You can look at the hard-hitting
Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
as a reaction to the crossover-minded
R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece
, an album that featured
Justin Timberlake
and the mega-single
"Drop It Like It's Hot."
Since that polished -- some would say "watered-down" -- effort put him over the top (again),
Snoop
was seen shilling for Chrysler and Orbit gum when he used to rep
Girls Gone Wild: Doggy Style
videos and that green sticky-icky you can only get on the West Coast. The time to buy street cred would be now, right? Well,
's been doing some amazing things under most folks' radar, and this album is the natural outcome. While the title is a little poke at the Crip/Blood, blue/red dichotomy,
feels like the
G-funk
soundtrack to
's 2005 West Coast peace summit and all the positive hood moves he's made since then, like squashing all West Coast beefs and throwing some love to Cali's often-ignored
Latin
hip-hop
community with his intentionally leaked
"My Peoples"
freestyle. It's the latter relationship that's responsible for the excellent
"Vato,"
and while special guest
B Real
might be way bigger than
2Mex
or most of the other names mentioned in
"My Peoples,"
the
Cypress Hill
sideman needs
in 2006 much more than vice versa. Polished efforts like the pimping
"That's That S***"
with
R. Kelly
and the strip club anthem
"I Wanna F*** You"
Akon
fall between
Doggystyle
-d
gangsta
throwbacks like the slinky
"Crazy"
Nate Dogg
and
"Candy (Drippin' Like Water),"
which features
E-40
Tha Dogg Pound
next to lesser-known vets
Goldie Loc
MC Eiht
. Juggling
"Candy"
's guests would be hard enough for lesser Gs, but it's a testament to
that he can, and more so that he manages a full album that touches upon just about every ghetto flavor. Banger after banger, produced by everyone from
Timbaland
to
the Neptunes
, leads to a couple numbers that almost throw the album off-track:
"Psst!,"
where
Jamie Foxx
woefully pretends he's
Prince
, and the pee-wee football anthem
"Beat Up on Yo Pads,"
which is just out of place. Then there's the dream number
"Imagine,"
a duet between
Dr. Dre
that ponders a hood life not blessed with
, a life where the two would have never gotten "out from under." As the album exits on the positive
"Conversations"
Stevie Wonder
, memories of
Rhythm & Gangsta
's grandest moments return, and it becomes obvious
isn't so much a reaction to that album as it is a house party celebrating
's whole career. With heaping helpings of
and Left Coast attitude, there's no reason any West Coast-loving hip-hopper should miss this party. ~ David Jeffries