The five best albums of Snoop Dogg’s career
Snoop Dogg is such an omnipresent celebrity of this century that he transcends being a mere musician and is, instead, something far bigger.
He is, for all intents and purposes, a legend in his own right, peerless in his beloved public image, a persona that combines West Coast swag, genuinely smart humour, and an infinitely cool laissez-faire approach to life.
He’s been in countless films and television shows, including hosting cooking shows with Martha Stewart; he’s commentated on the 2021 Olympics with Kevin Hart; he’s even founded his own cannabis brand, Leafs by Snoop, as well as his own sports league, the Snoop Youth Football League.
But he is, at the end of the day, a musician first and foremost. With a career spanning three decades and counting, he is very much considered one of the most influential rappers in history, selling over 35 million albums worldwide, and amassing 17 Grammy Award nominations, and winning an American Music Award. Here are Snoop’s five best albums.
Snoop Dogg’s five best albums
Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ (2002)
An album that was produced in collaboration with The Neptunes, this album is a polished, smooth, and yet unapologetically Snoop in tone.
It is the first album following his departure from No Limit Records, and spawned both a lawsuit as well as, arguably, one of the best critic lines in the industry going: “a gansta rap granddaddy in recline”, from Entertainment Weekly.
Tha Last Meal (2000)
A new millennium means a new era for Snoop.
With both Dr. Dre and Timbaland behind the wheel of production here, the album is a celebration of the rapper’s iconic humour and charisma, with a bounty of collaborators across the score, included the likes of Nate Dogg, Butch Cassidy, Ice Cube, and even Mick Jagger and Keith Richards on the last track, a sign of the rapper’s easy confidence in pioneering new sounds and energies across the genre.
R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece (2004)
The home of two of Snoop’s most enduringly classic anthems – Drop It Like It’s Hot and Signs – this album is a confidently funky, assuredly fun collection that straddles both hip-hop and pop. It represents the moment Snoop Dogg wasn’t just popular but had now become fully mainstream.
A major commercial success, the album was noted at the time of release for its sparse production that made it stand out from its peers across that decade’s rap scene.
Doggystyle (1993)
Produced by Dr Dre, Snoop’s debut album blends West Coast hip-hop with the rapper’s trademark, effortless flow.
Tracks such as Gin and Juice, Murder Was the Case and What’s My Name? are definitive tunes of the LA sound in the early 1990s, and launched Snoop’s career as one that would both reflect the zeitgeist of his city while also elevating the genre with his production and style.
Tha Doggfather (1996)
The last album released under the stage name Snoop Doggy Dogg, the album debuted at number one upon immediate release.
Heavy history surrounds the production of this album; Snoop was arrested and charged with murder the year before, and cleared of all charges eight months before the album release. Despite not performing as well as Doggystyle, it is still an excellent album that fuses classic funk and modern gangster rap, while asserting Snoop’s ability to evolve under immense personal and public scrutiny, despite his easy-going, Californian persona.
