Two of Snoop's original homeys are back with more sick rhymes based on their neverending cripwalkin blue flag waving gangsterism. My action of referring to them as Snoop's buddies instead of beginning a diatribe on their own merit does in no way lessen their impact on music in general and hip hop in particular. No matter how big Snoop gets, for example, how many pornos he puts out and how many times he appears on Howard Stern and throws up a set on the red carpet of insert your favorite award show here, to me he'll always be that gangly kid that Dr. Dre pulled out of Long Beach and put on, the rest being history. I see hip hop via my own lude laced foggy glasses.

Daz & Kurupt are integral building blocks in the rap world. You can't say they aren't. At least I can't. These guys were on Doggystyle and The Chronic ferchrissake. But this doesn't necessarily, although it does to a degree, define them. Along with Soopafly, they've come to define a segment of that Snoop slash Dre strain, minus the Hollywood and Pimp convention spiritual advisors. I honestly prefer Kurupt & Daz's latest to anything Snoop's done in the last couple years. No rip on Snoop, he's a major talent, despite the glamour shot smoke screen, but it's impossible to not let the other world that he's now a part of, that bullshit big time whatsistat, not pull you, at least a little, from what you were. Not to say Kurupt & Daz aren't vastly transformed from their personas when they started out, but it's a whole different level. I expect either of these two can walk down most streets in our fair country without being accosted. The same just ain't true for Snoop, and that shit has got to warp reality.