Article
Snoop Dogg at Glastonbury 2010
The Doggfather rocks Glastonbizzle ... but is it all a little too polished?
Who: Snoop Dogg.
Where and when: Pyramid Stage, Friday, 5pm.
Dress code: Braids. White vest. Baggy blue jeans. This is the uniform and it's all set off with a piece of microphone bling – a jewel-encrusted knuckleduster bearing the legend: Snoop Dogg.
What happened: Making his return to the UK for the first time since his Visa was restored earlier this year, the one man brand that is Snoop Dogg brought his game to Glasto. To be fair, he might as well have been playing Pyongyang for all the difference it made to his set. A foolproof combination of medley after medley – interspersed with requests as to where the ladies were at – it was a performance so road-tested you expect Snoop to bring out a crash test dummy for a duet. Instead, it was Tinie Tempah, and that was the highlight of the hour.
Who's watching: Loadsapeople. All roads leading to the Pyramid stage were blocked a good half hour before Snoop was due to come on. It took all your correspondent's cunning to find a spot with a good view (three quarters of the way up the hill next to the gents). Once again a rapper draws a huge Glasto crowd. Who would have thought, eh Noel?
High point: Pass Out. Snoop released his own reworked version of Tempah's No 1 recently and, with the grime star playing here tomorrow, it was probably only fitting he should make an appearance. Pass Out is a great song – Snoop's verses make it better – and Tempah was so obviously delighted to be on stage with a rap grandmaster that he bounced through his performance like Tigger with a payrise. The crowd lapped it up.
Low point: Setting aside the whole issue of whether someone whose most recurring lyric is about killing policemen should really be considered family entertainment, there was something about the slick, off-rote nature of the performance that removed the gloss a little. That, and the new tracks (especially Sensual Seduction!).
In a tweet: The d oh double gizzle brings his shizzle to Glastonbizzle and the crowd gets in a tizzle.
Related Content
User Comments
kingofthehill
26 June 2010 3:39PM
Wait till Wu-Tang headline next year. Then i'm there. :)
Snoop without Dre...It's like tea without sugar. Can't be doing with it.
Hemulen
26 June 2010 4:47PM
The Doggfather rocks Glastonbizzle ... but is it all a little too polished?
Hip hop polished? No!
Jesus wept, is this what passes for music journalism now...
ericbforpm
27 June 2010 11:11AM
Snoop without Dre...It's like tea without sugar. Can't be doing with it.
Yup cuz Dre was the vocal talent in that partnership
steezolini
28 June 2010 7:59AM
"Setting aside the whole issue of whether someone whose most recurring lyric is about killing policemen should really be considered family entertainment, there was something about the slick, off-rote nature of the performance that removed the gloss a little. That, and the new tracks (especially Sensual Seduction!)."
why does the guardian cover hip hop when its painfully obvious that there is no love, or respect for it?.i think youre getting your ice t''s and your snoop d.o double gee's mixed up, and saying that a bout ice t would still be incorrect, and flippant.
shame, it could be so much better.
BPDam
29 June 2010 12:57PM
Why 3 stars? Are you sure you watched it properly? The crowd clearly loved it and it was probably one of the better sets of the whole weekend. It might have been polished but SD is a great showman and gives the audience what they want...what's wrong with that, especially on the main stage? The Gorillaz didn't give the audience what they wanted and this paper complained about it...so which is it to be? What's the best way to perform on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in your opinion?
PaulMac
29 June 2010 6:30PM
@BPDam - that is a good point you make and one I was considering (and discussing with colleagues) as I wrote the review. For me, a review is a subjective, personal response to a performance or piece of work. It cannot and should not attempt to be anything more than that. However...
On the one hand, if you start changing your mind because of the reaction of the crowd then your response becomes something other than genuine. On the other, if you're in a huge festival crowd, it's very difficult not to be influenced by the mood around you.
I know that the crowd responded VERY favourably to Snoop, but also knew that it was a functional, reheated set. Meanwhile, I was really enjoying Vampire Weekend, then I noticed that all the people around me were paying no attention. That in turn started to make me think that maybe some of their songs are a little less exciting than I might previously have thought.
It's complex and confusing and while I think the critic needs to be aware of all of this, the reader should also be willing to accomodate the possibility of reading a review whose opinion is very different to their own - without having to question the reviewer's professionalism.
@steezolinie - I love hip hop as much as you do. In fact, probably more. We just love it in different ways.
asianinplatforms
26 June 2010 10:16AM
sensual seduction isnt new!