Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told

By the time this album dropped in 1998, Snoop wasn’t just switching labels, he was weathering a storm of bullshit. Death Row Records was collapsing. 2Pac was dead. Suge Knight was behind bars. Dr. Dre had already bounced. And for snoop, he was literally fighting for his life. He’d beaten a murder charge just a few years earlier, and by the late ’90s, he was desperate to escape Death Row’s toxic environment. So he signed with Master P’s No Limit Records, moved down South, and tried to rebuild.

But here’s the thing: the music suffered unfortunately as well. Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told feels like an identity crisis. Snoop’s smooth, laid-back G-Funk style clashes hard with the aggressive, blinged-out No Limit production. He sounds out of place most of the time. Like he’s trying to fit into someone else’s house while still clutching his old keys.

There are flashes of Snoop’s personality here and there, but much of the album gets buried under generic features, blaring beats, and forced energy. It’s not completely trash, but it sure isn’t the Snoop we fell in love with on Doggystyle.

Rating: 4.5/10 – a rough transitional chapter for snoop :(