The album title consists of 4 names that want no introduction: Snoop, Dice, 40, $hort. These rap icons justly declare themselves as architects of West Coast hip-hop. As Mount Westmore, they’re a supergroup whose presence is etched within the California panorama.
Snoop Dogg, Ice Dice, E-40, and Too $hort additionally characterize a wave of old-school rappers sustaining recording careers effectively into their 50s, lengthy after the hits have subsided, and followers have moved on to brisker tendencies. (Tellingly, they snark about “IG” and TikTok.) New work by first-wave golden-age heroes tends to be throwback affairs that take heed to the previous – Chill Rob G’s current Empires Crumble is a really helpful instance – or pop confections the place the elders gamely attempt to celebration with the youngsters. Throw Snoop into the latter class: final summer season, he scored a prime 10 Billboard hit with BTS and Benny Blanco on “Unhealthy Selections.”
Sure, Uncle Snoop’s guileless potential to personify the “How do you do, fellow youngsters” meme is what makes him so beloved to everybody. It might even be why he sounds barely bored on Snoop, Dice, 40, $hort. That is very a lot an Ice Dice affair, and he sculpts this album in his loud, punchy, hard-funkin’ type. Too $hort acquits himself effectively, too, placing a stability between musty pimp raps and surprisingly efficient community-oriented lyrics. E-40 stays a mode ambassador, gliding together with his liquid, off-center move. Snoop is a dutiful presence by comparability, although he often will get a great verse in, like when he reminisces about attending the legendary Recent Fest area tour within the Eighties as a younger hog on “Do My Greatest.” All 4 males are multimillionaires with innumerable enterprise ventures, and this Mount Westmore mission was initially deliberate for launch in 2021. One will get the sense they needed to align their busy schedules earlier than they discovered time to drop it.
Fortunately, Snoop, Dice, 40, $hort doesn’t dabble in newfangled gimmicks like lure and drill. The music isn’t any frills G-funk and mob music. A part of the enjoyable is scanning the credit for all of the OGs who contributed, like Rick Rock, Soopafly, Battlecat, Fredwreck, Droop E, Ant Banks, and Simon “ProHoeZak” McKinley, whom some diggers might recall for his Nineties single as C-Funk, “Coconut in Ya Lime.” Even Dice’s previous NWA associate Dr. Dre drops in to say what’s up on “Too Huge.” By the way, that tune is likely to be the album’s finest concession to present tastes because it’s produced by P-Lo, an East Bay star who additionally garlands “Too Huge” with its refrain.
In any other case, this can be a grown of us’ celebration. There are some goofy traces from the 4 GOATs about threesomes on “Motto.” “We burn rubber, me, her, and her lover,” raps Snoop. Ice Dice retains making references to previous pop lore like TJ Hooker and Conflict of the Titans. “It’s a brand new day, nonetheless received the AK/If these bitches need to take it again to 88,” he warns on “Huge Subwoofer.” The quartet settles right into a zone about halfway by means of the 16-track album, and “Have a Good Day,” “Ghetto Gutter,” and “I Obtained Pull” all fulfill. In addition they provide loads of “Free Sport” to the youngsters who occur to wander into the room. “I see the homies outdoors, sellin’ crack/There’s no means out if you happen to caught within the lure,” raps Too $hort on “Ghetto Gutter.”
The beats are typically good, however the choruses are sometimes perfunctory excuses to get from one verse to the following. The times when these 4 may drop hooks like a intestine punch have largely handed. And Ice Dice, whose political storms embrace a “Contract with America” assembly with former President Trump, stays vulnerable to saying shit like, “We’re victims of elites” on “Have a Good Day.” Nevertheless, it’s additionally a ridiculously thrilling second. Dice speaking reckless, Too $hort because the pimp with a coronary heart of gold, E-40’s deep slanguage, and easy ol’ Uncle Snoop: that is Mount Westmore’s attraction to their graying base.
“If I had 4 of my favourite rappers on a observe/I might count on it to have some slaps that sound like hella far again,” raps E-40 on “Do My Greatest.” “I might count on it to have some shit like this to make me reminisce/Once I was up within the dope sport, having my cash, getting wealthy.”
