You can look at the hard-hitting Tha Blue Carpet Treatment as a reaction to the crossover-minded R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, an album that featured Justin Timberlake and the mega-single "Drop It Like It's Hot." Since that polished - some would say "watered-down" - effort put him over the top (again), Snoop was seen shilling for Chrysler and Orbit gum when he used to rep Girls Gone Wild: Doggy Style videos and that green sticky-icky you can only get on the West Coast. The time to buy street cred would be now, right? Well, Snoop's been doing some amazing things under most folks' radar, and this album is the natural outcome. While the title is a little poke at the Crip/Blood, blue/red dichotomy, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment feels like the G-funk soundtrack to Snoop's 2005 West Coast peace summit and all the positive hood moves he's made since then, like squashing all West Coast beefs and throwing some love to Cali's often-ignored Latin hip-hop community with his intentionally leaked "My Peoples" freestyle. It's the latter relationship that's responsible for the excellent "Vato," and while special guest B Real might be way bigger than 2Mex or most of the other names mentioned in "My Peoples," the Cypress Hill sideman needs Snoop in 2006 much more than vice versa. Polished efforts like the pimping "That's That S***" with R. Kelly and the strip club anthem "I Wanna F*** You" with Akon fall between Doggystyle-d gangsta throwbacks like the slinky "Crazy" with Nate Dogg and "Candy (Drippin' Like Water)," which features E-40 and Tha Dogg Pound next to lesser-known vets Goldie Loc and MC Eiht. Juggling "Candy"'s guests would be hard enough for lesser Gs, but it's a testament to Snoop that he can, and more so that he manages a full album that touches upon just about every ghetto flavor. Banger after banger, produced by everyone from Timbaland to the Neptunes, leads to a couple numbers that almost throw the album off-track: "Psst!," where Jamie Foxx woefully pretends he's Prince, and the pee-wee football anthem "Beat Up on Yo Pads," which is just out of place. Then there's the dream number "Imagine," a duet between Dr. Dre and Snoop that ponders a hood life not blessed with hip-hop, a life where the two would have never gotten "out from under." As the album exits on the positive "Conversations" with Stevie Wonder, memories of Rhythm & Gangsta's grandest moments return, and it becomes obvious Tha Blue Carpet Treatment isn't so much a reaction to that album as it is a house party celebrating Snoop's whole career. With heaping helpings of G-funk and Left Coast attitude, there's no reason any West Coast-loving hip-hopper should miss this party.



01. Intrology
02. Think About It
03. Crazy
04. Vato
05. That's That Shit
06. Candy (Drippin' Like Water)
07. Get A Light
08. Gangbangn 101
09. Boss' Life
10. LAX
11. 10 Lil' Crips
12. Round Here
13. A Bitch I Knew
14. Like This
15. Which One Of You
16. I Wanna Fuck You
17. Psst!
18. Beat Up On Yo Pads
19. Don't Stop
20. Imagine
21. Conversations
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Track 1, 10 Produced by Battlecat
Track 2 Produced by Frequency
Track 3 Produced by "Fredweck" Farid Nassar
Track 4, 11 Produced by The Neptunes
Track 5 Produced by Nottz
Track 6 Produced by RickRock
Track 7 Produced by Timbaland
Track 8 Produced by Niggaracci
Track 9, 12 Produced by Dr. Dre
Track 13 Produced by Rhythm D., Co-produced by Battlecat
Track 14 Produced by Soopafly
Track 15 Produced by 1500
Track 16 Produced by Aliaune "Akon" Thiam
Track 17 Produced by Jamie Foxx, N8, and Brainz
Track 18 Produced by Mr. Porter and DJ DTT
Track 19 Produced by Chrs "THX" Goodman
Track 20 Produced by Dr. Dre and Mark Batson
Track 21 Produced by DJ Pooh

Mastered by Brian "Big Bass Garner at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood, CA
Assisted by Mike Bozzi
Album sequencing by Bigg Snoop Dogg