Sing the praises of Snoop Dogg’s ‘Bible of Love’
Normally, hearing that a rapper is preparing a 32-track album is cause for concern.
Yet, Snoop Dogg these days is less a rapper than a multichannel entrepreneur and media personality. Just look at how he spent the lead-up week to his new album, Bible of Love (out Friday), his first release on his new gospel record label All the Time Entertainment.
His venture capital firm Casa Verde, which focuses on making investments within the cannabis industry, closed its debut round of funding with $45 million. He posed for photos with Elon Musk and voiced support for London Breed‘s mayoral run in San Francisco. He teased a new line of shiny gold cleats he collaborated on with Adidas. And, in a development that’s actually related to music, he added new dates to his Mount Kushmore Wellness Retreat tour.
Snoop is a busy guy, which is perhaps why he decided against recording a fulllength rap album and opted instead to curate a sprawling gospel collection, appearing only occasionally to contribute a verse or share some wisdom.
And, from a fan’s perspective, it’s a master-level decision. Snoop attributes his desire to make a gospel album to his ongoing quest to preach peace and love. That’s the same worldview that inspired the rapper’s ill-advised reggae phase in 2013, when he changed his name to Snoop Lion and clumsily sang his way through his Reincarnated album.
With Bible of Love, Snoop smartly reserves vocal duties for names including Faith Evans, Tye Tribbett, Rance Allen, B. Slade, Kim Burrell and Charlie Wilson.
With hip-hop trending toward overstuffed releases, Snoop smartly uses Bible of Love to spotlight his army’s worth of gospel stars, making the album’s impressive runtime feel less like an egregious play for streaming numbers than it otherwise would. In reality, the album is 32 songs of spiritual uplift, consistently enjoyable and even moving at times, with Snoop making just enough appearances to remind listeners of his involvement, and doing some soul-baring in the process, like on his spokenword storytelling on Pain:
“A lot of times, you see me performing for thousands of people, filling their hearts with love and joy, not knowing that I’m going through so much pain. But God knows everything, and I mean everything, that I’m going through.”
Above all, Bible of Love is another argument in favor of Snoop’s impressive longevity, not just cooking alongside Martha Stewart, but as one of the most prolific rappers of his generation. Ceding the spotlight to curate a gospel album may seem like a cop-out for an artist wanting to appear to be productive. But Snoop just released his 15th studio album, Neva Left, a collection of original music largely praised by critics.
For Migos and the other members of hip-hop’s younger generation joining Snoop on tour, the rapper — who, at 46, is hardly a fossil — continues to provide a blueprint for how artists can continue innovating, and as heard on Bible of Love, can continue thriving.