Credit: Alamy

Eminem and 50 Cent have joined forces once again on a song from Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre’s new album. Missionary was released on December 13th and includes a track called ‘Gunz N Smoke’, which boasts verses from Em, 50 and Snoop over production from their West Coast mentor, Dre.

Co-produced by C.S. Armstrong, the record features vocals from Biggie Smalls’ ‘Dead Wrong’, the 1999 posthumous track that Em featured on. His vocals can be heard in the intro and outro and also throughout each of their verses.

50 sets the tempo with an opening verse about guns and catching fades. He raps, “They say he a big stepper/ I’m just sayin’ I am not the type to get stepped on/ I ain’t got a big weapon/ Glock 17 with the switch, but the clip long/ I ain’t finna play wit’ you/ Boy, you fuck around, I’ma have to catch a fade wit’ you.”

‘Gunz N Smoke’ doesn’t have a single chorus throughout, so it’s just the hip-hop heavyweights going verse-for-verse over the course of three and a half minutes. Snoop takes over in the second verse, reminiscing about growing up in Long Beach, where violence was prominent.

“Let’s take a second here for this moment of violence/ You smell it in the air, product of my environment/ I come from freestylin’ over gunshots and sirens/ Nothing more gangster than my voice over these violins,” he raps.

Em enters the fray in the final verse with memories of his childhood and his angry mindset at the time. He spits, “I remember when I was thirteen/ Searchin’ for how to get my revenge on the world that hurt me/ Thirsty for commas, them double entendres/ Turned me to an entrepreneur and a monster.”

With ‘Gunz N Smoke’, 50 and Em team up for the first time since featuring on Ed Sheeran’s 2019 song ‘Remember the Name’ from No.6 Collaborations Project.

Missionary serves as the sequel to Snoop’s Doggystyle album. Just like the 1993 LP, Dre produced the entirety of the 16 tracks, with other features coming from the likes of Method Man, Tom Petty, Jhené Aiko, Sting, BJ the Chicago Kid and more.