Throwback Thursday: "Gin and Juice" — Snoop Dogg

One of those rare cases where a song was popular long before it was ever released as a single. An instant classic, people were bumping this the second Doggystyle got released.

Throwback Thursday: "The Next Episode" — Dr. Dre, ft. Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, & Nate Dogg

Is it the weekend yet? Then again, why wait for the weekend, right Nate?

Throwback Thursday Bonus: Death Row Records Freestyle

They say all you need is one mic. But you really don't even need that, so long as you have The D-O-double-G, Kurupt, and Daz rhyming while Dr. Dre holds it down on the soundboard piano.

Throwback Thursday: "Who Am I? (What's My Name?)" -- Snoop Dogg

Witness the moment a hip-hop up-and-comer ascended to the throne. This release was the moment "that dude who runs with Dre" became "that dude."

It's the Weekend

Time to expressssss yo'self...

Snoop's Narnia

I'm a day late in getting this posted. GQ published a fantastic piece by Drew Magary, who spent a recent afternoon with Snoop Lion talking music and smoking on that ooh-wee. It's a fascinating and hilarious look into Snoop's world—and oh what a wonderful world it is. If you haven't yet, you should definitely set aside 10 minutes to read the full article. But if you're short on 10 minutes, I'll give you a few of the highlights:

1. Snoop carries a man bag.

He arrives at Baby Blues with just a single bodyguard, whom he sheds before slipping alone into our reserved room at the back of the restaurant. He's wearing a Dallas Mavericks jersey and warm-up pants, and he's carrying a Paris Hilton-designed man purse overflowing with unopened packs of Swisher Sweets.

2. There's a guy somewhere, who worked as a club bouncer in '92, and who now feels like a jackass.

Like the time in 1992 when he was marooned outside a hot downtown L.A. nightclub, trying in vain to get inside. "And motherfucking 'Deep Cover' "—Snoop's first hit—"was playing louder than a motherfucker in there: boom, boom, boom. And there was a nigga in the club, and he told security, 'Nigga, you don't know who that is?' Security said, 'No.' They said, 'Nigga, that's the nigga who's singing on that song right there!' Yeah. And guess what, kid? I didn't get in!"

3. They make children's books about smoking weed. Wait...what?

It doesn't even seem so crazy—or at least not as crazy as it should seem—when Snoop tells me he's thinking of reading a book called It's Just a Plant: A Children's Story of Marijuana, to the 8- and 9-year-olds on the peewee football team he coaches. "Believe it or not," he says, "they need to know." (The book is about a little girl whose parents teach her about the awesomeness of weed. "This is a joint," her father tells her. "It's made of marijuana." It's a surprisingly long book. If you read it in Marijuana Time, it takes eight years.)

4. I miss Cali girls. Oh so much...

Moments later, a baby-faced blonde employee named Rachel, dressed in a teensy orange tank and blue terry-cloth hot pants, walks up to Snoop and stammers out a request: "I wanna get, uh, a picture of me expressing myself in the safe while you're looking at me expressing myself."

The safe that Rachel is referring to is the open, Skee-Lo-sized safe across the room. She hands me her camera and leads Snoop toward it. Then she turns around, does a handstand, spreads her legs, rests her feet on the inside walls of the safe, and begins shaking her booty up and down like it's a can of spray paint.

"She's obsessed with this," Doctor Dina tells me as we watch. "She's been practicing for a week."

I really miss Cali girls.

Throwback Thursday: "Doggy Dogg World" -- Snoop Dogg ft. The Dogg Pound & The Dramatics

"We got some beautiful people in the house tonight...And we got some ugly ones." We're going back to '93 for this one. Vintage Snoop right here.

Throwback Thursday: "Bigger Business" -- Swizz Beats ft. Diddy, Baby, Jadakiss, Cassidy, Snoop Dogg, & Ronald Isley

Whole lotta firepower up in this 2002 banger. (With the exception of Baby, of course. God he's terrible.) A slew of famous cameos up in the video, too.

My crew did a mixtape track to this instrumental once. Personally I think the only thing that kept it from being hotter than the original was Swizz getting Ronald Isley for his. That's just not fair.

(Oh, and special love to Jada for rocking the Jerry Rice Silver & Black.)

Gangsta Boo

There are many reasons why I love Rihanna, but this may be the least superficial one: She's just fun. And she's just the right amount of crazy.

Some Most All women are crazy—every guy knows this (some of us all too well...*cough*). There's a definitive point along the scale of crazy, though, where you're messing with a truly psycho broad; and, unless you like waking up with a gun barrel pressed to your nuts, you would be best advised to steer clear of these women. What you look for, then, is a gal who's about three steps short of that precipice. One, say, who isn't shy about rocking out at a concert with "Thug Life" written on her stomach:

Compare this to the infamous photos of Lindsay Lohan with a knife to Vanessa Minnillo's throat, and you have a vivid example of the right way and the wrong way to do a spontaneous, nonconformist-chic photograph. Right amount of crazy vs. Wrong amount of crazy. And then, just when you've gotten used to her foot-to-your-throat punk persona, Rihanna pulls a 180. The same playfulness that a moment ago was used to project the rebellious nature of a middle-fingers-up thug is called on to remind us that she is also a girly-girl expertly capable of employing her sexuality:

No human being is one-dimensional, but pop stars—or rather, the avatars that pop stars use when they feel that fans and cameras are watching—often are. They become so careful about how any one action or soundbite will be used against them that they stick to a narrow script, never daring to veer across the dotted lines. And that's my favorite thing about Rihanna: She's not afraid to change lanes as the situation dictates. She keeps it 100; she's all her, all the time. She's beautiful, rich, and famous, and certainly those are attributes that will earn the attention of a man with even the most honest of intentions; but the fact that she's actually as attractive on the inside as on the outside means a lot. She's exactly the type of woman every man wants to marry: honest, fun, sexy, and just the right amount of crazy.

Images from The Daily Mail. TJ with the assist.

2Pac in 3D

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the full performance by the Tupac hologram at Coachella.





Kind of bittersweet. Great to see him perform "live" again, but...

R.I.P. Tupac.

Throwback Thursday: "Still D.R.E." -- Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg

I want to live in this video (damn I miss Cali...*shivers*). And letting this beat bump on loop is just therapeutic.

Download: Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg and Akon "Kush"

Dre please bring the west coast back!! This is a decent single but I'm looking for more out of the good doctor after his million year hiatus from rap. To be honest, I'm just glad to hear him and Snoop on a track together.

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It's Friday

Time to flip the script...

Throwback Thursday: "New York, New York" -- Tha Dogg Pound

This track was released at the height of the East Coast/West Coast beef. And although the song itself is a slightly subliminal attack, the video's imagery of Snoop, Daz, and Kurupt being bigger than the NY skyline itself was an unquestionable smack in the face of their Big Apple rivals. The very presence of the LA rappers in the streets of New York City was a bold move—so much so that, on the second day of filming, there was a failed drive-by attempt on Snoop and his entourage.

And these youngins in the game today think they know beef. Psshhh...

Download: Barrington Levy ft. Snoop Dogg and MIMS "Watch Dem (Murder)"

This goes hard, best believe..

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via 2dbyz

Download: DJ Khaled "All I Do is Win" + "All My Life"

Leaks from the upcoming DJ Khaled album.

"All I Do is Win" ft. Snoop, Ludacris, T-Pain Download

"All My Life" ft. Akon, Shyne Download

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Download: Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg "Poor Dave"

This is a lost track from the early Dr. Dre driven Death Row days. I know I'm not the only one that misses those days. Basically old Snoop going off on the kid named Dave.

"Only 13 f*cking b*tches in high school.."

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Download: Snoop Dogg ft. The TC's "Shut U Down"

Brand new west coast gangster shiznit off Snoop Diggy Dogg's upcoming Bacc 2 Tha Chuuch v.1 (quite easy to tell that Snoop remains gangsta by his shitty spelling and abbreviating). To be quite honest this track is decent but nothing great, although Snoop's verse is cool and he reminds us that he's still banging crip cuh!

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via 2dopeboyz

Download: Tupac x Snoop "If There's a Cure"

I've been craving some Tupac shit lately so this is right on time. You can definitely hear why this was never released but at the same time it's great to hear Snoop and Pac on the same track.

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Snoop Dogg's Closet

From Funny or Die:

Snoop Dogg's Closet from Snoop Dogg