Doggystyle

This is an enhanced audio CD which contains regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files including the video for “What's My Name.” Personnel includes: Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre, Dat Nigga Daz, The Queen Of Funk, Ricky Harris, RBX, The Dogg Pound, Nate Dogg, Warren G, Kurupt, The Hug, Nancy Fletcher, The Lady Of Rage, D.O.C., Lil Malik, The Dramatics (rap vocals). All tracks have been digitally remastered. “Gin & Juice” was nominated for a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Long Beach, California's Snoop Doggy Dogg made one of the most successful debuts in rap music with DOGGYSTYLE. Introduced on the Dr. Dre single “Deep Cover,” Snoop gained further popularity with his smoothed-out gangsta-type flow on Dre's THE CHRONIC. His music has ruled the clubs and the airwaves ever since, and the fact that his Dr. Dre-directed video “Murder Was The Case” was extended into an 18-minute feature-length film with its own soundtrack is further proof of just how much pull Snoop has in the hip-hop nation. Having super-producer Dr. Dre behind the scenes guaranteed DOGGYSTYLE a top ten spot on the pop charts. Singles like “Gin And Juice” and “Who Am I (What's My Name)” have helped Snoop gain the recognition of the entire music industry without selling out his original rap audience. Possessing among the most unique deliveries in hip-hop, Snoop revives the old-school with his remake of the classic “Lodi Dodi”–originally performed by Slick Rick, and reinterpreted in a West Coast style. A guest appearance by The Dramatics on “Doggy Dog World” also helps illustrate the rapper's fondness for 70's grooves. And just as Dre pushed him out front on THE CHRONIC, Snoop empowers Tha Dogg Pound on DOGGYSTYLE, allowing his homies to share in his spotlight on “Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None).” What the critics say… Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.73) – Included in Rolling Stone's “Essential Recordings of the 90's.” Rolling Stone (1/27/94, p.51) – 4 Stars – Excellent – “…DOGGYSTYLE is filled with verbal and vocal feats that meet its three-mile-high expectations…DOG­GYSTYLE speeds through 55 minutes of constant talk as if on a suicide hot line…” Entertainment Weekly (12/10/93, pp.74–75) – “…[DOGGYSTYLE] is the most limber, low-rider gangsta album to date…it's easy to be impressed one moment and appalled the next…” – Rating: B- Q (2/94, p.95) – 3 Stars – Good – “…when this funky/sleazy trick works, it is the very best that modern pop has to offer…” Vibe (2/94, p.103) – “…Snoop is good, no doubt about it. His cool, lazy drawl is unique, evocative, rhythmically complex–the perfect foil for Dre's thick, tense beats…The big story on THE CHRONIC was Snoop stealing Dre's thunder; on DOGGYSTYLE, Dre snatches it back…” The Source (2/94, p.67) – “…[Snoop] emerges as an MC who lives up to all of his advance hype…” Melody Maker (12/11/93, p.28) – “…The music is sumptuous, soulful and genuinely menacing…Snoop Dogg is the real McCoy…” Musician (2/94, p.69) – “…[DOGGYSTYLE] succeeds on its own terms …[Snoop's] the gangsta Marvin Gaye of Dr. Dre's Motown. It's the clever interplay of `hard' and `soft' which keeps some of these tracks alive; sweet harmonies blossom in the middle of brutal rhythm tracks…a funky, multifaceted album…” NME (Magazine) (12/4/93, p.26) – “…Masterminded by Dr. Dre's faultless production, DOGGYSTYLE is both a wonderfully comic splurge of Parliament funking and barely suppressed violence…”