Snoop's Blueprint Laid the Foundation
Hype Currie | Detroit, Michigan United States | 02/27/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"SNOOP'S BLUEPRINT LAID THE FOUNDATION
The West Coast Blueprint is a compilation album from Priority Records, chronicling the general history of the storied hip-hop label. Snoop Dogg, recently signed to an executive position at the label, has personally compiled this set of songs featuring rap artists based out of California. The set culls its songs from the EMI umbrella of label imprints including Priority, Virgin, and Capitol.
Pros
Starting with the release of Eazy-E's Eazy Duz-It LP, Priority Records started a now-legendary relationship with hip-hop that has included artists such as N.W.A., Ice Cube, the Geto Boys, Master P, Mack 10, and others. Presented in largely chronological order, listeners will hear King Tee's "Act a Fool", The D.O.C.'s "No One Can Do it Better", the Luniz' "I Got Five on It", Mack 10 & Dogg Pound's "Nothin' but the Cavi Hit", Kid Frost's "La Raza", and more. Listeners will hear the evolution of California's hip-hop music, which brought expanded themes to the genre about contemporary gang problems, the drug war, police misconduct and more.
Cons
Depending on how old the listener is in hip-hop, they may well already own a `best of' set (or several studio albums) based on the artists in this compilation, making this particular mixtape somewhat redundant unless there was a handful of songs that they managed to miss in the process (none of the selections here are particularly rare, being standard album cuts or single edits). The bonus song, Snoop's cover of Ice Cube's "Check Yo Self" is decent but unremarkable (compared to his total-makeover rendition of "La-Di-Da-Di" from 1993, which would have made a nice inclusion.)
Snoop cheats slightly on a few of the selections here: "No One Can Do it Better" was from the D.O.C.'s debut LP released on Ruthless/Atlantic (and not even a single), making it one of two songs on the set not from the EMI media catalog. The other is Yo-Yo's "You Can't Play with my Yo-Yo" (East-West/Atlantic), which to its credit includes iconic Priority artist Ice Cube but also serves as the only counterpoint to the casual sexism in many of the songs here: on that note, crate-diggers may remember the Oakland act Conscious Daughters (produced by the militant-minded Paris) who released Ear to the Street and Gamers on the Scarface/Priority imprint in the 90s. Why not include a song from them?
Other Issues:
Priority first dipped its toes into hip-hop via a string of themed compilation LPs in the 1980s called (without a touch of humility) Rap's Greatest Hits. In the years since Priority's 1990s heyday as a powerhouse independent label (and its subsequent absorption by EMI/Capitol), it has recurrently released anthologies based on various affiliated artists, leading to a lot of overlap.
Since this album ostensibly celebrates the Priority label's hand in the history of West Coast rap, it is understandable that going outside of the catalog for licensed songs would be kept to a minimum. Still, it comes across as glaring that no Death Row singles are included here: Priority served as distributor for an assortment of Death Row albums in the 90s.--but instead of Snoop's "What's My Name" or "Gin N Juice", listeners have to settle for the so-so "Trust Me" (featuring Sylk E. Fine and Suga Free) culled from Snoop's early 2000s stint on No Limit Records.
Regarding other worthy artists, Ice-T's Warner Bros. material may have been off-limits, but he recorded two lesser-known albums for Priority in the 90s--despite this, he gets squeezed out in favor of Rappin' 4-Tay. "You Gots to Chill" or "You're a Customer" by EPMD (whose first two albums fall under Priority's care) could have been included--despite being an East Coast act, the ominous synthesizer-bass riff in the songs were a kind of proto-G-funk offering that West Coast rappers expanded upon. The aforementioned Paris released Guerrilla Funk on Priority in 1994, whose political stances gave some thematic diversity to the morally gray gangsta-tales of Priority's roster.
In summary, this album may entertain some Generation-X'ers who initially had most of these songs on cassette tape but it's only a decent West Coast rap sampler for unfamiliar listeners. Seek out the original studio albums where possible: of course, this may likely be the point, as many of the LPs referenced here have been re-released with bonus material. Fo' shizzle."
A Nice (But Incomplete) Timeline Of The West Coast
D.P. | California | 04/30/2010
(3 out of 5 stars)
"From the late 80's throughout the 90's into the early 2000's, one of the most influencial rap/hip hop labels was Priority Records. This label is responcible for the launch/success of so many legends & well known names in rap music from Eazy-E & N.W.A., Ice Cube & Westside Connection, Snoop Dogg, Master P & others. However the label was later merged into Capitol Records (and later under EMI) & reduced to just releasing various "Greatest Hits" albums using the same songs from their vault for years along with re-releasing it's past albums over & over again after a couple of years (Eazy-E's "Eternal E" Greatest Hits album got repackaged at least 2 different times). The label is now making a comeback for it's 25th Anniversary with Snoop Dogg having an executive position as Creative Chairman along with Snoop re-releasing classic albums from their vault with his "Uncut Snoop Dogg Approved" stamp on them. Snoop has also released this album full of tracks from the catalog to represent the catalog's influence when it came to west coast music.
Snoop Dogg broke this album down into three different eras from late 1980's to the first & last half of the 1990's. The early era is represented with Eazy-E's "Eazy Duz It", King Tee's "Act A Fool", The D.O.C. "No One Can Do It Better", Low Profile "Pay Ya Dues", and Kid Frost "La Raza". N.W.A.'s "Always Into Something", Rappin 4-Tay's "Playaz Club", and Ice Cube's original version of "Check Yo Self" with Das EFX & his "You Can't Play With My Yoyo" collaboration with Yo-Yo herself complete the 1990-1995 era. The era of the late 90's has the most tracks on here with Mack 10's "Foe Life" & his collaboration with Death Row Records' artist Tha Dogg Pound on "Nothin' But The Cavi Hit", Luniz' "I Got 5 On It", Ras Kass' "The Evil That Men Do", Westside Connection's "Gangstas Make The World Go Round", Ant Banks "4 Tha Hustlers", and Snoop Dogg's own song "Trust Me." Also on here is Snoop Dogg's own remake on the Ice Cube classic "Check Yo Self (The Message Remix)" featuring the Hustle Boyz which is a nice bonus track but nothing worth going out of your way to listen to.
Now this is one of those releases that, eventhough the title suggest that this is a represenation of west coast music, is very limited as various artist & their record labels who were very influential on the west coast moment didn't have their catalogs available for various reasons (like how Death Row owns their own masters & catalog regardless of who distributes it or how 2pac was under a deal with Interscope Records throughout his career). Knowing that, one of the things I like about this album is that certain lesser known tracks were picked so those artist who they didn't have access to had their presence was represented through a collaboration that was done such as Snoop Dogg's "Trust Me" represented Suga Free, the Ant Banks song also having appearences from 2pac & Too Short, Death Row Records being represented by Tha Dogg Pound on their song with Mack 10 "Nuthin But The Cavi Hit", W.C. as part of the Westside Connection, and picking the N.W.A. track "Always Into Something" that was just Dr. Dre & MC Ren since both Ice Cube & Eazy-E already had their own solo tracks on here. The only things I really would have stressed on here is that there was a way to get Ice-T on here since he did some songs in their vault along with some collaborations with artist on the label like Ice Cube & Ras Kass while Above The Law is once again unrecognized when it comes to their influence on the west coast. In the end, most older fans have most of these songs in one way or another through either the original albums, re-releases with bonus materials (Ice Cube, N.W.A., and Eazy-E's albums), or Priority constantly releasing various albums reusing the same songs in their catalog. However there are a few rare tracks here that haven't been recycled or re-released in years (at least to my knowledge) so that may have some appeal. As for newer fans, concider this a mixtape (or as another review put it, a sampler) highlighting the record label's history. Under those basis, it's something I recommend to check out."
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1