West Coast gangsta rap seems to be making a comeback after Snoop Dogg, staying true to his Long Beach roots, brought together local hip-hop artists to collaborate on the mixtape “Beach City.”
“This is some groovy sh-t right here…all coming together for one cause: making that good music, keeping it hood and ending all that of ignorance we been going through for years, as a unit,” Snoop Dogg says at the end of the mixtape’s debuting city anthem “Beach City.”
“Beach City” dropped last week on hip-hop mixtape website DatPiff. Under the banner of Long Beach Movement, DJ Drama and Snoop Dogg sponsor “Beach City.”
However, Snoop Dogg’s homecoming did not sit well with all the homies.
In “Chess not Checkers: The Beach City Documentary,” the first of three documentaries posted last week to Worldstarhiphop, a masked man called out Snoop Dogg and denounced the Long Beach Movement.
“He still reppin’ 213 when we 562, cuz’ lost in the sauce and I ain’t feelin’ it,” the masked man said.
Snoop Dogg’s reputation was questioned before, in September when news reports claimed that he was pressured to leave his old stomping grounds by members of the Long Beach street gang Rolling 20s.
Snoop Dogg responded to the “negative energy” quickly via a Youtube video dubbing himself the “King of Long Beach” and letting the streets know to respect his movement.
“I’m the one that took the whole set across the globe, that’s me, that’s who,” Snoop Dogg said in the video. “But now I’m doing positive things now, I’m enlightening homies and showing them how to get it a different way.”
Regardless of the controversy, with 20 tracks of modernized G-funk sounds unique to the streets of Long Beach, “Beach City” bangs from start to finish.
Snoop Dogg reigns over two solo tracks in addition to being featured on five more. He is the first to rip the mic with “Back Up,” a bass heavy track where he reminisces on his youth in the streets while acknowledging how he has changed.
[sidebar title=”“Beach City”” align=”left” background=”on” border=”all” shadow=”on”]Released: November 4, 2015
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
[/sidebar]“I used to drink Gin. Now it’s Vodka mayne,” a play on words referencing Snoop’s Grammy nominated 1994 hit “Gin & Juice.” References to past hits and other rarities unique to the streets of Long Beach, such as Poly High School and Ocean Boulevard, are sprinkled throughout the verses.
From Crips to Bloods, OG’s to YG’s and everything in between, “Beach City” shines a spotlight on the plethora of talent reppin’ the LBC. It features over 10 local artists, including Willie Mammuth, Beefy Bankz, Fade R.R. and Ju Da Truth, just to name a few.
The self-proclaimed “young homies” come together as a symbol of peace within the streets. In “Chess not Checkers” the young artists discuss what brought them together, referencing the Black Lives Matter Movement and promoting non-violence.
Though most of the tracks are authentically hard-core and gritty street, the message behind the creative outlet is what separates the Long Beach City Movement from other cliques in the game.
For example, rap group Young Money focuses on their cash flow. Evidenced by a number of songs where the artists rap about their wealth, such as “Steady Mobbin” where artist Lil Wayne raps, “The money is the motive. F–k with the money it gets ugly as coyote.”
Meanwhile Atlanta cats like Future, Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan seem to be all about that trap music and auto-tune.
The contemporary LA West Coast Movement is really not a movement when compared to the 90’s when gangsta rap groups like N.W.A, Cypress Hill and Da Lench Mob were supreme. Instead contemporary artists like YG and Kendrick Lamar are diffused and only reach success as independent artists.
The young artists also display an impressive level of innovation and creativity. Many of the tracks preserve the hip-hop sound Long Beach is famous for while incorporating the artist’s own uniqueness.
Cue track nine, “G-Sh-t” by Young Zeke, a renovation of Warren G’s 1994 hip-hop classic “Regulate.” Adding a modern spin to the classic, Young Zeke is introduced by the DJ as “Young Zeke is on fleek.”
Or cue track 18 “Love Me In A Special Way” by Half Dead and Snoop Dogg. You can’t help but groove to this song, as Half Dead sings over light instrumentals and Snoop Dogg lends his smooth rhymes in a laid back, Long Beach fashion. “Love Me In A Special Way” assumingly pulls inspiration from the late west-coast legend Nate Dogg who was famous for his raspy gangsta melodies.
More is to come from the Long Beach Movement according to the group’s social media sites. The group will continue to release music videos and the remainder of the documentary series. The group also has plans to release a second volume of the mixtape comprised of female artists, according to their Instagram. So stay tuned for what will hopefully be more unifying, gangsta rap that will put the West Coast back on the map.