on his records, where he tends to stay in his comfort zone, pledging allegiance to girls, drugs and the gangsta lifestyle. But his languorous rapping has a way of inspiring inventively freaky sounds from producers, whether it's Dr. Dre laying down squealing keyboards on "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" or Pharrell Williams exploring mouth-popping for "Drop It Like It's Hot." About half of Ego Trippin' was produced by "QDT Muzic," a team made up of Snoop, Teddy Riley, who was the Pharrell Williams of the late Eighties and early Nineties, and DJ Quik, who would have been the Dr. Dre of the same period, except that Dre already had the job. Along with Terrace Martin, who adds live instruments, they take vintage Eighties sounds — old-school synths, vocoders — and purée them into a hip-hop mix as dense as anything the Bomb Squad ever did. The jittery "Gangsta Like Me" features an unsettling female choir, a whispering Jamie Foxx and a rap that rhymes "two-step" with "group sex." The rhythm? Twitch, twitch, boom, hum, twitch.

While the QDT tracks have a menacing vibe, the album is also salted with radio-ready singles from outside producers: Nottz's "Deez Hollywood Nights" builds around a roadhouse piano riff, and Shawty Redd's "Sexual Eruption" features a windshield-wiper rhythm and Snoop with the massage oil. "I'm going to take it slow . . . so we can get a sexual eruption" may not be especially seductive, and it barely counts as a metaphor, but it's hugely entertaining to hear Snoop lay down his bedroom come-ons through a talk box. The oddest simile on the album, by the way, is probably on "Whateva U Do": "Me and my money's like Sonny and Cher." That should mean Snoop and his money will end up being separated, only to have an awkward reunion years later on the David Letterman show.

Cramming in more than twenty tracks, Ego Trippin' grows weaker as it drifts away from head-spinning collages into generic slow jamz. But if Snoop had exercised more prudence in editing, we wouldn't get to enjoy bizarre experiments such as "My Medicine," a country-rock song dedicated to "real American gangsta" Johnny Cash, or "Cool," where Snoop credibly sings (!) a cover of an old single by the Time.

One side effect of getting older is accepting that certain adventures and career paths have passed you by. But at thirty-six, Snoop sometimes sounds like he's trying to stay young by doing everything. His raps about stealing somebody else's girl are followed by songs about how much he loves his wife and family, with no effort to reconcile the two sentiments. He seems most animated when praising the celebrity high life on "Deez Hollywood Nights": "I'm in the back of the club, getting a back rub," he raps, before shamelessly name-dropping Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson and Jessica Biel. Snoop also finds common ground with Leonardo DiCaprio: "He keeps a bad ho, I keep a bad ho."

As the record winds down, Snoop takes on a valedictory tone. "Can't Say Goodbye" is full of nostalgia for his old days: "You can't take the hood out of the homeboy," he testifies. He sounds even wearier in "Been Around tha World," claiming, "I've seen every­thing twice," and comparing himself to a Mafioso retiring in Miami. "I'm on my way right now," he says on that track, sounding like any husband on the phone with a skeptical wife. "I'm leaving the studio right now." That reality check might be the truest moment Snoop's ever put on tape.

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GAVIN EDWARDS

(Posted: Mar 20, 2008)