Snoop Dogg

"Nizzle, fizzle. Babizzle!" Yup, Snoop's back. And this time, having sworn off fat sacks of the sticky and monotonous production tricks, our Dogg is ready to take over the world with a mind-blower of a new album, Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$. Long regarded as one of the industry's most talented and original MCs, what the Dizzle-Oh-Double-Giznizzle has always lacked is a supporting cast of slammin' backbeats and equally skilled producers and collaborators (with the exception of Dre, circa Doggystyle). He's got it here, by way of an all-star roster that includes Jay-Z, the Neptunes, Ludacris, Redman, Nate Dogg, Warren G, Jelly Roll, Mr. Kane, Goldie Loc and Bishop Don Magic Juan of American Pimp fame.

Thought Snoop was too big a goofy stoner to bump? Nuh-uh. Homeslice tears the roof off that criticism, most notably in "Hourglass," on which labelmate Goldie Loc shines while spitting out the following baritone speed riff: Fuck dat, I ain't takin' her to dinner -- I bring her to a diner, get behind her, go up in her/You fuckin' with losers. I'm a winner/I'm cold in the summer, hot in the winter/Fuck hungry, I'm ready for dinner.

Brutally crass and misogynistic? Of course. But what's always separated Snoop from rival MCs is his ability to blend in random sing-songy high-pitched couplets such as "Coast to coast, we dotesy dotes/Getcha day started like the breakfast toast."

Most promising about Snoop's re-emergence is that perhaps it will quell the annoyingly persistent media fellatio of Eminem. Sure, Em's talented, but 8 Mile was shit -- as in "worse than Coyote Ugly" shit. For pure onscreen entertainment, look no further than Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, Snoop's brand-new half-hour MTV variety show whose debut episode featured the Dogg trying out for the Oakland Raiders and portraying a superhero called Cap'n Pimp. He's also putting out a new line of Snoop action figures just in time for the Christmas stockings. Now that's multimedia. All the rest of y'all li'l cocker spaniels can step off. The boss of da pound is back in town -- and he's never sounded tighter.