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Artist: Snoop Dogg

Album: Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told

Genre: West Coast/Down South Gangsta Rap.

Producers: Beats By The Pound (KLC, O'Dell, MP, Craig B, Carlo Stephens, D.J. Darryl), DJ Pooh, Soopafly, Snoop Dogg, and Meach Wells. Executive Producer: Master P.

Tracks: 21 of them. . . at a lot of minutes.

Label: No Limit Records.

Year of Release: 1998

Date of Review: August 20, 1998

LYRICS: 4

FLOW: 7

MESSAGE: 2

BEATS: 4

ORIGINALITY: 2

HYPE: 6

CONSISTENCY: 3

SCORE: 39%

At first glance, the recent success of Master P's New Orleans-based No Limit Records might seem baffling, but open further observation, there is no mystery at all. The story of No Limit's rise has just as much to do with the collapse of Death Row Records as with Master P's marketing savvy.

For the first half of the 90's, Rap belonged to Death Row, at least in the commercial sense. Specializing in Gangsta Rap, an artform which found its core audience to be suburban white teenagers, most of whom had never even SEEN a ghetto, everything Death Row touched turned Gold. Make that Double Platinum. At least.

This enormous success spawned many imitators (even though Death Row was itself considered by some circles to be a rip-off of Ruthless Records). All throughout the West, East, Midwest, and South, would-be entrepeneurs everywhere saw big money in Gangsta Rap. One of these men, Percy Miller, who had lost a basketball scholarship due to a knee injury, used money from his grandmother's inheritance to start No Limit Records, donning the moniker Master P in the process.

Well, as fate would have it, 1996 proved to be a very difficult year for Death Row. Dr. Dre, the label's President, co-founder, and best producer, departed to start Aftermath Entertainment. Tupac Shakur, the label's most popular rapper, was murdered by still unknown assailants. And Death Row CEO Suge Knight went to prison. The label's one remaining star: Snoop Doggy Dogg. But against those odds, even he was becoming an underdogg.

Meanwhile, the No Limit tank had been slowly building steam. You couldn't open The Source without seeing scores of garish computer art advertisements announcing the latest No Limit releases. With Death Row falling out of the commercial lead and Puff Daddy's Bad Boy taking the top spot, No Limit was quickly becoming the #2 Rap label in America. Curiously, this was achieved with minimum help from MTV, which never really threw a No Limit single into serious rotation until Master P's posse cut, "Make 'Em Say Ugh."

Unfortunately, while No Limit could sell millions of records to teens jaded by stale Alternative bands (see: 3rd Eye Blind, etc.), horrendous so-called "metal" bands (Korn, Snot, Limp Bizkit), and girly, commercial, soft pop rap (Puff Daddy and Mase), they never artistically filled Death Row's shoes. While No Limit's in-house production crew, Beats By The Pound, might've been adequate (and even did an admirable job on Young Bleed's album), they couldn't come close to the fonke tracks laid by Dr. Dre and Daz Dillinger. And the No Limit soldiers themselves, hardly known for their lyrical skills, were no match for Death Row's emcees. There were no tight rappers like Tupac, RBX, Kurupt, or Snoop Doggy Dogg on No Limit.

Wait, did I say no Snoop Doggy Dogg? Well, that changed. Fed up with the B.S. at Death Row, Snoop jumped ship to No Limit. Soon afterward, an album to be Executive Produced by Master P and produced by Beats By The Pound was announced.

Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told, Snoop's third major label album (fourth overall if you count the independently distributed Smoke Fest '96), is his first No Limit release, and has the longest Rap album title since It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. You all know Snoop Dogg (he seems to have removed the middle "Doggy" out of his name, perhaps due to redundancy), right? Of course you do. First hitting the scene on Dr. Dre's "Deep Cover" single and then blowing up the spot with his cameos on the groundbreaking Chronic album (of which he wrote two-thirds of the lyrics for), Snoop made a name for himself fast. His 1993 solo debut, Doggystyle, was regarded by many to be a classic (I don't agree). But, his 1996 sophomore follow-up, Tha Doggfather, sold less than half as many records and was considered by many to be wack (again, I don't agree).

What do I think of Snoop and his albums? Well, Mr. Calvin Broadus is a real talent. Snoop's flow simply can't be touched. Nevermind the fact that he rarely says anything important, he was still fun to listen to. His first album, the 5-times Platinum Doggystyle, is truly a great album. No classic, mind you, but easily one of the better commercial Hip-Hop releases of this decade. And its sequel, the double-Platinum Doggfather, isn't bad. It just sorely missed Dre's production. Not wack, like a lot of heads claimed, just average.

Of course, my favorite Snoop Dogg song would have to be "Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto," off of the Christmas on Death Row compilation. No one's holiday season is complete until they hear Snoop rap, "Now on the first day of Christmas, my homeboy gave to me, a sack of that crazy glue and told me to smoke it up slowly." I know what's going on MY Christmas cards this year. . .

Anyway, I like Snoop well enough. But enough background information (sometimes I wonder if I enjoy writing a bit too much), let me get on with the review.

The album starts off nice enough. "Snoop World" is an entertaining little track, probably the best on the album. Until Master P gets his hands on it, that is. Call me a playa hater, whatever. . . that guy just can't flow. The rest of the album follows suit, with Snoop drastically out-shining his labelmates. Mystikal's Ol Dirty Bastard-meets-Bone Thugs delivery grows old fast. C-Murder's Tupac-wannabe flow is painfully unoriginal. Mia-X isn't too bad, but lacks that special something that could make her above-average. How about Silkk The Shocker, Soulja Slim, Fiend, and Mac? Well. . . the world would be a better place if they were still slanging crack somewhere. And Master P himself simply CAN'T flow, period.

It's sad but true, but don't expect any Dogg Pound Gangstas rapping alonside Snoop this time around. He's hanging strictly with No Limit soldiers. Of course, Snoop's flow seems divine compared to the rest of "the Tank," but guest rappers are supposed to be there to complement an artist, not just sound lousy. Snoop himself is easily the best thing about the album, as one listen makes me wonder how these other clowns were able to recordentire albums by themselves.

So, Snoop raps alongside wack emcees. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if Snoop himself were in top form, but sadly, this isn't the case. He must have been listening to too much No Limit material lately, because he's now reciting the same ol' same ol' gangsta rhymes everyone has been on since N.W.A first dropped Straight Outta Compton. No more silly nonsense a la "What's My Name?," creepy story-telling like "Murder Was the Case," or verbal gymnastics as were displayed on "Gz and Hustlas." And that "keep the peace" vibe he was working with on Tha Doggfather is gone, too, in favor of mediocre, unoriginal, always violent rhymes.

This violence, however, lacks any edge to it. When Doggystyle was released, Snoop was one of the most controversial figures in the country. Back then, Rap was dangerous. Maybe I'm just to desensitized to this kind of stuff now, or maybe now I know better on how violence is used as a gimmick to sell records, but No Limit, as a whole, has no teeth. These "soldiers" may be flowing about murder and drugs, but everything comes across as an empty threat, due to the fact that they're all probably chillin' in some mansion, nowhere close to the hood. I suspect this Dogg's bark is worse than his bite.

Not so coincidentally, the best lyrics here weren't written by Snoop at all. Ice Cube and KRS-One can claim authorship. That's right, the first rapper to ever cover another Rap song (Slick Rick's "Lodi Dodi") now has TWO more new versions of Hip-Hop classics;this time around it's N.W.A's "Gangsta, Gangsta" and Boogie Down Productions' "Love's Gonna Getcha." Of the two covers, one's a hit, one's a miss. "Gangsta, Gangsta," renamed "DP Gangsta," is a playful take on N.W.A's original, with a fun beat and a sillier than normal C-Murder. It can't touch the real version, but still ends up as one of Da Game Is To Be Sold's best tracks. "Doggz Gonna Get Ya," Snoop's remake of BDP's "Love's Gonna Getcha," flops, however. Maybe I love the original track so much that I'd hate any attempts to duplicate it, but Snoop just can't do justic to KRS-One's incredible lyrics. Plus, the beat is wack.

Speaking of wack beats, this album is full of them. That's mainly due to the fact that Beats By the Pound produce the majority of Da Game's tracks. Occasionally, this squad hits gold, like on "Snoop World" and "DP Gangsta." But too often, their genericultra-plastic studio sound, not helped by their failed attempts to imitate West Coast beats, hinders Snoop's flow. These guys aren't above lacing a soft "slow-jam" (read: wack R&B track) or use a Puffy-sized rip-off of an old song (see "Slow Down"), either. Bites By The Pound is more like it. Southern sounding beats are just an ill (ill as in bad) fit to Snoop's Long Beach flow. And just when you thought tracks produced by Snoop's old homeys, DJ Pooh and Soopafly, would save the day. . . those two tracks are wack, too. Other attempts to resurrect his past, like the oh-so cleverly titled "Gin and Juice II" and "Still a G Thang" fall flat, as well. Poor Snoop.

Poor Snoop? Well, yeah, I kinda feel sorry for him. I could blast him for being a sell-out, but that's beside the point. I genuinely feel pity for Snoop Dogg. Here's a young man who has some real talent, but released a wack album, mostly because he signed to No Limit. He's forced to rap over wack Southern beats alongside wack Southern rappers, with his Westside kin nowhere to be found. He seems stuck with No Limit. Why he didn't sign with Dr. Dre's Aftermath label (which has been signing some great acts like Golden State Warriors, Eminem, and Last Emperor) is beyond me. It honestly makes me feel sad that the world may never hear a real Snoop Dogg song again. Snoop might still be making plenty of dough, but his career as a creative artist is OVER if he sticks with No Limit.

Let's cut to the chase: is this album better than Snoop's last one? NO. After Tha Doggfather, my basic analysis was that Snoop Doggy Dogg without Dr. Dre was just another rapper. Now, I'm tempted to say that Snoop Dogg with Master P is a WACK emcee. Da Game Is To Be Sold, which is anything but bold, is easily Snoop's poorest effort to date, and lacks everything that made his past albums enjoyable.

---Steve Clark