Doggstep

It's happened. An established commercial rapper has made the venture into dubstep. With dubstep being the same tempo as a lot of crunk/Houston rap, the mashup and remix opportunities have been thoroughly taken advantage of. (The most successful of these is arguably DJ Nappy's Thugstep Pt 1 mix (LISTEN!). Weezy and Pharrell jumped on this sound a few months ago but ended up with this half-assed sub-bass snoozer:
Lil' Wayne - Yes (Download)


While Pharrell just borrows the genre's deep wobbling bass lines for a dubstep-influenced hip-hop track, Snoop teams up with London dubstep vets Chase and Status to make a bonified vocal dubstep track. The instrumental could stand alone as a solid track, but the problem here lies wholly with the D O double G. He begins with a shout out to the "dub nation" before explaining his role as a music trendsetter. (Yes, I'm aware that you released The Chronic). I'm not gonna argue with that, Snoop, but I sort of hope you are not trying to proclaim yourself the new face of commercial American dubstep. For one thing, his flow on this track is about as smooth as taking a Wrangler down Holt Rd. The chorus, besides smacking of lameness reminiscent of "Jockin' Jay-Z", also seems awkwardly detached from the verses. And although it's not as bad as his Bollywood soundtrack endeavor, the Slumdog Millionaire bite is a little weak without any witty verses to back it up. A shame. BUT! There is still lots of good stuff going on in dubstep. Rusko is on his American tour right now. If anything I hope this will at least spark more interest among the uninitiated.

Snoop Dogg w/Tanvi Shah - Snoop Dogg Millionaire (Download)


Your thoughts? A crossover hit? A niche-pandering flop? Mad Decent tipped me off to this where Diplo, mastermind of M.I.A's Grammy-nominated "Paper Planes", was pumped about it, so maybe I just don't know nothin' 'bout good music.