“There’s too much mimicking”: The harsh advice Snoop Dogg offered the new generation
On December 13th, Snoop Dogg released his twentieth studio album, Missionary, entirely produced and mixed by his friend and longtime collaborator, Dr Dre. This landmark project is the first time the pair has worked together exclusively since 1993’s Doggystyle. Following the album’s release, the two began speaking to outlets about its creation and the current state of hip-hop.
As a renowned producer-emcee duo, the two West Coast legends spoke about the current quality of hip-hop production and the lack of originality among rappers. Dr Dre has a long list of accomplishments, and aside from creating iconic works of his own, such as The Chronic and 2001, he has produced multi-platinum-selling artists from every generation of hip-hop from the 1980s until now. As such, he knows a thing or two about how to make timeless music and, in his eyes, there are a few things wrong with the culture at the moment, which Snoop Dogg confirmed.
Dr Dre has worked with a range of artists, and during the interview, he expressed how he only likes to work with acts who bring something new to the table, citing Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Anderson Paak as examples of unique, exciting talent. That said, when the pair were asked what it takes to reach the level of these artists, Snoop and Dre responded bluntly.
Snoop Dogg angrily told up-and-coming MCs, “Be original! Right now, there’s so much copycat, mimicking, and sound-alike imitation. Be original! Find your voice, find your production sound, find your ear for who you are and be original! Even if it ain’t hitting, stay you!”
Dr Dre concurred and criticised how newer artists work with multiple producers on their projects. He stressed the importance of sonic continuity and reflected on how he made the entire body of work when he collaborated with Snoop and Eminem on albums like Doggystyle and The Marshall Mathers LP.
Emphasising this, Dre told Stephen A Smith, “I don’t like the fact that there’s like nine producers on one album. I like the idea of one producer on one album. Continuity is everything for me. If you’re a producer, you should be able to produce the entire album! That’s what I thought it was supposed to be. That’s what I was doing at the beginning.”
However, it was Snoop who really struck a nerve and exposed a bit of truth when he differentiated between producers and beatmakers, expressing, “There’s a lot of beatmakers. That’s the difference between our era and this era. There aren’t too many producers as there are beatmakers. It’s so easy to make beats they got all these computer packages that has the drum loop. Y’all had to make the loop, and take the sounds.”
He added, “I think the fundamentals were taken out of [hip-hop]. You had to have skill; you had to have professionalism to be an artist. Now you just have to have a phone! It used to be about creativity, understanding the musicianship, harmonies, melodies, but that don’t even matter no more!”