Oregon Music News

Photos by Kevin Tomanka

Snoop Dogg is a living, breathing character in his own life.  A live action, situation comedy where Calvin Broadus plays Snoop Dogg aka Snoop Doggy Dogg aka Bigg Snoop Dogg aka Snoop D.O. Double G aka Tha Doggfather.  A man who is cartoonish but hard.  Cock-and-bull but real.

Sneering beneath his skull-cap and Stormtrooper-embossed, Adidas track jacket, Snoop peered down on the sold out Roseland crowd on Thursday night and asked, “What’s my muthafuckin’ name?”

The audience was all too ready to oblige.  And Snoop followed the script.

The conventional Snoop Dogg themes were addressed: weed, bling, titties, weed, gin, juice, hoes, tributes to your rest in peace peers (Tupac, Biggie), weed, sex, pimpin’, 187, titties, respect for your elders (Marvin Gaye, Rick James), and weed.

At a schizophrenic pace, Snoop rolled through the calculated set list flowing over tracks–or at least his portion of the songs–that have made him a cultural icon.  Two minutes and time to move on as Snoop hit his parts on “The Next Episode” and “Nuthin’ But A G Thang,” skipping Dre’s portions.

Following Snoop’s cue, interludes blatantly hyped the next song and as many tracks as possible were “dedicated to all the ladies in the house,” especially Akon’s “I Wanna Fuck You” where the crowd karaoked as the balcony stood, arms pumping, bodies grinding.

On to the weed smokin’ section of the score, Snoop RIP’ed Rick James singing “Mary Jane” while his DJ blazed a blunt and although a “moment of silence for this small chronic break” was asked for, Snoop couldn’t wait to pass Kurupt the mic for “Let’s Get High.”

The mic was only figuratively passed as Snoop’s personal device was an extension of his right hand, tightly grasped in his fist all night long.  When his mic wasn’t tilted to his lips, Snoop bestowed views of the most lavish mic-bling imaginable–a titanic diamond encrusted, platinum monogram that matched the one grafittied behind the DJ platform, the same emblem that also appears on album covers and t-shirts.

Snoop’s capricious stride was conducive to building energy alongside his coarse classics like “Gin and Juice” and “Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None)” as well as newer, Neptune-produced cuts like “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and 50’s “P.I.M.P.”  The D.P.G.C. crew helped rock the engrossed crowd with Tha Dogg Pound’s Daz Dillinger and Kurupt rapping their original parts and Soopafly and Mac Shawn 100 providing backup on “Pass That” and “I Wanna Rock.”

As Snoop’s lanky wings clapped imaginary asses and swiveled steering wheels, he offered up his languid, permafried banter and made it clear to the ladies that Snoop’s a freak on his Auto-Tuned “Sexual Eruption”–a song inspired Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.”

PDX-trio Bad Habitat won a Jammin’ 107.5 contest to open for the Doggy Dogg and brought solid, three-way MCing to the largest crowd they’ve ever rocked.  With reverb-grumbling beats and confident, galvinizing lyrics, they were ecstatic to be on stage.

A merchandising machine with an iPhone app, bandana pimp socks, pot scented tees (no joke), action figures, $130 Serious Pimp sunglasses, his voice on a GPS navigation system, and something called a “cupcake beanie,” Snoop’s meager merch table missed an opportunity to proliferate his image and brand throughout the streets of Portland.

Wait, no he didn’t.  The man is a greater marketing genius, attacking America’s youth in their formative years with his blissful, idolized, rebellious attitude.  Thanking the 12-year-olds for coming out to their first Snoop Dogg show, he told them, “I’m glad to be a part of your childhood” immediately followed by some more mumblings about titties.

With a penchant for well-endowed girls and cartoon hounds, beneath the braids and behind the act, the man has spawned trends, contributed to linguistics, and established an empire before our very eyes.  An international phenomenon, and predictably, his last words of the night were: “Smoke weed muthafucka.”

You can take the Dogg outta the LBC, but you can’t take the LBC outta the Dogg.  Hail Mary.