Image via Complex Original
Today, Snoop Dogg turns the big 4-0 (that's almost 6 in Dogg years). It's been a long road for Big Snoop, from Crippin' in the LBC to reppin' as a pop-culture superstar. With nearly two decades in the game, he's been making hits for the better part of a college kid's entire lifetime.
As great as his catalog is—from "Deep Cover" to "Drop It Like It's Hot"—scattered throughout that massive discography are more than a few mangy missteps. From terrible television jingles to shockingly bad single choices, and even a losing collaboration with your boy Charlie Sheen, these songs are so awful that they're kinda awesome.
Like we always do at this time, Complex put together a list of The 10 Worst Snoop Dogg Songs. Take a look inside for all the joints that should have been dumped in the ashtray. Happy Birthday Big Homie!
Written by Julian Pereira (@Broadway_Jay) & Keenan Higgins (@HIGzILLMATIC).
10. Snoop Dogg “Still A G Thang” (1998)
Producer: Meech Wells
Album: Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told
Label: No Limit/Priority
Best Youtube Comment: “‘NO LIMIT IS THE LABEL THAT PAYS ME’ Thanks Snoop, we’re still trying to forget that.” - Rut267
Complex says: When Snoop hooked up with Master P's No Limit Records—one of the hottest labels in the game at the time—the pairing seemed a strange one, but fans reserved judgment, curious as to how Snoop’s style would change as he made the transition from Suge Knight and Death Row. Then came “Still A G Thang.”
His first No Limit release packed a plethora of fails, the most egregious being Snoop's choice to remake his classic “Ain’t Nuthin’ But A G Thang.” Not only was a terrible follow-up stylistically—Meech Wells is no Andre Young—but Snoop’s raps weren’t nearly up to par. Visibly out of his element, the song was nuthin' but an L thing.
9. Snoop Dogg “Beat Up On Yo Pads” (2006)
Producer: Mr. Porter, DJ DDT Da Busta
Album: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment
Label: Geffen
Best Youtube Comment: ”so fucking old” - idqafximmxbad
Complex says: At first glance, the title of the song sounds like something Too $hort would’ve put out about smasshing a girl on her period. But this one is actually for the kids. Dedicated to the youth football league that Snoop coaches, the five words repeated throughout the chorus gets more and more annoying as the song goes on.
Even for a rapper who loves flipping nursery rhymes, these verses sound way too much like actual nursery rhymes. And although it’s a nice song with a positive message, it had no business landing on a Snoop album that was supposed to be about some gangsta shit.
8. Snoop Dogg “Wet” (2010)
Producer: The Cataracs
Album: Doggumentary
Label: Doggystyle/Priority
Best Youtube Comment: “Everyone's laughing right, because we all know it was Jesus who walked on water and Moses who parted the sea. And I'm not even Christian.” - ChocolateExplosion
Complex says: Snoop’s uncanny ability to reinvent himself has allowed him to keep making hits after nearly 20 years in the game. That’s why he blew us away when he embraced Auto-Tune and made the amazing '70s themed video for his 2008 hit, “Sexual Eruption.”
As impressive as that was, he went back to the well once too often when he decided to make “Wet.” The song is a blatant knock-off of “Sexual Eruption”—but with half the suaveness and none of the intrigue. Let's call it what is was: a lazy reach. And despite its name, "Wet" couldn’t be more dry.
7. Snoop Dogg f/ Jamel Debbouze “Mission Cleopatra” (2002)
Producer: Snoop Dogg, Jamel Debbouze
Album: N/A
Label: Universal Music Group
Best Youtube Comment: “Snoop ain’t been shit since The Last Meal” - Namkooc
Complex says: This sorry excuse for a song mixes a West Coast beat from the '90s with a Bollywood-inspired movie from God knows where. The result, as you can probably guess, is a big pot of “WTF?”
Featured on the track is Jamel Debbouze, who sounds like he has no idea why he's there or what he’s rapping about. We’re not clear what Snoop was thinking when he put his name on this masterpiece, but one thing’s for certain: Snoop Dogg, Bollywood, and a Prince of Egypt theme are about as wise a combination as Apu's patented chutney squishee.
6. Snoop Dogg “Oh Sookie” (2010)
Producer: Wild Animals
Album: N/A
Label: HBO
Best Youtube Comment: “I think Anna Paquin is pretty grossed out by this.” - BobbyMostertman
Complex says: So not only did Snoop do a song entirely about True Blood star Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), but if you peep the video, he even hired Sookie look-alikes as his badly choreographed backup dancers.
Clearly the song and video were both meant to be a joke, that still doesn’t take away from how badly they both sucked. Word is that Snoop requested to make a cameo on True Blood at one point, but was denied by the creator and stars of the show. What? They didn't appreciate his Oscar-worthy performance in Bones?
5. Snoop Dogg f/ Jon B. “D.O.G.’s Get Lonely 2” (1998)
Producer: Meech Wells, Snoop Dogg
Album: Da Game Is To Be Sold Not Told
Label: No Limit/Priority
Best Youtube Comment: “LOL..... :P” - Pzykotikal
Complex says: Late in his career, Snoop made the laid-back ladies-man approach work for him. But not this time. This song may be the first time he tried his hand at the rough-around-the-edges-but-still-a-ladies-man style. What he ended up with was a misguided, awkward faux-love song.
The track is a remake of Jon B.’s whiteboy soul classic “They Don’t Know,” but it lacks the taste and especially the smoothness of the original. Snoop raps as if he’s slightly uncomfortable, leading us to believe that his so-called vulnerable side is really just a case of rapper's remorse. It sounds like he had a moment of clarity in the vocal booth, thinking to himself "Dear Lord I wonder can you save me?" Apparently not.
4. Snoop Dogg f/ Charlie Sheen “Winning” (2011)
Producer: Rob Patterson
Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Best Youtube Comment: “‘Anyone who can get through the first 30 seconds of this....god bless you.” - Annonymouspecification
Complex says: When we look back on 2011, we’ll remember it as the year Charlie Sheen proved to the world that one celebrity’s crack bender was not only worthy of national headlines (and a classic Complex soundboard) but also a really bad rap song. When you combine Snoop’s knack for out-the-box collaborations and his notoriously horrible endorsement logic, this was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
We’re still looking forward to forgetting that this ever happened. When Charlie Sheen was saying awesomely insane things on TV, he was winning. But when started repeating the phrase incessantly over an inane beat, he was just failing miserably. Gotta give Snoop credit for sorta trying to make the song interesting, but he should've known better.
3. Snoop Dogg "Freestyle Conversation" (1996)
Producer: Soopafly
Album: Tha Doggfather
Label: Death Row/Interscope
Best Youtube Comment: “the part i don't understand is how a multi-million dollar rapper will knowingly put a 'crappy' beat on his album.... to prove a point? the point he proved is that the fast forward button still works on my remote cause that beat was made in 2 minutes and is awful to hear” - tremorchristo
Complex says: After releasing his classic debut Doggystyle, Snoop was a certified superstar, but that's when things took a turn. His friend Tupac was killed and Dr. Dre escaped from Death Row leaving Snoop to fend for himself on his sophomore LP, Tha Doggfather. He tried to prove he could win without Dre's sonic blueprint, but ended up proving how Much he needed the good doc.
"I don't give a fuck about no beat," declared Snoop on the song. That may be true, but unfortunately for him, everyone else did. If this intentionally sub-par production was a conceptual statement, it went over everybody's head. (Puff puff, pass.) No wonder Tha Doggfather ranks as one of the 10 Worst Rap Album Fails.
2. Snoop Dogg f/ Willie Nelson “Superman” (2011)
Producer: Willie Nelson
Album: Doggumentary
Label: Doggystyle/Priority
Best Youtube Comment: “Willie Nelson outlived Superman” - HipHopWingSauce
Complex says: Snoop Dogg is a rap legend who loves to smoke weed, owes money to the IRS, and will do anything for a paycheck. Willie Nelson is a country legend who loves to smoke weed, owes money to the IRS, and will do anything for a paycheck. So we guess it was inevitable these two would collaborate.
Of course, some collabos that are better suited for half-funny jokes than legitimate album cuts. Enter the poorly made “Superman,” which proved once again that Snoop’s kryptonite has always been his laziness. (Wait, marijuana can make you lethargic? Really?). In the end, the only winner here is whoever sold the massive amounts of weed these two blazed through while making this mess.
1. Rico f/ Snoop Dogg "Where My Ladies At" (2011)
Producer: N/A
Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Best Youtube Comment: “Is this on iTunes?” - CFedProductions
Complex says: First of all, is that a rat or a possum or what? We have no clue. All we know is that Snoop got murdered on his own shit by a furry puppet. And this New Zealand TV ad proves once and for all that the Doggfather will do anything for a check.
Now, don't get us wrong. We've got much love for Snoop's outlandish cameos. Ain't nothin wrong with bringing his larger-than-life personality to the forefront and being in on the joke. But trust us Snoop, on this one we're laughing at you, not with you.