More than any other substance, marijuana has played a most crucial role in the uprising of rap music. And though he doesn't deserve all of the credit, who knows how the genre would have formulated had it not been for the Ambassador of Pot himself, Snoop Dogg.
With the recent wave of weed obsessed rappers, new marquees of hip hop have arisen, from producer Clams Casino's cloud rap beats for ASAP Rocky, to rappers like Wiz Khalifa, Domo Genesis and Currensy who refuse to use anything but the drug as lyrical inspiration. Subtlety may be their Achilles heel – two of the aforementioned pot dwellers have mixtapes titled Rolling Papers – but something bout an iconic Snoop Dogg, who built much of his fame on being the monarch of weed smoking, coming out with an EP dubbed Stoners seems to reek more of desperation than of blueberry kush.
At this point in his career, Snoop Dogg is a paragon of pot culture and its correlation to hip hop. But unlike his confidante Dr. Dre, who wont even put out the heavily anticipated Detox, it appears Snoop is not ready to be disconnected from the limelight. He continues to appeal to a younger audience, a realization prompted long ago with his departure to softer mainstream waters; his duet with Katy Perry, his chart topping “Young, Wild And Free” with Wiz Khalifa, his Coachella headlining phenomenon (and talks of bringing the Tupac hologram on tour with him and Dre) and now this digital only EP. The rapper seems hell bent on making moves, even though the demographic he once appealed to has moved on by now, and Stoners appears to be just that: another move, another frantic attempt to remain relevant.
As a man whose never changed his tone, Snoop's records have grown monotonous over the last decade. Having said that, if he continues to put out three to four projects a year, there's a good chance that this young, wild and free generation may remember him more for tracks like “Stoner's Anthem” as opposed to “Gin & Juice.” Who was once a defiant, Crip associated gangsta, whose lyrics depicted violence and spawned controversy, has transitioned to a wealthy, laid back and relaxed stoner. Relaxed is the definitive term here, and this EP is a testament to the fact. If the lyrics don't provide enough verification - “Rolling with a player who files his nails and takes care of his hair” - than the superfluous production on Stoners will. We'll see what's to come with Reincarnated.