Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. was doing more than fine as
Snoop Dogg, but after a 2012 trip to Jamaica, he became convinced that reggae was his true calling and that the Rastafarian lifestyle would guide the rest of his life as
Snoop Lion. Three years later and his disco-funk album
Bush -- a
Snoop Dogg release -- resets everything for the masses, but this slick, star-studded effort produced by
Pharrell owes a lot to
7 Days of Funk, the 2013 G-funk throwback project
Snoop recorded with underground producer
Dam-Funk. If that fine return-to-form was
Funkadelic, this album is
Parliament, and maybe even "Atomic Dog"-era
George Clinton, as one party starter after another rolls out, all of them singalong-worthy with
Snoop's stingers and punch lines making him the undisputed Doggfather. This album is so knowingly cool, it daringly opens with the midtempo "California Roll," a song that steals the feel of the
Michael Jackson and
Paul McCartney collaboration "The Girl Is Mine," enlists
Stevie Wonder as a guest for his sunshine-bright harmonica, and gives up the album's main influence with "Girl, you could be a movie star, in Los Angeles/Get yourself a medical card, in Los Angeles." "This City" looks out the limo's windows and watches the L.A. dispensaries fly by at a disco pace, then "R U A Freak" kicks like
Chic, with the lyric "this beat is murder" being the only kind of 187 that
Snoop speaks on here. Detractors can complain that the revolutionary and dangerous artist who stood with
Dr. Dre and
2Pac has offered an album with just ten different versions of "Sensual Seduction," but
Bush is in love with its city and the amount of great weed within it, and that's the kind of platform
Kendrick Lamar (oil) and
Rick Ross (water) can agree on during the closing highlight "I'm Ya Dogg." This excellent balance of cool and crowd-pleasing should have been there to help celebrate when California legalized medical marijuana, but better late than never is the way of the stoner. Accept
Bush as a delayed dank disco triumph, and then drop it like it's hot, one more time. ~ David Jeffries
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