Despite being announced in rather lacklustre style by the inevitable Neptunes production 'From Tha Chuuuch To Da Palace', this sixth album from Snoop Dogg is an inspired shift out of career nosedive. Under the tenure of Master P's No Limit label, Snoop consistently failed to deliver on the promise of his Dre-produced Death Row debut. Now, it seems, he's back with an allstar cast to right some of those wrongs.
What makes 'Paid Tha Cost...' such an unexpected joy is the way in which Snoop's comic persona offers all involved an opportunity to loosen up and have some fun. Just Blaze, responsible for some of the less inspired cuts on 'Blueprint 2', locks up the synth, banishes helium soul and pulls from his sleeve a flute and a full house of percussive tricks. The result sounds even better than Jay-Z's 'Bitches & Sisters'. 'Hourglass' proves that Snoop can out-funkadelic George Clinton at his own game, at least when he is isn't trying as hard as on 'Stoplight', a virtual retread of Parliament's 'Flashlight'.
The very first meeting of our drawling hero and every B-Boy's favourite producer, DJ Premier, delivers two of the album's most unlikely triumphs - the perfectly daft genius of 'Batman & Robin' and defiantly sampladelic 'The One And Only'. Brief intro 'Da Bo$$ Would Like To See You' leaves you begging that its producer, Tha Liks' E-Swift, had been commissioned to turn out a full track.
Almost everything here has a tongue stuck firmly in its cheek - 'Ballin' tilts its pimp hat to male vocal groups of the 60s like The Delfonics and The Stylistics. Featuring a guest performance from one of the lesser-known acts of the era, The Dramatics, who sprinkle soul dust liberally. Where the past few years have seen Snoop cruise his way through albums with a sleepy ambivalence to what is going on around him, that sleepy ambivalence is now clearly switched to attack mode.
And now that every other rap brat with a baseball cap gets a beat from Dr Dre Corp, Snoop sounds like just the man to make laying back in a West Coast cut seem like the best thing since 'Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang'. The Boss then, and not quite so much of an idle boast as we suspected.
