Chris DeLine

Along with stories of his youth football league, wearing a kilt and playing hockey, Snoop Dogg and Conan O’Brien recently discussed Snoop’s recent album Ego Trippin’, in particular a collaboration with Everlast entitled “My Medicine.” “I love country music,” Snoop recalled, “so what I did was I had my partner Everlast come in and help me write this song.” Conan then asked him, “In the song you implied in your opinion that the original country music stars were like the original gangsters.” And Snoop does, and Snoop’s probably right.

Likewise, I think of many modern country musicians, rebel-based country, as modern punks. Punk doesn’t exist anymore in the sense that it once did, but a spirit within the music announcing clearly that “I will do what I want, when I want” is preached ever so honestly by a crew of musicians miles from CMT…that’s a bit beside the point however. A friend brought to my attention the conclusion of Twang Nation’s review of the track, “With all the carpetbaggers storming Nashville for easy money and demographic diversification I can’t imagine Snoop thought that his rep really needed him to do a country tinged song on his latest release. I respect him for doing it with the spirit many of those others will never reach.” Maybe my leanings towards the thought of punk aren’t as far from the point as originally thought.

Call his music rap, call it hip hop, call it rock, country or even punk…this song isn’t nearly as bad as you think it’d might be. The song is somewhat laughable in theory, as O’Brien was quick to joke about, but not for one second do I question Snoop’s sincerity.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]