Snoop Dogg

See, now, usually American hip-hop doesn’t do that well in Australia. At least, I thought it didn’t. Sure, the demographic who enjoy the music have more Snoop and Dre on their iPod than I’ve had chicken dinners but they are not generally the same punters who will get wrapped up in live music. You just don’t usually see an avid Bone Thugs fan at the Tote every week, scouting for new bands to catch. This assumption is also jolted by the cancellation, ’postponements’ and meagre crowds of other urban American acts in Australia. So, imagine my surprise when I could barely hear myself think about baggy pants at Rod Laver that night. Happy to defy my previous generalisations, hip-hop fans had certainly come out in droves tonight.

Support act- the undeserving title- Ice Cube was all fire and brimstone; shouting epithets and curses, reminding us all he was once a part of a history-making hip hop team, before he was making crappy children’s films. Fight The Power and You Can Do It came thumping out of thick speakers, creating a kind of jellyfish effect with the tightly-packed but nevertheless determined crowd.

I had to say, though neither act is particularly my cup of music, I enjoyed Ice Cube far more the canine headliner. Ice was fierce, booming, active, interactive. Snoop Dogg is renowned for, amongst other things, his chronic (ha!) weed habit and I think it may have had some effect (the crowd joining in; being thoroughly coated in the stuff of their own volition, the security angrily ignoring the smoke shadows); Snoop was languid in his movement, often disappearing offstage for a song at a time, allowing lower echelons of his crew to pick up the slack. Does it say much of your art that other people can do it for you? He was wearing what looked like a Kmart linen onesie, and said things like, “Give her a backstage pass for that backstage ass!”.

But, he poured through his track list. I’m no Snoop aficionado, but even I knew when to sing along with tracks like Gin and Juice (“laiiiiidback”), Beautiful and the utterly likeable Drop It Like It’s Hot (I don’t wanna say guilty pleasure, but...) and I can’t help but think of Snoop more like I think of Britney Spears; on their census form, they would label their occupation as “artist” or “musician” but, really, their music is not that amazing to warrant the popularity they have garnered. They are more spokesperson for their respective genres. Britney is the prototypical Pop Princess. Beautiful, marketable, believable, only just actually capable enough for people to stand her. Snoop is the representative of the hip-hop world; rich, successful, doped to the eyelids, powerful. And with all the hootchies one can handle (so many hootchies!). It doesn’t matter anymore if he releases an album of filler and collaborations- there is already enough respect and idolatry for the man to last him the next few generations.

It’s not a slight on Snoop Dee-oh-double-gee. People enjoyed this show immensely; different strokes for different folks. Especially my 18-year-old sister who described it as ‘the best thing of her life’ (what little she has had thus far- she has clearly never seen The Basics) but I couldn’t help recalling an appropriate Dylan Moran spiel; “I have tried to like rap, and it makes me feel so very, very old. It’s all about attainment, it’s very aggressive; “I’ve got pecs, I’ve got limos, I’ve got bitches, my limo’s powered by bitch juice and all my spare pecs are in my limo””

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