More photos from the Snoop Dogg concert here.
After a long day slaving away at your cubicle prison, you deserve some fun. What could be better than getting down to some good ol’ 90s gangster rap as a pre-show to getting your bar star on at the club? Nothing that’s what and that’s just what I did tonight when I ambled on over to Commodore to catch Snoop Dogg live in concert. It’s been awhile since I listened to Snoop Dogg and it’s been a few since his last album. The last couple years it seemed to me that Snoop was taking it easy, letting his brand (and a few song cameos) carry his career. I guess with the current state of hip-hop I can’t blame him.
Despite my initial qualms of wading into a crowd of ‘roided up d-bags, I was wrong and the crowd was a nice mix of stoners, douchebags, and suburbanites. The legendary Commodore was packed and the crowd was already moving thanks to the smooth spinning of opening act, Vancouver’s own DJ Physik.
My second worry of the night was that Snoop would pull another chicken run incident, but thankfully the rap star was only half an hour late! Unbelievable! As soon as it was announced that Snoop was in the building, puffs of white smoke rose magically into the air. The rapper himself appeared in a puff of smoke and strobe lights, dressed in a Luongo jersey, rasta beanie and clutching a bedazzled diamond mic glove, launching immediately into a crowd rousing rendition of Snoop Doggy Dog. I was in hip-hop heaven.
More photos from the Snoop Dogg concert here.
The set list read like a wonderfully hazy, groove-shaking journey through the annals of West Coast rap: Ain’t Nothing like a G Thang, Gin and Juice, and Drop It Like It’s Hot, with a liberal sprinkling of popular Snoop collabos like Let’s Get High with Dr. Dre, I Wanna Fuck You with Akon, and P.I.M.P with 50 Cent. Sadly, Snoop also decided to include his more recent and much less epic collabos with Drake, Whiz Kalifa and yes, even Katy Perry. Seriously? If Snoop is going to pull Katy Perry out of his hat instead of all the other way better songs at his disposal, at least he should have some dancers spraying whipped cream out of their titties!
Blasting through song after song, Snoop took only a few pauses to hype up the crowd and some even longer pauses to puff on his… cigar. During one song, he even spent half of it just puffing while his MCs took up the slack. It’s quite impressive to me that after all the weed Snoop’s inhaled over the years, he still manages to keep it on point for performances. Lest you begin to think drugs won’t ruin your brain though kids, let me tell you about the elderly African-American gentleman from Snoop’s crew that spent the entire concert dancing aimlessly and joyously around the stage – he didn’t have no mic, he barely even seemed awake, but man, was he having a good time.
I can’t say I’m too experienced with attending hip-hop concerts, but from my limited experience I think it’s safe to say that Snoop Dogg delivered a solid performance. His concert was just what I was expecting: old school flow, smooth beats and all the old favourites. Now if only he could remember what it was like to be a serious rapper and forget producing all these silly stoner movies.
