No other rapper has been able to carve such a distinct niche in hip-hop’s diverse and expansive history as Snoop Dogg. His flow is like a Southern breeze on a lazy Sunday afternoon – soothing in its feel, sturdy in its power. We’ve all witnessed the curly – headed, lyrical phenomenon from 21^st Street in Long Beach, California evolve and fortify into a grown man, now just as concerned with his business as he is with his music – his game as healthy and expanding as his straightened head of hair.

Over the past seven years, Snoop dogg has lit up as many microphones around the world as he has the sticky-icky, getting fans faded with high-potency rhymes and his signature, pimped-out, gangsta-flow that began with the 1993 classic “Deep Cover.” Fresh off of last summer’s “Up In Smoke” tour, Snoop Dogg is now releasing his fifth solo album entitled Tha Last Meal, a lyrical and aural feast guaranteed to satiate the most ravenous of hip hop appetites.

Snoops respect and admiration of old-school r&b makes a strong presence on Tha Last Meal, a collection of 19 tracks that skilfully combines the feel of 70s soul and funk with Snoop’s own gangsta-groove. While Nate Dogg drops his requisite g-notes on the album (“Set It Off,” “Lay Low”), Snoop coats the majority of“Tha Last Meal” with the gangsta, P-funk falsetto of Kokane, whose distinctive vocals weave a thematic musical thread throughout the album. Also making guest appearances are Master P., The eastsidaz, Nate Dogg, Eve, Lady of Rage, Suga Free, MC Ren, George Clinton, Ice Cube and more.

Snoop reunites with Dr.Dre who produces “Hennessey and Buddah,”“True Lies” and “Lay Low” and also mixed the majority of Tha Last Meal, while Timbaland laces the high-powered “Set It Off,” (featuring MC Ren, The Lady of Rage, Nate Dogg Ice Cube and Master P), and the first single “Snoop Dogg (What’s My Name pt 2).” Additional production from Battlecat, Meech Wells, Studio Tone, Scott Storch, Soopafly and Jelly Roll all combine to give Snoop the auditory foundation to celebrate his love for old-school soul – evident on such singles as the Parliament-esque “Stacey Adams,” and “Wrong Idea,” which takes its title from a line in the Cameo hit, “Single Life.” However, songs like the gangsta’d out “Lay Low,” featuring Nate Dogg, Butch Cassidy, Goldie Loc and Tray Dee, and “Bring It On,” featuring Suga Free and Kokane, prove that his Eastside Long Beach roots are not to be slept on.