Doggystyle

This article is about the Snoop Doggy Dogg album. For the pornographic DVD of him, see Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle. For the sexual position, see Doggy style.

Untitled

Doggystyle is the debut album by West Coast hip hop artist Snoop Doggy Dogg, released on November 23, 1993.

It has been certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA, and remains Snoop Dogg's highest-selling album to date. According to SoundScan, the album has sold over 10 million copies as of December 2006, including 802,858 copies in its first week. This made it the fastest-selling rap album prior to Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000, and the highest US debut album for any artist in history. It still holds the 35th place on the biggest One-Week SoundScan Sales tally as of 2007.

Doggystyle topped the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums charts (North America) for three weeks.

Album information

The title of the album is in reference of a popular sex position. The album was a breakthrough success for Snoop Dogg, who had established a fanbase with his extensive contributions to Dr. Dre's landmark The Chronic; this fanbase made Doggystyle the first debut album in history to enter the Billboard Music Charts at #1.

The cover artwork uses several quotes from the 1982 George Clinton release "Atomic Dog". The quotes come from the dogs at the top of the brick wall in the picture: "Why must I feel like that?" "Why must I chase the cat?" "Nothin' but the dog in me"

"Who Am I (What's My Name)?" was Snoop Dogg's debut solo single. Featuring Tha Dogg Pound, "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and number 20 in the United Kingdom. Another Doggystyle single, "Gin and Juice", was also a number eight Hot 100 hit, and was nominated for a 1995 Grammy Award.

The video for "Murder Was the Case" won the 'Video of the Year' award at The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards 1995.

Reception

Chris Rock named it the 2nd greatest hip hop album ever in his top 25 list for Rolling Stone in 2005.

Professional reviews:

• Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.73) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's" - Rolling Stone (1/27/94, p.51) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "Doggystyle is filled with verbal and vocal feats that meet its three-mile-high expectations....Doggystyle speeds through 55 minutes of constant talk as if on a suicide hot line."

• Entertainment Weekly (12/10/93, pp.74-75) - "[Doggystyle] is the most limber, low-rider gangsta album to date...it's easy to be impressed one moment and appalled the next." - Rating: B-

• Q magazine (2/94, p.95) - 3 Stars - Good - "...when this funky/sleazy trick works, it is the very best that modern pop has to offer."

• Vibe (2/94, p.103) - "Snoop is good, no doubt about it. His cool, lazy drawl is unique, evocative, rhythmically complex--the perfect foil for Dre's thick, tense beats...The big story on The Chronic was Snoop stealing Dre's thunder; on Doggystyle, Dre snatches it back."

• The Source (2/94, p.67) - "[Snoop] emerges as an MC who lives up to all of his advance hype."

• Melody Maker (12/11/93, p.28) - "The music is sumptuous, soulful and genuinely menacing....Snoop Dogg is the real McCoy."

• Musician (2/94, p.69) - "[Doggystyle] succeeds on its own terms ...[Snoop's] the gangsta Marvin Gaye of Dr. Dre's Motown. It's the clever interplay of `hard' and `soft' which keeps some of these tracks alive; sweet harmonies blossom in the middle of brutal rhythm tracks...a funky, multifaceted album."

• NME (12/4/93, p.26) - "Masterminded by Dr. Dre's faultless production, Doggystyle is both a wonderfully comic splurge of Parliament funking and barely suppressed violence."

Bonus tracks

A bonus track called, "Gz Up, Hoes Down", was included in the first pressing of the album, but not in later versions because of sample clearance issues. "Gz Up, Hoes Down" sampled Isaac Hayes' 1967 song "Look Of Love", written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, a sample later used in songs such as Kim Summerson's "Choices" (Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath, 1996), L.V.'s "Gangsta's Boogie" (I am L.V., 1996), Jay-Z's "Can I Live" (Reasonable Doubt, 1996), Coolio's "Show Me Love" (El Cool Magnifico, 2002), and Ashanti's "Rain on Me" (Chapter II, 2003) [2]. The song can now be found on the Death Row Records 15th Anniversary Compilation CD.

"Tha Next Episode" was listed on the cover, but not included in any pressing of the album. It is considered the original material used for the 2000 Dr. Dre single "The Next Episode" but bears no resemblance to the later song. It was 4:36 long. "Tha Next Episode" was later released on the Dr. Dre mixtape Pretox under the name "Chronic Unreleased Studio Session", but only 1:10 long.

An outtake from the album sessions, "Doggystyle" featuring George Clinton, and is much more of a singing melody, with vocals dominating the song. It is originally 5:26 long.

An outtake from the album sessions, "A Nigga Named Dave" became "Murder Was The Case (Death After Visualising Eternity)".

Controversy

Snoop Dogg was also charged by Bridgeport Records and/or Southfield Records with improper use of the musical compositions owned by them as an interpolated/sampled portion in several songs in this album whereas the infringement has not been remedied as described in Infringing Compositions and/or Sound Recordings and/or Records

Personnel

• Snoop Dogg - Vocals
• Dr. Dre - Producer, Vocals
• Daz Dillinger - Producer, Vocals, Performer
• Ulrich Wild - Engineer
• Tha Dogg Pound - Performer
• Warren G - Performer
• The D.O.C. - Ghostwriter of raps, Performer
• The Lady of Rage - Performer
• RBX - Performer
• Kurupt - Performer
• Nate Dogg - Performer
• The Dramatics - Performer
• Chris "The Glove" Taylor - Songwriter, Producer, Mixing
• Suge Knight - Executive Producer
• Bernie Grundman - Mastering
• Chicu Modu - Photography
• Nanci Fletcher - Vocals, Vocals (bckgr)
• Dan Winters - Photography
• Kimberly Holt - Artwork
• Kimberly Brown - Project Coordinator
• Joe Cool - Cover Artwork

Chart performance

Album

#	Title	Length	Performer(s)	Samples
1	"Bathtub"	1:50	Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre
2	"G Funk Intro"	2:24	Snoop Dogg, The Lady of Rage, Dr. Dre, George Clinton	"(Not Just) Knee Deep" by Funkadelic.
3	"Gin And Juice"	3:31	Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger	"Watching You" by Slave "I Get Lifted" by George McRae
4	"Tha Shiznit"	4:03	Snoop Dogg
5	"Lodi Dodi"	4:24	Snoop Dogg, Nanci Fletcher	"La Di Da Di" by Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick.
6	"Murder Was The Case"	3:37	Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger	"Indo Smoke" by Mista Grimm
7	"Serial Killa"	3:34	Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, RBX, The D.O.C., Daz Dillinger	"Funky Worm" by The Ohio Players.
8	"Who Am I (What's My Name)?"	4:06	Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Jewell	"Atomic Dog" by George Clinton "{Not Just} Knee Deep" by Funkadelic. "Pack of Lies" by The Counts "Give up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" by Parliament
9	"For All My Niggaz & Bitches"	4:43	Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, The Lady of Rage, Daz Dillinger
10	"Ain't No Fun (If The Homies Can't Have None)"	4:10	Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Warren G	"Think (About It)" by Lyn Collins.
11	"Doggy Dogg World"	5:04	Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, The Dramatics	"3am" by Bob James "If It Ain't One Things, It's Another" by Richard Field
12	"Gz And Hustlas"	3:51	Snoop Dogg
13	"Pump Pump"	3:43	Snoop Dogg, Malik
14	"G'z Up, Hoes Down"	2:23	Snoop Dogg	"Look of Love" by Isaac Hayes.

Chart	Peak
Billboard 200	1 (3 weeks)
Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums	1
Billboard 2001 Pop Catalog Top 20 Albums	7
Billboard Year-End Charts 1994 Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums	1
Billboard Year-End Charts 1994 Top Albums	3
Swedish album chart	18
Czech album chart	24
Austrian album chart	35
RIANZ albums	25

Singles

These are the singles that charted during 1994.

Title	Chart positions								Video director
	US Hot 100	US R&B/Hip-Hop	US Rap	Rhythmic Top 40	Hot Dance Music/Club Play	Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales	UK Top 75 Singles	Germany Top 100
"Who Am I (What's My Name)?"	8	8	1	12	43	-	20	20	Fab Five Freddy
"Gin and Juice"	8	13	1	5	38	1	39	-	Dr. Dre
"Doggy Dogg World"	-	-	-	19	-	-	32	-	Dr. Dre & Ricky Harris
"Murder Was the Case" (video) (O.S.T.)	-	-	-	36	-	-	-	-	Dr. Dre
"Lodi Dodi"	-	-	-	34	-	-	-	-	-

These are the singles that charted during 2004.

Track	Chart	Peak
"Who Am I (What's My Name)?"	UK Singles Chart	100

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Rate Your Music	USA	All-Time Top 500 Albums	2003	#167
Stylus Magazine	USA	Top 200 Albums of All time	2004	#115
About.com	USA	Essential Hip-Hop Albums	2006	#10
The Source	USA	The Source Magazine's 100 Best Rap Albums		*
Rolling Stone (guest article by Chris Rock)	USA	Top 25 Hip-Hop Albums	2005	#2
BBC Radio 1	UK	Radio 1 - Listeners' Top 50 Albums 1993-2003		#12
BBC Radio 1	UK	Radio 1 - The Critics' Top 100 Albums of All-Time		#30

( * ) designates lists which are unordered.
All URLs accessed on June 20, 2006 UTC

Album singles

Single information
"Who Am I (What's My Name)?" Released: 1993
"Gin and Juice" Released: 1993
"Doggy Dogg World" Released: 1994

External links

• Music Video Database
• Chart Data
• "G'z Up, Hoes Down"