Last Meal, Tha [PA] - Snoop Dogg

“Tha Last Meal” came out in 2000, and was Snoop Dogg’s fifth album, and in light of what had happened between his own albums, this one had him back with production from Dr. Dre, amongst other big names such as Timbaland, Scott Storch and Soopafly. It was the final album with him on Maser P’s No Limit Records, and following this, you can sense freedom from a tight production budget and a lack of promotion lasting until he moved on with his next release. ...
...lively track, and gives a last litel boost before the thing comes to an end.

**Four Stars**

19. “Y’All Gone Miss Me”

Ending the album off, this track has him show exactly why people should take more notice of his significance to the game, and I felt that this was boosted and affirmed with bats from Scott Storch which directly take from his classic G-Funk days from the early nineties. The impact of the widing ... more

“Tha Last Meal” came out in 2000, and was Snoop Dogg’s fifth album, and in light of what had happened between his own albums, this one had him back with production from Dr. Dre, amongst other big names such as Timbaland, Scott Storch and Soopafly. It was the final album with him on Maser P’s No Limit Records, and following this, you can sense freedom from a tight production budget and a lack of promotion lasting until he moved on with his next release.

1. “Intro”

2. “Hennessey N Buddah”

Getting the album off to a strong start you find Snoop on some nice beats from Dr. Dre which has him grooving in the ways which we heard in the earlier collaborations from them. It is a good way to start it off as he begins it with an introduction about the people who he associates with before it is all broken down to get him to rap about how he is able to relax his mind with certain things.

**Four Stars**

3. “Snoop Dogg”

Named as a ‘part II’ to the classic “What’s My Name”, Dr. Dre is replaced with Timbaland in this case for more of the more recognizable single from this album. By his standards as, the singles from here were weak, but this is a decent one by him, and definitely stands out for being more of a club track than others which are found here.

**Four Stars**

4. “True Lies”

Here Snoop comes up with a nice little concept about who the truth is essential useless if you don’t lie. It is a thought-provoking one for this reason, but I thought that it was a bit of a stretch to drag this little thought out for a whole four-minute’s-worth of recording from himself and others from the area. This being said, the production to it is nice, and makes sure you aren’t put off by this aspect of it.

**Four Stars**

5. “Wrong Idea”

As this album seems to make fairly large changes in what his lyrics tend to concentrate upon, The Top Dogg ensures that you are not led into thinking that this means that his standard is slipping and he is losing his Gangsta credibility and so chooses young Gangsta rap acts, Lil’ ½ Dead, Bad Azz and Kokane to affirm this.

**Four Stars**

6. “Go Away”

I have to admit that this one is an unmemorable one, and you really will not get any sort of impact from hearing it as very little occurs with it. However with Snoop Dogg on it, you can’t simply shun it for this and of course some of the lines make great impacts upon you, and make it what it is, and worth listening to.

**Four Stars**

7. “Set It Off”

This track has Timbo on the beats, and it is clear to see this in the way that he goes for the type of things which he had given to the likes of Ludacris, Missy Elliot and Jay-Z around this time too. The line up here is big with N.W.A legends Ice Cube and MC Ren making appearances on it, but the impact wasn’t nearly as significant as I felt it would have based on who features on it.

**Four Stars**

8. “Stacey Adams”

At first, I wasn’t really into this one, although it had a nice little laid-back thing going on as you find him doing a track in a dedication to all the O.G.s which came before him, but after having heard it a couple of times, it dramatically improves as you are able to pick out various subtle lines which just show how strong his writing ability is, and how he is able to implement assonance and alliteration to make his phrases sound so well put together.

**Four Stars**

9. “Lay Low”

This came as one of the big single to the release, and although it may be so, I doubt that you will really remember it any more than vaguely as at the time it was fairly strong, with all of the West Coast’s finest back at it together, but it didn’t really have that much of a lasting impact. The Dr. Dre grooves lead it, and from here the obvious choice of having Nate on the hook occurs with it.

**Four Stars**

10. “Bring It On”

The production from Jelly Roll is most unlike what he would commonly work with, and it shoiws in the fact that he seemingly doesn’t exactly to do with it as he rhymes, but it seems as though as the track progresses, he gets more and more into the groove of it all and is able to make the most out of the futuristic ways of the producer.

**Four Stars**

11. “Game Court” (Lude)

12. “Issues”

This one, more than at any other point in the album has him just going completely wherever he wants with the rhymes. It is so inconsistent as he goes from one topic to another without even dwelling on one for long enough for you to even really think about it. I wouldn’t say that this is a negative for it, it just has him doing something a little different, and contrasting quite a it from what is expected, based on the title.

**Four Stars**

13. “Brake Fluid”

I have to admit that I didn’t really understand what he was on about in this rack as it didn’t really make much sense at all, but I think that this is something which contributes to the effect of making you engage a lot more with the material in it. He relaxes he approach to the mic(rophone) with lots of lists to start it before he gets into some proper flows.

**Four Stars**

14. “Ready 2 Ryde”

This tune finds him doing a collaboration with the then Ruff Ryders member Eve in order o sow that he is expanding his horizons with this one, and so after starting off clearly all about his surroundings as a West Coaster, a stint working with Dirty South artists in No Limit has influenced him to go further and work on beats from Scott Storch to take things to another level and added complexity.

**Four Stars**

15. “Loosen’ Control”

Here you find him doing a track about relationships, as he had started to do from the album prior to this, and here it was a bit of a shame that he took a step back in it all and allowed the featured guest rapper, Butch Cassidy, Soopafly dominate the track and only allow him to get a little in, but overall it is a high-standard tune from him with lots of good things about it.

**Four Stars**

16. “I Can’t Swim”

Jelly Roll gives some appropriately juicy production for this track, and it forces the rapper to go about utilising it all in a way which really doesn’t support the way in which he commonly does this, as you found with “Bring It On” from before. Again you find him doing a track where he obviously has an idea of where he is going with it, but I couldn’t really work it out as the content of the lyrics are thrown by the title he gives it.

**Four Stars**

17. “Leave Me Alone”

Personally, I saw this track as the best offering that you get from the album, and it puzzles me as to why other tunes would be chosen over this one to be chosen as a single on it, and with him o some killer production from Dr. Dre, fresh off his second album, “2001”, you get him giving Snoop some beats for Snoop to groove to and give him ht confidence to sing his way through the thing.

**Five Stars**

18. “Back Up Off Me”

As his final No Limit album, this is a final track to have his time here remembered as he does a track which could easily have been done by any one of their souljahs as he is joined by both Mr. Magic and Master P to further boost the significance of this time with these artists. It is a lively track, and gives a last litel boost before the thing comes to an end.

**Four Stars**

19. “Y’All Gone Miss Me”

Ending the album off, this track has him show exactly why people should take more notice of his significance to the game, and I felt that this was boosted and affirmed with bats from Scott Storch which directly take from his classic G-Funk days from the early nineties. The impact of the widing synths is that it makes you think of all th work he has done, and how it can’t be ignored.

**Four Stars**

I felt that this was a consistent album fro Snoop and all the tunes where of a fairly high standard, but despite this I felt as though it shouldn’t really be hyped up too much as their isn’t really any stand-out tune to define this album, an I feel that this lets it down as the two main single, “Snoop Dogg” and “Lay Low” didn’t really do it, and others within it were just good at most. 

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