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Review: Snoop Dogg, Bristol O2 Academy
Snoop Dogg dropped some serious shizzle in the Brizzle.
The hip-hop superstar sauntered around the Academy stage with a joint in one hand and the blingest microphone you’ve ever seen in the other, heavy gold medallions swinging around his neck.
The nearest he had got to Bristol previously was the Glastonbury festival in 2010. This appearance was the first of only two UK live dates, with a DJ set at Motion immediately following Thursday night’s show.
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Any tested patience among the sold-out crowd for arriving 50 minutes later than advertised was soon forgotten when Snoop walked onto the stage a few steps behind his man mountain of a bodyguard.
Just the first beats of some of his best-known tracks prompted whoops and hollers, with mostly just one or two minutes of each in quick succession.
It almost became a best of set, although without the collaborators with who Snoop seems to have made his most recognisable work.
Instead, he rapped his own parts in the the likes of Signs (without Justin Timberlake), Wiggle (without Jason Derulo) and Still Dre (without Dr Dre)
“Give me some motherfucking pimp music,” he implored to his DJ, who was also smoking a joint for most of the night (it was unclear whether the smoke around the stage was dry ice or all the weed being smoked).
Gin and Juice was a popular song from Snoop’s early oeuvre, even if it was mostly toasted by plastic glasses of Carling, while one of the best segments of the set featured a spot of karaoke including I love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett followed by tributes to departed peers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shukur with Hypnotize and 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted, another Snoop collaboration.
By the end of the night, we certainly knew that we were watching Snoop Dogg as he makes the crowd say his name on numerous occasions, not least in Who Am I.
Nobody drops it hotter.
Photo by Martin Thompson
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