In all of the hoopla surrounding the release of Jay's Kingdom Come, I never got around to writing about the new Snoop Dogg album, which came out the same day.

Er, at least not here. I reviewed it for my own site back when it leaked.

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is the best Snoop Dogg album since Doggystyle in the same way that every new Stones album is their best one since Some Girls: it might be true or it might not be true. I'm not sure how much of a compliment it is either way.

I'm mainly familiar with the Snoop Dogg oeuvre going back to the days of Tha Last Meal, which I picked up on a whim in college. I've spent some time listening to it as well ass Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ and R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta) The Masterpiece - all of which, I think, have their moments.

Indeed a case could be made that Snoop's albums have gotten better and better since he left No Limit, except I think some people may have been put off by the number of Neptunes beats on R&G, especially the one with Justin Timberlake.

For what it's worth though, the Neptunes' work on R&G > the Neptunes work since R&G.

Where as that album was mostly Snoop + Neptunes, here they've been reduced to contributing only two tracks - both of which I like better than anything on Hell Hath No Fury. Is it because producing for Snoop Dogg pays better than producing for the Clipse? Hmm...

Snoop's old bag proprietor Dr. Dre contributes three tracks - two of which I found kinda meh, while one of which is the incredible "Imagine." One of the other two flips the same sample Eminem used for "Stan," while the other one supposedly sounds like something Fiddy Cent once did. Again, you have to wonder.

[Also, come to think of it, two other tracks on here were obviously leftovers from recent albums by E-40 and Akon. What in the hell?]

Content-wise, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment doesn't strike me as being especially different than these last several Snoop Dogg albums. But I do think it's better in the sense that the ratio of good songs to shit sandwiches has been increased. Except for maybe three or four real turds, you can just put this on and let it play.

At the end of the day, I suppose that's what matters most anyway.

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