In the week of Liverpool Sound City it can be difficult for an artist to stand out. Every venue in Liverpool City Centre had been preparing for months for the area's stand out music festival, but it was the o2 Academy on Hotham Street that seemed to be the busiest. The night before Sound City officially began, the Academy was clearly hosting something special. Two enormous tour-buses (I believe the technical term for their size is “big, fuck-off tour-buses”) blocked the road and security guards were intent on making sure no one wandered where they shouldn't. There was even a noticeable police presence – one frisking wasn't enough for entrance, you also had to shuffle past a sniffer-dog to get in, causing many a-pothead to creep past like a particularly nervous contestant on Knightmare. To say there was an atmosphere around the place would be an understatement, and few artists can generate this sort of buzz.
One man who certainly can is Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. Or as he's better known, Snoop Dogg.
Even fewer artists can get away with taking the piss over stage-times as much as Snoop either. Whilst his DJ stretched out the minutes by inviting on stage the easier female members of the Liverpool crowd (who no doubt got the chance to make a “film” with Snoop backstage later on), the crowd gleaned with an anticipatory sweat; not helped by the Krazyhouse-levels of humidity in the Academy. After two hefty bodyguards lined the stage to discourage any would-be invaders, the Doggfather himself finally arrived to a tremendous reception. Pigtails, shades and ridiculously oversized gold microphone in hand, Snoop dove straight in to the set.
As this tour was primarily to promote new album Doggumentary, there may have been some trepidation from those in attendance that he would focus on his newer songs while ignoring the classics; thankfully this was not to be the case*. Standards such as “Who Am I (What's My Name)” and “Tha Shiznit” rested comfortably alongside later hits like “Drop It Like It's Hot” and new single, “Wet (David Guetta remix)”. A setlist spanning three decades highlights a remarkable career for a man who is not yet 40 but has remained near-enough at the top of the rap game since his 1993 début – and it was a song from that début LP which stood out as the peak of the night, “Gin n Juice” bringing together the rapper on stage and the predominantly white, scouse crowd; many of whom were not even born when the song was first released.
Fans of Snoop's numerous collaborations were not to be disappointed either - “The Next Episode” kicked off the whole gig to an ecstatic crowd, and “I Wanna Fuck You” followed later on, as well as Snoop's version of 50 Cent's “P.I.M.P.”. The inclusion of a few musical tributes to fallen friends was a nice touch too , with covers of songs by House of Pain, Eazy-E, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. - the sing-a-long chorus of the latter's “Hypnotise” going down particularly well with the crowd. There was also a touching moment of respect for his close friend, collaborator and cousin, Nate Dogg, who passed away earlier this year.
Though there was a surprising lack of guests joining him on stage, Snoop admirably held the crowd alone and performed for near an hour; more than one might expect for a rap gig these days. The setlist contained more than enough hits to keep most happy, with a few nice surprises along the way. For someone whose reputation almost certainly precedes him, it might have been hard for Snoop Dogg to live up to the high expectations of the Academy's capacity crowd. But he did it with aplomb, showing no sign of letting up and engaging in a nice level of interaction with the audience; even when potentially alienating half of the crowd by coming back on stage with a Liverpool FC shirt on, Snoop enhanced his reputation as a fan-favourite. Even when a brief power-shortage caused the beats to drop he wasn't thrown off stride and remained in good spirits.
Snoop certainly has his critics, especially outside of music, but for rap fans he does not disappoint. It would have been easy for Snoop Dogg to phone in this sort of gig and simply play the tracks from his latest album, but the setlist was almost everything a fan could want and he performed with gusto, and perhaps most importantly, looked like he was enjoying it himself.
Hopefully next time he'll do it without the Liverpool shirt.
*Murder was tha case
I really like him
ReplyDelete