I know, right?
Snoop Dogg and St. Lucia, on one party bill. Who would have thought? This was part of the Paypal party at SXSW because when you think of paypal, you think of worldly 80’s inspired dance rock music and west-coast rap/reggae. Who am I to judge.
St. Lucia is a band that we very much like and this was probably a very interesting crowd for them. Playing in front of hip hop loving techs did not seem to faze the group one bit and they delivered rousing renditions of tracks from their quite good debut album released earlier last year. Jean-Philip Grobler’s zebra patterned shirt added a colorful palette to the already colorful music and the band was right in turning up the bass and driving home the beats for their music. They probably gained a few fans after the show. If the fans remembered who played, I guess.
SNOOOOOOOOOOOOooooop was next. The man knows how to put on a great show. It helps when you have Shaq doing your intro and you have got some sick bass pumping through the system. Snoop’s hour plus set was a celebration of not only his music, but hip hop in general. Given his extensive back catalog, you would expect Snoop to stick to the basics and hit us up with some classic tunes of his as well as some new stuff. Nope. Snoop’s got love for everyone and as a result, we got treated to bits and pieces of songs by his friends such as House of Pain, Biggie and Tupac. Still, it was Snoop’s show and between call’s such as “Who here in this house is smoking weeeeeeed!” and “make some mother fuckin noise” , we got treated to many classics – Gin and Juice, What’s my name, his part from Drop it Like it’s Hot and The Next Episode. It amazes me how fast that man can spit out words and it’s pretty awesome how a hardcore west coast rapper can somehow convert into a universally loved hip hop icon over a few decades.