With his sixth official solo effort, Bigg Snoop Dogg breaks from the shadows of Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, and Master P, with his first true solo release saving the executive producer credit for himself. While it’s been said that without Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg will never release another classic record in the vein of Doggystyle, with Paid The Cost, he still delivers one of his strongest and most focused releases yet. 

     With the absence of Dr. Dre, Snoop doesn’t let his ego get in the way by employing a host of no-name or lower-level producers to craft his beats like he did on The Game Is To Be Sold Not To Be Told or Doggfather, but instead brings together some of the brightest names in the biz, not to mention a few longtime collaborators. The most easily accessable joints on here will definitely be “From Tha Chuuuch To Da Palace” and “Beautiful”, two Neptunes produced ditties that are more N.E.R.D. than they are L.B.C., but still maintain to capture the commercial crowd, along with Pharrell’s critical mass. And the high-school fun found on these two tracks continues throughout the majority of the album, getting progressively more obnoxious on each track. Both “Lollipop”, with the underrated Soopafly and Jay-Z is an X-rated banger propelled by an addictive Just Blaze flute loop, while the Fredwreck produced “From Long Beach 2 Brick City”, attacks with the same give-a-fuck-less attitude, and hilarious rhymes from Redman.  Things get even more dick-in-the-mash-potatoes-crazy each of the two rambunctious Jelly Roll bangers; the club-themed “Hourglass” has a show-stealing verse from Goldie Loc of Tha Eastsidaz, and then the so-bad-it’s-good, “You Got What I Want”, with a classic Ludacris moment. It’s blissful ignorance at it’s best. 

 But Snoop’s latest isn’t all break-a-bitch-back party joints, as a matter of fact, while it’s still deep rooted in the usual pimp-lessons (with Fredwreck’s smooth-ass “Bo$$ Playa” as the standout), this album is more reality based than any of his previous projects. On “I Miss That Bitch”, the new “weed-free” Snoop reflects on memories with Mary Jane, while gives love to his true love, his wife on “I Believe In You”, each over rolling Hi-Tek bass lines. He reflects on his family on the DJ Premier produced “The One And Only” stating “It’s like I’m happy now, cause I’m a family man / I fell in love with my kids and my wife again,” and in his boldest moment, he finally stands-up to the longtime bullying of Death Row on “Pimp Slapp’d”, where he prefaces “I am the man that you think you are.” Damn, Snoop’s all-growsed up!!

     But at 20 tracks length, it’s not blazers the whole way through. As a matter of fact, when it jumps off with “Spotlight”, a cheesy “Flashlight” rehash, with Snoop’s tired Bootsy Collins  adlibbing, or even worse, the lazy remake of Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid In Full”, it seems like this could be his worst album yet (although thankfully it gets progressively better). And from time to time, it does dip into mediocrity (“Suited and Booted”, “It Wasn’t Your Fault”), and sometimes is completely questionable (DJ Premier’s “Batman & Robin”), but for the most part, while by no means will it change the face of rap music, this is a fun album that grows on you with each listen.