Growing up in South London in the 90s, it was almost impossible to not get into Hip Hop at the height of the East coast / West coast beef.
However a couple of years before Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr aka Snoop Doggy Dogg (he’s since dropped the ‘doggy’) blasted onto the scenes with ’Doggystle’.
The album is something that I like to call ‘the perfect album’ and since its release I am yet to find another album as good.
So when I heard Snoop was coming to the O2 arena for 1 night as part of his UK tour, I had to be there.
I had seen Snoop once before and was blown away with his performance at Wireless Festival 2010 so I knew what I was in for….or did I?
Standard practise with any main act at the O2, they will not be on stage before 9pm. So I opted to miss out on the support act ‘Chipmunk’ and fill my belly.
We killed some time and got into the arena for around 8.45. Just enough time to get me some gin and Juice and find a spot where I could see the stage.
HOWEVER – as I found my spot to hang, I noticed Chipmunk was still half way through his set, which took us over 9pm!
With a little mix from Mistajam in the middle which got the crowd hype, Snoop didn’t make it to the stage till around 9.50pm, giving a whole new meaning to ‘Hip Hop time’
There is fashionably late, and then there is just plain Late! And Snoop was the latter.
All was forgiven in my eyes when his intro video began, showing iconic scenes from classic Gangster films like Scarface and Godfather, mixed with shots from his own music videos.
Once scene that stood out for me was a scene from Scarface where Tony Montana is smoking a cigar, mixed with a shot of Snoop also smoking a cigar. At this point time stood still and I was back in the game…..but not for long.
Snoop rattled through all his big hits, taking hardly any time to interact with the audience. He went straight through all the biggest tracks from Doggystle cutting them off after a verse, leaving me largely unsatisfied.
What made me more upset was that this obviously wasn’t a Hip Hop concert; it was a pop stars concert. He had no time to do some classic cuts like Serial Killa, but had time to perform the track he did with R.Kelly! (Which I don’t even know what the name is)
Of course he ended the night with his latest track Sweat (or wet if you’re over 18) and with no Encore I was left massively unsatisfied.
Seeing him perform at Wireless the year before I knew what kind of performance he was capable of, but unfortunately this concert wasn’t one of those.
One thing I did love was the respect and tribute he paid to Nate Dogg, who I considered as one of the best hook singers that ever lived, before launching into ‘Aint No fun’ one of my favourite tracks.
And in his defense, he did get the crowd hyped up with a rendition of House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owwQSd0Blew&feature=related]
All in, I give the night 5 out of 10, but I will go see Snoop again as I have faith that maybe this was just an off night….. I Hope!!!