Tha Dogg Pound
Dogg Chit

Perhaps Tha Dogg Pound took the motto, “Ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none,” a bit too literally when they constructed last year’s reunion album Cali Iz Active. The disc’s title almost seems like an afterthought, with all its non–Golden State cameos, from Diddy to David Banner, and sonic attempts to broaden their appeal. But on their latest effort, Dogg Chit, Daz Dillinger and Kurupt cut the crap and offer up an unrelentingly balls-out dose of West Coast–centric G-funk.

Rhyming as if still in their Death Row heyday, the duo dumps on assorted bitches and bitch-ass niggas over tracks full of squishy synths and arena-rattling bass. Scored entirely by Daz, with a few assists from Soopafly and Ivan Johnson, the gangsta ethos runs thick. On the smoothed-out “Good Day,” Kurupt explains, “It’s just a California thing/It’s the way we are, the way we bang/Ever since Snoop dropped ‘G Thang.’”

That point is hammered home even further on “Everybody,” a guns-blazing anthem for the C-walking and hydraulic-bouncing set, and again on “Anybody Killa,” featuring a stellar verse from The Game. Supported by a marauding piano break, the three Cali dons clarify that neither geography nor gang affiliation will prevent them from sending “a nigga to the funeral home.”

Daz and Kurupt are equally unforgiving when addressing the ladies. Paternity tests are damned on “Dat Ain’t My Baby,” while the oral-sex ode “Can’t Get Enuff” opens with fellatio slurping sound effects—one of the CD’s many agonizing interludes. In fact, given the limited subject matter (gangbangin’, girls and guns), the skits between almost every song are unnecessary additions to an already bloated 17-track disc.

Yet for all the gangsta posturing and women abusing, Daz and Kurupt sound as fiery, outrageous and meatheaded as ever. With the production arching from vintage Cali electro-boogie grooves (“Vibe”) to epic strings (“This Gangsta Shit Is Ours”), listeners won’t mind reveling in politically incorrect bliss, thinking, “Damn, that’s that chit.” —BRETT JOHNSON